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You may have heard about soy foods in the news, including claims that soy prevents diseases such as cancer and heart disease. So what is the story on soy?
Soybeans have been a favorite food in many parts of the world for more than 5,000 years. In fact, the people living in ancient China were growing soybeans in the year 2800 B.C. Traders, missionaries and maybe even sailors helped bring soybeans to the rest of the world.

Farmers in the U.S. first grew soybeans in 1829. During the Civil War, soldiers used soybeans as "coffee berries" to brew coffee because real coffee was hard to find. More than 100 years later, U.S. farmers harvest more than 2 billion bushels of soybeans a year, making the U.S. soybean crop the largest in the world.
Soy is found in foods like soy sauce, soy milk, miso - a soybean paste, and tofu. Soy is also sometimes added to foods like breads, cereals, and meat products, and used as a meat substitute in products such as soy burgers and soy hot dogs. Foods that contain whole soy are a good source of protein for vegetarians and vegans because they provide all the amino acids, a type of nutrient, that people need to stay healthy. (People who eat meat get all their essential amino acids from meat products.)
The benefits of soy protein include lowering cholesterol and reducing a person's risk of heart disease, it is also claimed that soy prevents diseases like cancer and coronary disease. It must be soy protein and whole soy to get the added benefits of better health.
Health care professionals and consumers alike are becoming more aware of the potential benefits that adding protein to the diet can provide. Throughout our lives, protein in our bodies is continuously broken down and remade, thus requiring the addition of protein to our diets. High quality proteins provide the best and most efficient way to meet human nutritional needs. Therefore, it is important that the protein added to the diet is of the highest quality possible.
The nutritional quality of soy protein has been studied in depth. Studies have shown that nitrogen balance, digestibility, and protein utilization are similar between beef and soy proteins. Other studies show that soy protein can support nitrogen balance and does provide adequate amounts of the amino acid methionine, which is important for growth and development. Recent studies have reported that nitrogen absorption, protein digestibility, biological value, and net utilization of soy protein are similar

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