Sandhya Raghavan
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Written By: Sandhya Raghavan | Published : June 27, 2017 12:44 PM IST
Ladies, here's a good reason to eat more tofu! A 2016 study has indicated that women who consume more vegetable protein, approximately 6.5 percent of their daily calories as vegetable protein, has 16 percent lower risk of an early menopause compared to women whose intake is approximately four percent of calories.
Authors Maegan Boutat and Professor Elizabeth from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Harvard T. H Chan School of Public Health surveyed 1,16,000 registered nurses between the ages of 25-42 in 1989. They collected information about their lifestyle, health and medication, and in 1991, the duo assessed their total protein and protein from vegetable and animal sources. Read: Whey Protein: all you need to know before buying it.
The participants were quizzed on how often they ate a single serving of an item using a 9-point scale, ranging from "Never or less than a month" to "6+ per day." Their vegetable protein intake was calculated by multiplying the vegetable protein content of a single serving of a food item by the frequency with which it was consumed. Then, it was summed across all the items. Read: Yes it is possible to get protein without animal cruelty.
The authors explain, for a women who consumed 2000 calories per day, it is equal to three to four servings of foods such as enriched pasta, cold cereal, tofu and nuts. The women consuming nine or more percent of their total calories in a day from vegetable protein has a ration of 0.41 compared to those who eats less than four percent. Read: A vegetarian diet plan for body builders.
They concluded the study by surmising that high vegetable protein intake was associated with lower likelihood of early menopause. But it has to be noted that contrary to popular notion, eating more animal protein was not linked to early menopause either! Read: Vegetarian? Get protein from these plant sources.
So load up on healthy plant proteins like soya products and lentils, today!
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