A study conducted on 1,600 Asian- American women i. e. Chinese, Japanese and Filipino descent living in California or Hawaii, with or without breast cancer suggests, those of them that regularly ate soy as children, could have a lower risk of developing breast cancer. While, higher soy intake throughout life lowered the risk of the disease, the childhood intake of soy showed the strongest protective effect.

Women, who as children regularly ate soy i. e. roughly once a week or more, were about 60% less likely to develop breast cancer, than those who had an intake of soy in childhood, though regular soy consumption in adulthood, reduced the risk of breast cancer by 25%.

Echoing earlier studies, the findings, reported in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, suggest soy helps protect against breast cancer, with consumption of soy during childhood of especial importance.

Estrogen-like soy compounds called isoflavones by blocking the action of estrogen could offer protection from breast cancer, while promoting the destruction of abnormal cells and reducing inflammation in the body.

Animal research shows, soy could promote earlier maturation of breast tissue and greater tissue resistance to cancer-promoting substances.

Incidents of breast cancer are four to seven times higher among white women in the U. S. than in women in China or Japan, however, when Asian women migrate to the U. S., over several generations, their breast cancer risk rises, reaching that of U. S. white women, indicating modifiable factors rather than genetics, are responsible for international differences.