Soy protein reduces severity of inflammatory bowel disease: Penn state researchers

WASHINGTON DC: People who are suffering from bowel diseases should eat a diet supplemented with soy protein as it may serve as an effective adjunct therapy, said Penn State researchers.

Penn State researchers reported the results after completing a study that included mice and cultured human colon cells.

The findings are significant because inflammatory bowel diseases -- including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease -- are characterized by either continuous or periodic inflammation of the colon and represent a significant risk factor for colon cancer.

Stats suggest that also known as IBD, inflammatory bowel diseases affect nearly four million people worldwide and have an economic impact of more than $19 billion annually in the US alone.

Joshua Lambert, associate professor of food science in the College of Agricultural Sciences, said that the development of dietary strategies to mitigate IBD is of considerable public health importance.

He claimed that his team found that soy-protein concentrate can exert antioxidant and cytoprotective effects in cultured human bowel cells and can moderate the severity of inflammation in mice that have an induced condition similar to ulcerative colitis.

Zachary Bitzer and Amy Wopperer, former graduate students in the Department of Food Science and the lead researchers, substituted soy-protein concentrate into the diet of the mice and removed corresponding amounts of the other protein sources, equaling about 12 percent. They kept human equivalents in mind as they determined the amount.

"We didn't want to get carried away with using doses that were really high and would crowd out all the other protein that was there," Bitzer said. "Instead, we wanted to find a scenario that was going to fit into a more human-relevant situation."