Observe the Okinawans

What's important is not the average soy consumption for the whole of Asia, but the soy consumption in those parts of Asia that demonstrate the highest levels of human health. And there is no question about where that is. The elder population of Okinawa (a prefecture of Japan) has the best health and greatest longevity on the planet.

This is important, because the highest soy consumption in the world is in Okinawa. This has been demonstrated conclusively by the renowned Okinawa Centenarian Study, a 25-year study sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Health.

How much soy have the elder Okinawans eaten throughout their lives? The Okinawa Centenarian Study included ah extremely thorough analysis of food consumption in the prefecture. The principal investigators and authors of the study state: "Okinawan elders eat an average of two servings of flavonoid-rich soy products per day."

Indeed, the authors of the 25-year Okinawa Centenarian Study state that high soy consumption in Okinawa is one of the primary reasons elder Okinawans have 80 percent fewer heart attacks than North Americana do. Their high soy consumption is also why, if Okinawans do suffer a heart attack, they are more than twice as likely to survive.

It is not an accident that in Okinawa, home to the highest soy consumption in the world, heart disease is minimal, breast cancer la so rare that screening mammography is not needed, and most aging men have never heard of prostate cancer. The three leading killers in the West--coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer--occur in Okinawans with the lowest frequency in the world.

Readers who want further information about health and longevity in Okinawa can see the excellent book The Okinawa Program. And readers who want to see a response to many of the specific allegations made against soy can visit www.foodrevolution.org/what_about_soy.htm

JOHN ROBBINS

Author, Diet for a New America, May All

Be Fed, and The Food Revolution

Dr. Daniel responds: In The Okinawa Diet Plan, the authors of the Okinawa Centenarian Study report that Okinawans eat "60 to 120 grams per day of soy protein." The context indicates that they mean soy foods eaten as a protein source. On another page, the authors say that these people eat an average of three ounces of soy products per day, mostly tofu and miso. Robbins, quoting from the earlier book The Okinawa Program: How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--and How You Can Too, says the elders eat an average of two servings of soy products per day, without mentioning that the serving size is very small--only one ounce.

According to respected gerontologist Kazuhiko Taira, the most common cooking fat used traditionally in Okinawa is lard. Although often called a "saturated fat," lard is 50 percent monounsaturated fat (including small amounts of the health-producing antimicrobial palmitoleic acid), 40 percent saturated fat, and 10 percent polyunsaturated fat. Dr. Taira's findings differ from the authors of the Okinawa Centenarian Study in that he reports that healthy and vigorous Okinawans eat 100 grams each of pork and fish each day. Finally, the longevity of Okinawans has been attributed to many factors besides soy consumption. Indeed, the three authors of the Okinawa Centenarian Study name caloric restriction as "the key to eating the Okinawa way."

Robbins is correct in that some studies show reduced rates of cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis among people who consume soy foods. Other studies, however, show the reverse, with frightening evidence emerging that soy isoflavones can cause the proliferation of breast-cancer cells. Interested readers who would prefer not to trust either Robbins's agenda of mine can take a look at the research--both pro and con--in the "Report on Phytoestrogens and Health" by the British government's Committee on Toxicity: www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/working_group.

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