How to Add Soy-Based Foods to Your Diet

Soy-based foods, such as tofu, tempeh, TVP, soy nuts and soy milk, contain protein and nifty chemicals called isoflavones. These help prevent heart disease; osteoporosis; and breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. Soy foods can also reduce symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes. It is easy to add soy foods to your diet.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Food And Condiments

1. Pour soy milk over your morning cereal.

2. Add texturized vegetable protein (TVP) to spaghetti sauce instead of ground beef.

3. Combine raisins with roasted soy nuts for a quick trail mix.

4. Chop firm tofu, then mix it with a chopped hard-boiled egg, chopped celery and mayonnaise for a tofu-salad sandwich.

5. Dice tempeh and add it to stir-fried vegetables during the last few minutes of cooking.

6. Substitute mashed soft tofu for ricotta cheese in lasagna and stuffed pasta shell recipes.

7. Grill soy burgers instead of hamburgers. Enjoy them in a bun with plenty of catsup, onions and lettuce.

8. Blend a smoothie out of a banana, a handful of frozen blueberries and 1/2 c. soft silken tofu.

9. Enjoy steamed green soybeans (edamame) in the pods as a snack or appetizer. Look for these fresh and frozen.

Tips & Warnings

• For lowering cholesterol, researchers suggest that 16 to 30 grams of soy protein and 32 to 60 mg of isoflavones a day are effective. This means two to three servings of soy foods a day.

• The major isoflavones in soy products are called daidzein and genistein. These have weak estrogen-like effects in the body.

• Most soy foods made in the United States are made from genetically engineered soybeans.

• Although delicious, soy sauce contains minimal amounts of isoflavones and lots of sodium.