Eating a proper breakfast, as your mother always told you, is good for you. In fact, eating a proper breakfast has been shown to lower cholesterol levels and improve the body’s response to insulin.Three quarters of Americans perceive soy as healthy, with around one in four enjoying at least one serving of soy products per week.Soybeans are a great source of protein. In fact, the soybean is 38 percent protein and unlike virtually every other plant protein, soy protein gives you enough required amino acids so that you don’t need other protein sources to make up amino acid deficiencies. Soybeans are also a source of phytochemicals, particularly flavonoids such as isoflavone.Isoflavones have estrogenic activity — they interact with estrogen receptors in our bodies strongly enough to influence our metabolism in many beneficial ways. In 1999 the FDA allowed a health claim for soy, “Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol that include 25 grams of soy protein a day may reduce the risk of heart disease. One serving of (food) provides X grams of soy protein.” To qualify for the health claim the food must:
- contain at least 6.25 g of soy protein
- contain less than 3 g fat (low fat)
- contain less than 1 g of saturated fat
- contain less than 20 mg of cholesterol.