FAQ - Isoflavones and Nutrients

Isoflavones and Nutrients

• Are antinutrients bad for you?
• What are saponins?
• What is lecithin?

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Answers

Are antinutrients bad for you?
Some people have expressed concerns about soy foods altering absorption of minerals and other nutrients. Soybeans, like other legumes, have an array of anti-nutrients such as aflotoxins, phytates and tannins which could alter absorption. What does this mean? To understand how nutrients can alter absorption we can take calcium as an example. Normally, when you take in calcium in your diet your body uses a certain amount and the rest is excreted unused. With an anti-nutrient you can have a little bit less of the calcium absorbed and more excreted. Most of these anti-nutrients are inactivated after cooking. Also, the phytate or total anti-nutrient content of soybeans is very small and will not have a significant impact on how well your body uses the nutrients that you take in.

So what does this mean for you? We encourage you to continue including soymilk in your diet and to take a multivitamin-mineral supplement. Both of these habits will help your body.

What are saponins?
Saponins are a class of phytochemicals, which are naturally occurring plant chemicals, that may have potent biological activity in the body. There are fifteen classes of phytochemical, isoflavones, which are very concentrated in the soybean, being one of them. Saponins, found in plants, particularly soybeans, are another class.

Saponins were actually at one time thought to be harmful. However, research has shown that saponins from soybeans, various plants, flowers and trees may prevent cancer. Saponins are antioxidants; they can protect us from the damaging effects of free radicals. Researchers have found that saponins can prevent the mutations that can lead to cancer and may inhibit colon cancer. Interestingly, those populations who have a greater concentration of saponins in their diet also have a lower rate of colon cancer.

Saponins can also be healthy for the heart. Saponins are thought to lower cholesterol either by blocking cholesterol absorption or by causing more cholesterol to be excreted from the body.

What is lecithin?
There are health benefits attributed to soy lecithin if consumed at optimal levels.

Lecithin is extracted from soybean oil and used in food manufacturing as an emulsifier in products that are high in fats and oils. Emulsifiers act like a bridge between water and fats, keeping the two components mixed together in foods.

Scientists have been interested in the effect of lecithin on cholesterol for many years. In the 1950's, Dr. Lister Morrison gave 36 grams of soy lecithin to subjects who had previously been on a low-fat diet. He found that cholesterol levels were reduced by 30% in those individuals supplemented with lecithin. A second study showed that adding 6 grams of lecithin to a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet lowered LDL (the so-called "bad") and increased HDL (the so-called "good") cholesterol by 15% more than just the diet alone.

The average American eats only 3 grams of lecithin a day. In foods alone it would be almost impossible to obtain this level of lecithin. So lecithin, even if it does work, is probably not the most practical way to lower cholesterol.

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