Soy Protein In Our Diet example essay topic

You " ve probably heard that "you are what you eat" and that a nutritious diet is the key to good health. MANY people despair when they see the needle on the bathroom scales going up. They hit the panic button and go to all lengths to lose weight. You " re probably more confused than ever about what to eat.

In fact, most Americans don't know which way to turn and, as a result of heeding bad nutritional advice, we " re in the midst of a growing obesity epidemic -- with more than 50 percent of us overweight. But it has never really dawned on them that the best way to lose weight is the healthy way. Your body weight is related to how much energy you consume and expend. Every day, you need energy to function properly. Even while sleeping or resting, your body continues carrying out activities outside of your control. These activities use at least two-thirds of your energy needs.

The rest of the energy is used to move your muscles, such as shifting in your chair, walking around the house or exercising. You get all this energy from the food you eat. If you eat more energy than your body needs, the excess energy will be stored as body fat. Therefore, unhealthy eating habits can lead you to gain unhealthy body weight. Being overweight can lead to higher risk of certain diseases. Overweight people usually complain of high blood pressure, swollen blood vessels in the legs, hernia or difficulty in breathing.

You may also be at higher risk of fatal diseases like cancer, stroke, heart attack and diabetes. You may also become more accident-prone. Breaking your bones may occur more easily and become more dangerous if you are overweight. So take charge of your life and start losing weight healthily.

For the best results, use the dual approach of eating healthy and exercising more. Increasing your soy intake may help you be more healthy even if you are not overweight, but just to retain a healthy lifestyle so all things are better all around. Soy is not just a bean, it's very useful to us and the reasons to use soy-based products are important. In spite of its name, the soybean is part of the pea family, and is legumes which are plants that can take nitrogen and convert it into protein. Soybeans originated centuries ago in the Eastern hemisphere, but today they are grown all over the globe. Although soybeans have been eaten mostly by people in other cultures, and as food for livestock, lately more and more people in the U.S. are incorporating them into their diet.

Soy has long been central to the Asian diet, serving as a primary source of protein. In fact the lower rates of heart disease and of several cancers may be credited to the reliance of soy and other foods more popular in Asia. The United States is the largest grower of soybeans (50 percent of the world crop). It is not known in the wild and is believed to have been created through cultivation from a wild Asian vine.

(-May newsletter). Foods and products containing soy are discussed heavily in popular publications as helpful to many conditions, especially in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease. Soy protein is now recognized as the only complete protein from a plant source. That means that soy protein contains all of the essential amino acids that you must get from food.

Since the body cannot synthesize essential amino acids, they must be obtained from food. These amino acids are present in just the right balance to meet your body's need for protein, to keep your body in balance. Soy is very useful to us and our eating habits. Soybeans are rich in protein, and lower in fat than many meat products. Although soybeans do contain fat, they do not contain the saturated fat that has been found to lead to a risk of cardiovascular disease.

In addition, soybeans contain vitamins and minerals and many nutrients that are being studied for their ability to prevent cancer and cardiovascular disease. Most canned and especially convenience foods contain more chemicals than nutrition. They are loaded with salt, sugar and fat. With the creation of corn syrup not only have they placed it in all kinds of foods especially potato chips, cookies and crackers, it's exploded in the food industry. Soy is lower in fat, cholesterol, and sodium. For example, soy milk can provide the protein, iron, and B vitamins your body needs.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a new health claim linking soy protein to a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. A diet high in soy and low in unhealthy fats may ward off heart disease by lowering cholesterol. Ari Babaknia M. D, founder and chairman of Dr. Soy explains, "Various bioactive components in soy protein have been suggested to explain the cholesterol-lowering effects of soy protein. Studies have shown that soy protein enhances bile acid secretion, which has the effect of removing cholesterol from the blood. Other studies have shown that soy protein stimulates the liver to remove LDL-cholesterol from the blood". Eating soy-based products are of great magnitude because the harmful consequence of basing a diet on animal protein comes from the fact that these foods are relatively high in saturated fat and cholesterol, and they contain no fiber at all.

Because the soybean provides high-quality protein and is relatively low in fat contents and includes generous amounts of many vitamins and minerals and in many of its consumable forms, contains fiber, all contribute toward making the soybean special and important to our health. In general, it would be a health benefit to most people to substitute soy protein for some of the animal protein in their diet. In recent years, there has been a great deal of attention given to the disease-fighting and anti-aging benefits of adding soy and soy products to the American diet. Even those of us who despise the notion of "health food" would admit to the increased curiosity about these claims and would consider incorporating soy into our diet if only we understood where we could substitute soy products. Soy milk might not taste exactly like regular milk, but it's good to use it in cereal, substitute it for milk in any recipe, or enjoy a glass on its own. Tofu is good to add to stir fry dishes, pasta dishes, added to salads, mashed up with spices and use as a chip dip, soups or blend and used in a smoothie.

Because it has essentially no flavor, you can use your imagination and feed it to those fussy picky eaters in the family. They get a health food and you don't get a headache listening to them complain. Soy Nuts can be mixed into yogurt, cereal, salads, oatmeal, or eaten while watching TV. These are a great substitute for potato chips and crackers.

Soybean Butter can be used like peanut butter. Add some to a SOY milkshake or smoothie for a real nutty flavor. Dr. Barry Sears, author of the number one New York Times bestseller The Zone, brings his background as a scientist and researcher together with his proven Zone balanced diet method to help us understand the life-enhancing benefits of soy. Dr. Sears reports to try to consume at least half your daily protein intake in the form of soy protein. This means about 40 grams of soy protein per day for the average female and 50 grams of soy protein per day for the average male. Mother Nature made the soybean naturally versatile, but modern technology keeps giving you more ways to include soy and soy protein in your daily diet.

Get a taste of the many different -- and unexpected -- soy foods found in grocery and specialty food stores today. Learn about the more common traditional soy foods available in the marketplace, plus the ingredients found in new soy-based foods. Through the description of soy and how it was made and how it works in the body we can see that increasing our diet with soy will surely decrease our levels of cholesterol in the blood and also decrease our risk for all kinds of heart disease. We all wish to live a long, healthy life and by eating more soy protein in our diet we can do so.

We all need as much energy as we can get in our busy lifestyles to maintain a balance. In many countries, people are living longer than ever before. However, a longer life span may also increase your chances of developing the chronic diseases that can accompany aging. Prevention is the key to improved health throughout your life.

Diet is an essential element in any program of disease prevention. As scientists work to identify which foods and substances in foods may benefit health and prevent disease, an increasing amount of research attention is focusing on soy protein. Americans become more and more health conscious, many people and their physicians will look to soy-based foods as a practical approach in controlling cholesterol and coronary heart disease and reducing America's dependence on drug therapies. Soy protein has the potential to have a profound impact on public health via the reduction of cholesterol levels and coronary heart disease, which kills about 1 million Americans each year. We know soy protein can reduce cholesterol, and there's evidence to show that populations that consume soy foods regularly have lower rates of breast, colon and prostate cancers, reduced incidence of osteoporosis.