Soy Foods Consumption and Multiple Health Outcomes: An Umbrella Review of Meta‐Analyses

Soy has been a fundamental component of human diets for thousands of years. This umbrella review aims to evaluate the existing evidence for associations between soy food consumption and multiple health outcomes. By summarizing the effects of different types of soy foods, this study seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential benefits and risks associated with increased dietary soy consumption. We identified 23 meta-analyses of observational research with 39 unique health outcomes and one meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials with four unique outcomes by searching six databases in English (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), and three databases in Chinese (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang database, and Sinomed) from January 1, 2014 to April 22, 2024 for meta-analyses that investigated the association between soy food consumption and any health outcome. Generally, dietary soy food consumption is more beneficial than harmful, especially in cancer and cardiometabolic diseases. However, it is important to note that the benefits of fermented soy products were inconclusive, and even some studies indicated their possible adverse effects. In the future, more studies that explore the effects of dietary soy food consumption on biological indicators are needed.