Soy and Heart Health: Benefits and List of Soyfoods

Soy for Heart Disease

There are some foods that should be in every heart disease patient's kitchen and diet. Soy is a super-food that can help you decrease your risk of heart attack and make your cardiovascular system healthy. The FDA caught on in 1999 and began labeling soy foods with their seal of approval for its heart health benefits. They have agreed to allow foods with at least 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving to be labeled as heart healthy.

Benefits of Soy Foods for Heart Patients 

The exact health claim is as follows: “25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.”
Soy products lower bad cholesterol (LDL) while raising good cholesterol (HDL). Eating a diet rich in soy protein can lower LDL cholesterol by up to 10%. For every 1% reduction in LDL cholesterol, there is a 2% reduction in the risk for heart disease.

Soy is a high-quality, plant-based protein. When soy foods are used as a replacement for less healthy foods, they help you reduce the total amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet. You an use them to replace part or all of the fatty meats in a recipe. You can also simply add soy products to foods you already eat to get the benefit of soy foods.
 
 What Foods Contain Soy

Soy is found in a wide variety of products ranging from breakfast cereals to steamed soybeans, also called edamame. Here's a list of some of the products made with soy:

-Tofu
-Miso
-Soy milk
-breakfast cereals (I recommend Kashi GoLean Crunch)
-Tempeh
-Soy protein isolate
-Soy nuts
-Edamame