Whether you're planning to prepare vegetables, meats, seafood and poultry for dinner, stir-frying is not only quick and easy but is also healthy. This method of cooking requires only a small amount of oil and it retain more nutrients than if they were boiled. Vegetables emerge crisp and bright. Meats are flavorful, tender, and well seared.
As stated in The Telegraph, a new study has found out that a stir-fry diet, rich in soy could protect women from bone weakening and osteoporosis in older women.
When levels of protective oestrogen fall after going through menopause, women become more prone to the brittle bone disease.
Isoflavones are plant chemicals which are usually found in soybeans and soy products that mimics the hormone that might fight some effects of menopause as suggested.
For this speculation, 66 milligrams of supplement containing isoflavones or one only containing soy protein were given on a daily basis to 200 women in in early menopause for six months.
Lower levels of a blood protein marker of bone loss which means a reduced risk of osteoporosis have been observed to these women on the soy-plus-isoflavones supplement. They also had less risk of heart disease than those taking soy protein alone.
"We found that soy protein and isoflavones are a safe and effective option for improving bone health in women during early menopause. Lead researcher Dr Thozhukat Sathyapalan, from the University of Hull, announced at the Society for Endocrinology's annual meeting in Edinburgh. "The actions of soy appear to mimic that of conventional osteoporosis drugs.
Dr Sathyapalan added, "The 66mg of isoflavone that we use in this study is equivalent to eating an oriental diet, which is rich in soy foods. In contrast, we only get around 2-16mg of isoflavone with the average Western diet.
"Supplementing our food with isoflavones could lead to a significant decrease in the number of women being diagnosed with osteoporosis."
Bones develop and repair themselves quickly during childhood and youth. At the age of 35, this procedure slows down with age and bone density starts to decrease. As an effect of menopause, women lose bone quickly which can end up to osteoporosis and the danger of fractures.
Due to fractures every year, almost 300,000 people receive hospital aid and about three million people suffer from osteoporosis in the UK.
Exercise and eating food rich in calcium and vitamin D, and getting enough sunlight, are essential for healthy bones, but this is the first study to show that soy can also help prevent fracturing.
In line with this, the experts plan to research more about the long-term effects of taking soy protein isoflavone supplements whether they have uses apart from bone health.
