MONDAY DEC 03, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Older women who regularly eat soy-based foods are less likely to have heart disease, according to a Japanese government study.  Soy products used commonly in Japan include tufo, miso and Japanese fermented beans known as natto. 

All soy products contain high levels of isoflavones, phytochemicals that have weak estrogenic activity, which has been believed to benefit women's health.

The study found the risk of heart attacks or strokes for women who ate soy at least five times a week were 61 percent lower than that for women who consumed the least amounts.

The benefit was even more significant for older women.  For postmenopausal women, the risk was reduced by 75 percent, the AFP cited Yoshihiko Kokubo, chief doctor of preventive cardiology at Japan's National Cardiovascular Center as saying.

The study commissioned by the Japanese government involved 40,462 healthy men and women in rural Japan over a period of 13 years. But the benefits were not observed in men.

The findings were not in consistency with those by the American Heart Association, according to AFP, which last year cautioned that there is little evidence to suggest that soy consumption lowered the risk of heart disease.

A scientist affiliated with foodconsumer.org commented that the study per se could not prove that the lower risk of heart disease for those who eat soy products often was caused by the soy consumption. But the causal relationship between soy consumption and lower risk of heart disease could not be excluded either.  Eating less Western foods may also contribute to the lower risk observed in this study.