New research puts functional soy component right in the breadbasket

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By Alicia Roberts

Soy has rapidly risen to the top of the functional food chain, largely because of its high level of isoflavones, compounds that help reduce the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancers. Despite this benefit, many people are put off by soy's distinctive taste, which keeps them from enjoying its health advantages.

Enter Prof. Alison Duncan of the University of Guelph's Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences. She has assembled a team of researchers to bring soy's health benefits beyond soy foods, by incorporating isoflavones into everyday staple foods. They're starting with isoflavone-enriched bread.

"We want to introduce newly developed foods that would provide consumers with more options to increase their intake of soy isoflavones," says Duncan.

The project has four phases. First, she and her team will grow and harvest soybean plants with low, medium and high isoflavone levels. Next, they'll use the soybeans to produce breads with the three different levels. Third, they'll monitor human subjects as they consume the breads to evaluate how well the isoflavones are absorbed into the body. Finally, the team will conduct economic and consumer choice evaluations to gauge the public's interest in this kind of isoflavone-enhanced product and to see if it's economically viable.

Duncan says this study is unique because it involves researchers in plant agriculture, food product development, nutritional science, natural product chemistry and agricultural economics.

"One of the most exciting parts of the project is that it brings different disciplines together," she says. "We're all interested in soybeans in some way, but each from a different standpoint. In working together, we create an interesting approach to our research."

The team aims to complete its studies this year.

Duncan is collaborating with Prof. Istvan Rajcan, Department of Plant Agriculture; Prof. Massimo Marcone, Department of Food Science; Prof. John Cranfield, Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics; Rong Cao, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; and Al Mussell, George Morris Centre. Their work is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

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Alison Duncan, 519-824-4120 x53416, amduncan@uoguelph.ca
Alicia Roberts was a writer with SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge), a student research writing program at the University of Guelph.