Re: [CH] Tofu, again!

Lipant1@aol.com
Sat, 8 Apr 2000 15:34:45 EDT

Tofu And Bad Brains  
Tofu may not be brain food.  The soy product may be linked to mental decline 
in older people, according to a report in the Journal of the American College 
of Nutrition.  Researchers from the Hawaii Center for Health Resources did a 
long-term study on 8,000 Japanese-American men living in Hawaii.  The men 
were asked to report on their intake of a variety of foods in the mid-1960s 
and again in the early 1970s.  About 20 years later the men, now in their 70s 
to early 90s, were given mental function tests.  Six hundred of them also 
underwent brain scans, and autopsies were performed on 290 men who had died.  
The researchers found that the men who ate two or more servings of tofu a 
week were more likely to experience mental impairment and brain atrophy in 
old age than the men who ate little or no tofu, Reuters reports.  The 
researchers also saw similar results in 502 of the wives of men who 
participated in the study.  However, the study is considered preliminary and 
the researchers could not definitively say  
whether soy consumption caused mental decline or if the decline was related 
to some other lifestyle factor.  They found that frequent tofu eaters were 
more likely to have been born in Japan but could find no other similarities 
in their upbringing, Reuters says.  It is not clear why tofu might contribute 
to mental decline, but the researchers say it is possible that the 
phytoestrogens that are found in soy might affect the aging brain.