Eating
more vegetable protein may protect against early menopause

Study shows modest but significant lower risk

Date:

June 26, 2017

Source:

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Summary:

Long-term,
high intake of vegetable protein from such foods as whole grains, soy and tofu,
may protect women from early menopause and could prolong reproductive function,
results of a new study from epidemiologists suggest.

Results of a new study
from epidemiologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Harvard
T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggest that long-term, high intake of
vegetable protein from such foods as whole grains, soy and tofu, may protect
women from early menopause and could prolong reproductive function.

Consuming enriched pasta,
dark bread and cold cereal were especially associated with lower risk, while
they observed no similar relation to eating animal sources of protein.

“A better
understanding of how dietary vegetable protein intake is associated with
ovarian aging may identify ways for women to modify their risk of early onset
menopause and associated health conditions,” write first author and
then-graduate student Maegan Boutot, with her advisor, professor Elizabeth
Bertone-Johnson. Details appear in the current early online edition of the American
Journal of Epidemiology.

Early menopause, the
cessation of ovarian function before age 45, affects about 10 percent of women
and is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and
early cognitive decline, the authors note. Few studies have evaluated how
protein intake is associated with menopause timing, they add, and to their
knowledge this is the first to look specifically at early menopause.

Boutot, Bertone-Johnson
and colleagues in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass
Amherst, with others, evaluated the relationship between diet and risk of early
menopause among members of the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS2), an ongoing
prospective study of 116,000 women aged 25-42 when they entered it in 1989.

Participants were asked
to report how often they ate a single serving of 131 foods, beverages and
supplements over the previous year, from “never or less than once a
month” to “6+ per day.” They observed that women consuming
approximately 6.5 percent of their daily calories as vegetable protein had a
significant 16 percent lower risk of early menopause compared to women whose
intake was approximately 4 percent of calories.

For a woman with a 2,000
calorie per day diet, the authors explain, this is equal to three to four servings
of such foods as enriched pasta, breakfast cereal, tofu and nuts, or about 32.5
grams a day. They adjusted for age, smoking, body mass index and other possible
confounding factors.

Boutot and
Bertone-Johnson add, “Though relatively few women in our study consumed
very high levels of vegetable protein and our power for analyses of more
extreme intake levels was limited, women consuming 9 or more percent of their
calories from vegetable protein had a hazard ratio of 0.41 (95 percent
confidence interval = 0.19-0.88)” compared to those eating less than 4
percent.

Others on the study team
were from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The study
was supported by a grant from NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development.

For the NHS2, follow-up
questionnaires have assessed nurses’ lifestyle behaviors and medical conditions
every two years. Nearly 90 percent have continued to participate in followup.
Diet was assessed five times over the 20-year study, allowing the researchers
to capture within-person variation in changes in food and nutrient intake over
times, Boutot explains. Participants in the study contributed more than 1
million person-years of follow-up, during which 2,041 women experienced early
menopause.

Boutot and
Bertone-Johnson suggest that more prospective studies of their findings are
warranted, including studies that compare soy-based and non-soy vegetable
proteins.

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.

·        
Chicago

University
of Massachusetts at Amherst. “Eating more vegetable protein may protect
against early menopause: Study shows modest but significant lower risk.”
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 June 2017.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170626093604.htm>.

University
of Massachusetts at Amherst. (2017, June 26). Eating more vegetable protein may
protect against early menopause: Study shows modest but significant lower risk.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 28, 2017 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170626093604.htm

University
of Massachusetts at Amherst. “Eating more vegetable protein may protect
against early menopause: Study shows modest but significant lower risk.”
ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170626093604.htm (accessed
June 28, 2017).