Mom always said to eat your natto…

The Japanese Health, Labor, and Welfare ministry recently announced the results of an 11 year long study on the health benefits of soybeans. Turns out that they’ll drastically reduce your chances for lung cancer! But, only if you don’t smoke. Oh! And you have to be a man, too. But if you meet these requirements, score! Eat up that tofu! Snarf down that natto! Edamame ahoy! Just, whatever you do, don’t smoke. Ever. Sound advice.

What’s Being Said

The original article can be viewed here: http://www.asahi.com/science/update/0205/TKY201002050328.html

Soybean Products Protect Against Lung Cancer–But Only for Non-Smoking Men

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare announced that men who don’t smoke and eat a lot of soybean products like tofu and natto have a lower risk of lung cancer compared to men who don’t fit either category. It seems that there’s a connection between the lower cancer risk and the isoflavones in the soybeans.

The research looked at a total of 76,000 men and women aged 45-74 over the course of 11 years. From the first day, the people were split into 4 groups depending on how much soybean products they ate, and then their cancer rates were compared.

The results found that in men that didn’t smoke and ate the most amount of soybean products, eating the amount of isoflavones found in 200 grams of tofu compared to those that ate only about 40 grams of isoflavones, had a 57% less chance of lung cancer. 40 grams of tofu isoflavone can be found in about 3 packs of natto.

As for men that had once smoked and since quit, there was no difference in the cancer rates. Women that ate a lot of soybean products did show a bit lower rate of cancer, but nothing as to be statistically significant.

Because isoflavones are so close to female hormones, there could be possibilities that eating them might help prevent breast cancer and prostate cancer.

According to the head researcher on the project, “In seeing that there’s no effect on people who quit smoking, it shows just how much lingering damage smoking causes at the genetic level.”

So, if you want to really make sure that lung cancer doesn’t affect you, eat that tofu burger and gobble down the natto. Just don’t go for a smoke after.