Soy May Protect Against Inflammatory Bowel Disease

If you want to protect against inflammatory bowel disease, you should add more soy to your diet.

According to a new study, adding soy to your diet may ease the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. Researchers in the UK found that people who consume this natural vegetable on a regular basis had fewer markers of inflammatory bowl disease.

Researchers say that inflammatory bowel disease affects millions of people throughout the world. In the UL alone, more than 1460,000 people suffer from a form of inflammatory bowel disease known as Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Others, however, suffer from an even more severe form in which inflammation occurs in the gut at any point in time. Known as Crohn's disease, it's become a major problem not just in the UK, but throughout the rest of the world as well.

Inflammatory bowel disease is a catch-all term used to describe Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis. It refers to any condition that's characterized by abnormal inflammation within the gut. Symptoms inflammatory bowl disease include stomach pain, weight loss, diarrhea, fatigue and weakness.

While scientists have yet to pinpoint a specific cause for inflammatory bowl disease, there are many known risk factors, including genetics and a weakened immune system.

When speaking about their findings, researchers explained that loss of gut function prevents the stomach from absorbing nutrients. Rather than absorbing nutrients into the blood, the particles "escape," which in turn causes the characteristic symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. But researchers say that adding soy to your diet may counter these effects.

Researchers found that mice who were given a soy-protein concentrate of approximately 12% -- the equivalent of human consumption -- experienced less effects of inflammatory bowl disease. Does this mean soy is a catch-all cure for inflammatory bowel disease? Not necessarily, but this study certainly provides promising results for the countless men and women suffering from this digestive disorder.

"Soy-protein concentrate mitigates markers of colonic inflammation and loss of gut barrier function in the mice with induced IBD," explained the study's researchers and authors.

This study was published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry