Encourage the elderly to consume soy products regularly

This year's National Day holiday coincides with the Chongyang Festival, and caring for the elderly is the fine tradition
of our Chinese nation.
With the acceleration of China's aging process, we attach great importance
to the nutritional problem of the elderly.
Compared with the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2016), the new version of the guidelines also adds guidelines for
"elderly people" (age greater than or equal to 80 years old).
It is our unshirkable responsibility
to let every elderly person around us maintain physical function and maintain physical and mental health through good dietary nutrition.
We should pay attention to every detail of nutrition for the elderly, and today we will talk about the role and impact
of soybeans on the health of the elderly.

Soybeans contain more phospholipids for cardiovascular health

Soybeans include soybeans, black beans and green beans
.
Soy is rich in protein (35%-40%), the composition and proportion of essential amino acids are similar to animal protein, and it is rich in cereal protein-deficient lysine, making it an ideal food
to complement cereal protein.
The fat content of soybeans is about 15%-20%, of which unsaturated fatty acids account for 85%, linoleic acid is as high as 50%, and the digestibility is high, and it also contains more phospholipids
that are beneficial to cardiovascular health.
Other phytochemicals contained in soybeans, such as soy isoflavonoids, soybean saponins, soybean oligosaccharides, soy sterols, etc.
, have a positive effect on the prevention of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, improve women's menopausal symptoms, and can also reduce the risk
of breast cancer in perimenopausal women.

It is recommended that the elderly consume 15g of soy per day

In our nation's dietary guidelines, the elderly are encouraged to consume soy and its products regularly
.
Dietary guidelines recommend that the elderly eat 15g of soybeans per day, and the amount of soy products converted, like the common northern tofu is 44g, southern tofu 84g, vegetarian chicken 32g, tofu shreds 24g, dried tofu 33g, soy milk 220g, tofu brain 400g
.
It is recommended that the elderly rotate these soy products every week and make them together with other ingredients, such as tofu roasted kelp, green cabbage fungus dried tofu, thousand silk mushroom soup, cabbage tofu meatball soup, etc
.

Soy milk does not contain cholesterol suitable for the elderly to drink

The protein of soy milk is equivalent to milk, easy to digest and absorb, saturated fatty acids and carbohydrates are lower than milk, do not contain cholesterol, and are rich in plant sterols, suitable for the elderly and cardiovascular disease patients to drink, but soy milk can not replace milk, because the calcium, vitamin B2, zinc, selenium of soy milk are lower than milk, so it is recommended to
drink soy milk and milk every day.
When home-made soy milk, it should be noted that raw soy milk or unboiled soy milk contains anti-nutritional factors, which can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, bloating and diarrhea, so it is necessary to cook the soy milk thoroughly
when making.

Text/Song Pengkun (Research Fellow, Institute of Nutrition, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention)