By Jimy Downs

Thursday Nov 29, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) - A new study published in International Journal of Preventive Medicine has found that drinking soy milk can help obese women to lose weight or waist circumference.

The study led by S.A. Keshavarz at Department of Nutrition and Biochemistry, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Science in Tehran, Iran and colleagues showed that compared to cow milk, soy milk helped reduce waist circumference by more than 100%.

The study involved 24 overweight and obese female adults who were assigned to use a diet with soy milk or the diet with cow's milk for four weeks per each diet.   Each day one glass of 240 ml of soy milk or cow milk was used.

As a result, waist circumference was reduced by 2.78% during the period soy milk was consumed, compared to 1.78% when cow milk was used.

Soy milk did not change "blood pressure, weight, liver enzymes and glycemic control indices" significantly, compared to cow milk.

The researchers concluded "Among over weight and obese patients, soy milk can play an important role in reducing waist circumference. However, soy milk replacement had no significant effects on weight, glycemic control indices, liver enzymes, fibrinogen and blood pressure in a short term trial."

It should be noted that some soy milk products on the market are tainted with high levels of aluminum, which is a bad metal that can boost risk of dementia.  Also the majority of soy as a crop is genetically modified.  GM soy has been linked to reproductive problems like infertility in animals.