Soy Nuts Good for Blood Pressure, Cholesterol

BOSTONSubstituting soy nuts for non-soy protein in a therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) diet improved blood pressure (BP) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) levels in hypertensive women, and BP in normotensive postmenopausal women, according to research published in Archives of Internal Medicine (167:1060-1067, 2007). Sixty healthy postmenopausal women were randomized in a crossover design to a TLC diet including 25 g/d of non-soy protein, or a TLC diet of similar energy, fat, and protein content in which soy nuts (containing 25 g/d of soy protein and 101 mg of aglycone isoflavones) replaced non-soy protein.Compared to the non-soy TLC diet, the TLC diet with soy nuts lowered systolic and diastolic BP 9.9 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively, in hypertensive women, and 5.2 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, in normotensive women. Further, BPs of normotensive women were lowered 5.5 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, in prehypertensive women, and 4.5 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively, in normotensive women. Soy nut supplementation lowered LDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein B levels 11 percent and 8 percent, respectively, in hypertensive women, but had no effect in normotensive women. These data further support the cardioprotective effects of soy.