Isoflavones are non-nutritive botanical compounds that are rich in soy products and a few other plant species; both genistein and glycetein are isoflavones. Their chemical structure looks similar to estrone (also known as estrogen), a steroid hormone.
Plant sources: produced mainly from soybeans, lentils, pod legumes s well as highly processed food made from soybeans such as vegetarian meat, soybean flour, tofu and soy milk. Among them, tofu retains more of isoflavone content than milk.
Main functions of isoflavones：
- Reduce LDL cholesterol, help to prevent or cure menopausal syndromes and provide the linoleic acid and linoloinic acid needed by human body.
- Balance blood cholesterol and reduce blood cholesterol levels.
- Make arteries more flexible and prevent damage to heart
- Enhance bone density, reduce calcium loss and reduce the chance of suffering from osteoporosis.
- Reduce the chance of suffering from cancer, especially breast cancer and prostate cancer.
- Relieve menopause discomfort, such as hot flash, fever, emotional instability, headache, insomnia, fatigue, night sweats, vaginal dryness and so on.
- Treat Enteritis syndrome, hot flash, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer, also help fight coronary heart disease.
- Flavonoids can reduce the formation of free radicals and help regeneration of other antioxidants. Soy isoflavones are a type of natural plant estrogen which is good to human body. The plant bioactive element extracted from natural soybeans is very similar to the estrogen molecular structure and can be combined with female estrogen receptors and play two-ways regulation on estrogen safely and with no side effects, so it is also known as "phytoestrogen." It can relieve osteoporosis and other symptoms caused by menopause, delay skin aging, improve skin quality, make female skin smooth, delicate and elastic. Due to its role in improvement of women life quality, it is also called "feminine charm factor".
