The associations of soya intakes with non-communicable diseases: a scoping review of meta-analyses

Abstract

This scoping review aimed to identify published meta-analyses of the associations of dietary soy intakes with cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes II diseases and the best relative risk estimates. A published novel assessment process combining the well-validated Cochrane Review measures, the AMSTAR 2 checklist, and a published algorithm specifically designed for conducting a scoping review of similar meta-analyses was employed. This scoping review identified and evaluated 28 meta-analysis reports, published between 2000 and 2021, on the associations of soy intakes with cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes II diseases. It identified 18 significantly negatively associated risk-disease pairs for total soy intakes, four significantly negatively associated risk-disease pairs for unfermented soy intakes, and four significantly negatively associated risk-disease pairs for fermented soy intakes when compared high against low intakes. The largest significant risk decrease found was gastric cancer mortalities with relative risk (RR) 0.49 (95% CI: 0.35, 0.68); followed by colorectal cancer mortalities RR 0.59 (95% CI: 0.41, 0.84); ovarian cancer RR 0.52 (95% CI: 0.42, 0.66); and endocrine-related gynaecological cancer RR 0.61 (95% CI: 0.53, 0.72). The fermented soy intake and gastric cancer risk-disease pair was identified to be significantly positively associated, RR 1.22 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.44) when compared high against low intakes. Four significantly negatively associated risk-disease dose-responses were also identified. Being the products with lower greenhouse gas emission intensities, soy products could be the better dietary alternatives to animal products for reducing cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes II diseases and helping combat climate change.

Dietary patterns and risk for gastric cancer: A case-control study in residents of the Huaihe River Basin, China

“…The actual intake amount of soy products was higher than that of pickled food and processed meat products. Many studies found that a higher intake of soy products could decrease the risk of gastric cancer ( 25 , 26 ). Therefore, the promoting effect of pickled food and processed meat products on the risk of gastric cancer may be covered by the protective effect of soy products on the risk of gastric cancer in this dietary pattern.…”