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Soy intake and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Chinese Singaporeans

Soy intake and risk of type 2 diabetes

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An Erratum to this article was published on 11 December 2011

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the association between soy products and their components, isoflavones and protein, and incident type 2 diabetes in a population with varied soy intake and high rates of diabetes.

Methods

We used data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, including 43,176 Chinese men and women aged 45–74 years, free of chronic disease at baseline (1993–1998) and followed through 2004. Intake of individual soy items, total unsweetened soy, and soy components was assessed by food-frequency questionnaire and examined with type 2 diabetes risk using Cox regression.

Results

During an average follow-up of 5.7 years, 2,252 of the 43,176 participants included in the current analyses developed diabetes. After adjustment for potential confounders and BMI, consumption of unsweetened soy was inversely associated with diabetes risk. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CI for diabetes across unsweetened soy intake categories (none, 1–4/month, 1–2/week, 3–4/week, ≥5/week) were: 1 (referent), 0.81 (0.67–0.97), 0.76 (0.63–0.91), 0.76 (0.63–0.92), and 0.72 (0.59–0.89), respectively (P trend = 0.015). Conversely, in multivariate models, consuming sweetened soybean drink was positively associated with diabetes risk. HRs for diabetes across soybean drink intake categories (none, 1–3/month, 1/week, ≥2/week) were: 1 (referent), 1.07 (0.95–1.20), 1.12 (1.00–1.26), and 1.13 (1.00–1.28), respectively (P trend = 0.03). Furthermore, after full adjustment, including adjustment for sweetened soy items, we observed a marginally significant inverse association between isoflavone intake and diabetes (HR for the fifth compared to the first quintile: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.58–1.00; P trend = 0.08).

Conclusions

The current findings support a protective role for unsweetened soy foods and isoflavones on risk of type 2 diabetes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Siew-Hong Low of the National University of Singapore for supervising the fieldwork of the Singapore Chinese Health Study and Renwei Wang of the University of Minnesota for the development and maintenance of the cohort study database. This study was supported by National Institutes of Health, USA (NHLBI T32 NCI RO1 CA055069, R35 CA053890, R01 CA080205, R01 CA098497, and R01 CA144034).

Conflict of interest

All authors have no financial or non-financial interests that may be relevant to the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, 1300 South 2nd St., Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN, 55454, USA

    Noel T. Mueller, Andrew O. Odegaard, Myron D. Gross, Jian-Min Yuan & Mark A. Pereira

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Woon-Puay Koh

  3. The Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Mimi C. Yu & Jian-Min Yuan

Authors
  1. Noel T. Mueller
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  2. Andrew O. Odegaard
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  3. Myron D. Gross
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  4. Woon-Puay Koh
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  5. Mimi C. Yu
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  6. Jian-Min Yuan
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  7. Mark A. Pereira
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Correspondence to Noel T. Mueller.

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Mueller, N.T., Odegaard, A.O., Gross, M.D. et al. Soy intake and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Chinese Singaporeans. Eur J Nutr 51, 1033–1040 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-011-0276-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-011-0276-2

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