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Epidemiology

Consumption of soy foods and isoflavones and risk of type 2 diabetes: a pooled analysis of three US cohorts

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, pages 1381–1387 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Evidence regarding the consumption of soy foods and isoflavones in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is scarce. Our study was to evaluate the association between soy food and isoflavone consumption and risk of T2D in US men and women.

Subjects/Methods:

We followed 63 115 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (1998–2012), 79 061 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II (1999–2013) and 21 281 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (2002–2010). Diet was assessed by a validated food-frequency questionnaire and was updated every 4 years. Self-reports of incident T2D were confirmed by a validated supplementary questionnaire.

Results:

During 1 966 321 person-years of follow-up, 9185 incident T2D cases were documented. After multivariate adjustment for covariates, consumption of soy foods (tofu and soy milk) was not associated with a lower T2D risk. Compared with non-consumers of soy foods, the hazard ratio (HR) was 1.00 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.93, 1.07) for <1 serving/week and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.83, 1.03) for ⩾1 serving/week of soy foods (P for trend=0.14). In contrast, intake of total isoflavones was inversely associated with T2D risk. Comparing extreme quintiles of isoflavones, the HR was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.83, 0.96; P for trend=0.009). Inverse associations were also found for consumption of major individual isoflavones, including daidzein and genistein, with risk of T2D.

Conclusions:

Intake of isoflavones was associated with a modestly lower T2D risk in US men and women who typically consumed low-to-moderate amounts of soy foods. These findings warrant replications in other populations with similar soy intake levels.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by research grants CA186107, CA176726, CA167552, DK58845, DK58785 and DK082486 from the National Institutes of Health. Dr Sun was supported by a career development award R00HL098459 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The funding sources had no role in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The authors are not affiliated with the funding institutions.

Author contributions

QS and FBH obtained funding from the National Institutes of Health. MD, analyzed the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. AP, JAEM, WCW, VM, BR and EG contributed to the interpretation of the results and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version of the manuscript. QS is the guarantor of this investigation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    M Ding, W C Willett, V Malik, E Giovannucci, F B Hu & Q Sun

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MOE Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    A Pan

  3. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    J E Manson

  4. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    J E Manson, W C Willett, E Giovannucci & F B Hu

  5. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    W C Willett, B Rosner, E Giovannucci, F B Hu & Q Sun

  6. Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    B Rosner

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  1. M Ding
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Correspondence to Q Sun.

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Supplementary Information accompanies this paper on European Journal of Clinical Nutrition website

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Ding, M., Pan, A., Manson, J. et al. Consumption of soy foods and isoflavones and risk of type 2 diabetes: a pooled analysis of three US cohorts. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 1381–1387 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.117

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.117

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