Isoflavones found in various plants – including soy – have already demonstrated cognitive effects in adults. This new study, conducted on school-aged children who consumed more of these foods, reveals an association with better thinking and attention skills. These initial findings pave the way for further research to decipher the processes underlying these new benefits. Finally, these results also call for studying the more global effects of consuming these soy foods by children“because these foods are rarely part of their diet,” says one of the lead authors, Ajla Bristina, a neuroscientist at the University of Illinois.
The study A cross-sectional study conducted among 128 children aged 7 to 13 years, whose average dietary intake of macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins and isoflavones was recorded and their cognitive abilities were assessed, reveals that:
- Overall, children consume very low amounts of soy foods, 1.33 mg of isoflavones per day (1 serving of soy milk provides about 28 mg of isoflavones, 1 serving of tofu provides about 35 mg);
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There is a significant association between soy isoflavone intake and attention abilities
-as also measured by EEG;
- Thus, children who consumed more soy foods responded more quickly during attention tasks and demonstrated higher processing speed;
- However, no association is observed between the consumption of soy isoflavones and general intellectual capacity.
This is a first step and it remains to understand all the effects of the consumption of soy-based foods on children’s health and identify the precise amount of isoflavones needed to obtain optimal benefits from these foods.
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