Tofu reduces lead levels in blood

Eating lots of tofu may reduce levels of lead in the blood, new study findings suggest, Reuters Health reports. Researchers are not exactly sure how tofu lowers lead levels, but they suspect that calcium in the soy-based food may keep the body from absorbing and retaining lead. Tofu is rich in calcium, which is thought to reduce the absorption and retention of lead in the body. Tofu consumption is high in China, but so is lead exposure, so a team led by Dr. Changzhong Chen of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, decided to see whether eating tofu had an effect on lead levels in young adults. The researchers studied 605 men and 550 women living in Shenyang, whose residents had the highest blood levels of lead in China during the 1980s. Participants were interviewed about their diet, including how often they ate tofu, and gave a blood sample to be tested for lead.In both men and women, blood levels of lead were lower in people who ate the most tofu, Chen's team reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Lead levels were about 11 per cent lower in people who ate the most tofu than in those who ate the least. "The study findings, if confirmed, will have important implications,"​ Chen's team concludes in the report. More research is needed, according to the investigators, to get a better understanding of how tofu affects lead levels and to see whether increasing the consumption of tofu may be a way to reduce or prevent high lead levels in people exposed to the metal. "Although controlling environmental sources of lead exposure remains the principal means of preventing lead toxicity, appropriate dietary adjustments may serve as an important adjunct to these measures,"​ the authors write. Source: ReutersHealth and American Journal of Epidemiology 2001;153:1206-1212.