soybean and Intestinal bacteria

Posted by Chantel M. Contributed by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

In the study of "A brief historical overview of the past two decades of soy and isoflavone research' by Messina M., posted in US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, researcher indicated that it was hypothesized that individuals possessing the intestinal bacteria capable of converting the soybean isoflavone daidzein into the isoflavan equol were more likely to benefit from soy intake. More recently, in vitro and animal research has raised questions about the safety of isoflavone exposure for certain subsets of the population, although the human data are largely inconsistent with these concerns.