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Soy may help heart disease and cancer, but the evidence is patchy - and bingeing on it may do more harm than good. I've often said that if drinking soy milk coffee is the price of living longer, beam me up (or down) now. But many people are into soy, presumably in the hope of a cancer and heart disease-free future. So what's the story? Well, the evidence on soy is often taken from experimental mice, or studies comparing Asian and European populations. So there's confusion about culture, lifestyle, general nutrition and heredity; not to mention the various forms of soy consumed, all with potentially different effects. With heart health, it takes a lot of soy to reduce your bad cholesterol by just a tiny amount, although soy whole foods may be good because they replace unhealthy nutrients. With cancer, the large amounts of soy taken by Asian populations may reduce breast cancer risk a little. But recent gene research suggests that your genetic profile affects your response to soy. Some genes may increase cancer risk with high doses of soy and some may reduce it. So the message, if you like natto, tofu and miso, is eat away, but if you're not ethnically Asian living in China or Japan, it's probably not a great idea to go on a soy binge – at least with the current state of knowledge. So order me a regular flat white if you don't mind, and I'll pay you back later.
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