It’s official:
soybeans are good medicine

With an FDA-approved heart-healthy claim, soy foods are becoming more popular with aging Baby Boomers

By Cindy Green
Photo by Rolf Hagberg & Kay Mithaugen

The soybean plays hundreds of roles in our daily lives. It’s in candles, ink, veggie burgers, lotions, crayons, baby formula, hot and sour soup, diesel fuel, fertilizer, you name it. Now it’s suitable for the medicine cabinet, too.

In October, the Food and Drug Administration announced approval of a health claim for soybeans. Most low-fat foods that contain at least 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving can claim to reduce the risk of heart disease.

For entrepreneurs, this opens the door to more food development. Lisa Gjersvik, who works with ag entrepreneurs out of the AURI Waseca office she manages, says AURI clients “tend to be innovative thinkers who will look to utilize products where they can make health claims — it adds value to the product.”

Hot ’n healthy

Today, nutraceuticals — food components purported to have healing qualities — are the food market’s hottest items, expected to grow to $17.6 billion in sales by next year, according to Cereal Foods World.

Unlike pharmaceuticals, foods with medicinal properties can be liberally touted for their benefits. Few, however, can boast an FDA claim, which carries significant weight with consumers. Only food supplements proven to reduce the risk of serious illnesses, such as heart disease, osteoporosis and cancer, are considered for FDA health claims.

So for soybeans to win the heart-healthy claim is quite an honor. Daily consumption of 25 grams of soy protein “in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol levels,” states an October 1999 FDA press release. “Foods that may be eligible for the health claims include soy beverages, tofu, tempeh, soy-based meat alternatives, and possibly some baked goods.”

Hormones in harmony

Unmentioned by the FDA is a growing trend among women to use soy as an estrogen replacement. Soybeans contain isoflavones, phytoestrogens with hormonal properties similar to estrogen. Some studies suggest these not only relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings and bloating, but they may also help prevent osteoporosis. The genistein in soy may also reduce the risk for cancers such as breast and prostate.

With women’s health benefits in mind, AURI food scientist Charan Wadhawan helped French Meadow Bakery in Minneapolis design “Woman’s Bread,” a daily serving of which contains 40 milligrams soy isoflavones as well as flaxseeds, oat fiber, amaranth, sprouted grains, cranberries and other nutraceuticals. The bread entered the market late last year. (See the January 2000 issue of Ag Innovation News).

University of Minnesota researchers, with funds from AURI and the Soybean Research and Promotion Council, have been looking at the effect of isoflavones in the human diet for a decade, says Max Norris, AURI oils scientist. He is currently working with a grower group interested in marketing yet another use for soy meal — oligosaccharrides, which nurture good bacteria in the digestive system and could ward off colon cancer.

Stepping right up

Soybean isn’t the only crop poised to take advantage of the nutraceutical craze. Whole grains rich in soluble fibers, such as oats and corn, can generally claim to reduce the risk of heart disease. Dairy products can make claims about calcium’s role in preventing osteoporosis, and a variety of low-fat foods can claim to reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.

Health claims, backed by the FDA or not, are also opening up alternative crop markets. “Farmers have more opportunities with specialty grains such as amaranth, canola and waxy hulless barley,” Wadhawan says.

Even a small plot could bring extra cash to the farm. Wadhawan says a farm near Mankato, Shang Gardens, Inc., is having success with ginseng, and other growers are experimenting with medicinal herbs such as echinacea and St. John’s wort.

Both Norris and Wadhawan say that considerable research must be done to validate claims of disease-fighting foods. For example, a healing component of a food may not work as well isolated in a supplement as it would in the whole food. “When you take something out of its context, you lose synergism and you don’t get the same effect,” Norris says. Processing methods, such as heat, can also damage nutrients.

A trend of the old?

Consumers aren’t waiting around for definitive scientific studies before they put their money on functional foods, however. Marketing experts such as A. E. Sloan, president of a consulting firm that tracks food trends, predict nutraceutical markets will remain strong for at least 30 years while well-off but aging Baby Boomers dominate the market.

“Within the next five years, the 50-64 Boomer age group is expected to experience a more than 30 percent increase in stress, lack of energy and incidence of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer (especially prostate cancer) and digestive problems,” Sloan writes in the November-December 1999 issue of Cereal Foods World. “As of today, there are nearly 800,000 new cases of diabetes a year. Nearly one million are diagnosed with arthritis, 350,000 with breast cancer, 450,000 with prostate cancer, and 700,000 suffer strokes.” It’s no wonder food as medicine is gaining popularity.

“It certainly is a hot button,” Norris says. “With nutraceuticals, we ought to be able to have manufacturing co-ops around the state providing ingredients to food formulators around the world.”