Move Over Milk: Consuming Soy Protein-Rich Diet Early In Life Can Help Prevent Bone Loss In Adulthood

When you're younger, you may have experienced being told to drink milk to make your bones strong. That may have been true, but according to researchers of a new study, having soy protein isolate early in life can help protect against serious bone loss during adulthood as well as help ensure overall better bone quality.

According to Science Daily, Jin-Ran Chen, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Skeletal Development Laboratory at Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas said: "Appropriate early-life nutrition can optimize peak bone mass." 

For the study, Chen and colleagues used a very young female rat model. One group of rats given soy protein isolate for 30 days (from postnatal day 24 to 55), then switched to a regular standard rodent diet until they reached 6 months. The rats were modified to copy postmenopausal bone loss in women to determine the amount of bone loss, reports Times of India.

The second group of rats was given a regular standard rodent diet throughout their life. This group was also genetically altered to copy postmenopausal bone loss and analyzed to determine bone loss. The researchers found that the first group of rats did not have increased bone loss compared to the second group of rats which consumed a regular rodent diet.

The Indian Express reported Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal , where the study was published saying: "The centuries-old mantra that children need milk to 'grow strong bones' remains true, but here we have evidence that the protein components of soy 'milk' have key osteogenic effects."

"This finding could ultimately have major pediatric health impacts throughout various parts of the world," he continued. This only goes to show that an increase soy protein isolate diet early in life can tremendously affect the amount of bone loss experienced later in life.

Meanwhile, it is also important to reveal that this is the first time that scientists have used an animal model to show concrete evidence of a protective effect of an early-life soy protein isolate diet on bone loss suffered during adulthood.