by K. C. Jaehnig, Media & Communication Resources
 

Old folks in nursing homes will fare better if they’re full of beans—soybeans, that is.

SIUC nutrition researchers found that when they used soy products in meals that nursing home residents were already used to eating, the residents’ protein intake increased nearly 20 percent, even though they didn’t eat more food.

"Insufficient protein leads to loss of lean muscle mass and problems with the immune system," says Jeanette Endres, lead author of an article on the team’s research that was published in September 2000 by the Journal of Nutrition for the Elderly. "Anything you can do to increase protein consumption will be of benefit."

Soy products are, in Endres’s words, "protein-dense." What’s more, they pack plenty of energy, and they also retain moisture, making the foods they’re used in more tender and palatable. This makes them ideal recipe ingredients for elderly diners, who often don’t take in enough protein, calories, and fluid to stay healthy.

But would seniors eat soy? A grant from the Illinois Soybean Association allowed the SIUC researchers—Endres, Patricia Welch, Hea-Ran Ashraf, William Banz, and Elaine Gower—to check that out. 

Taking a three-week menu cycle from a 260-bed long-term care facility, the team fiddled with the recipes, looking to add soy products wherever they could. "We worked on everything from cereal to dessert," Endres says. "The aim was to have these foods look and taste very much like they did before."

In tests that compared consumption of three weeks’ worth of meals prepared the traditional way with three weeks of meals made with soy-enhanced foods, the researchers found that the residents ate about two-thirds of what was on their plates, no matter what it contained. But because of soy foods’ protein density, they ate an average of 13.2 grams more protein each day than they did on their regular diet—an increase of 19.6 percent. 

"This shows that soy can be incorporated into foods that the elderly will readily accept," Endres says.

"Not only will they get the protein, calories, and fluid they need, but a number of studies have indicated that regular consumption of soy protein may reduce the incidence of certain cancers, kidney and heart disease, and osteoporosis."

The Illinois Soybean Association underwrote a cookbook using the recipes developed by Endres and her colleagues and is distributing it free to all nursing homes in the state. Endres will soon have a version of the cookbook online. 

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