Study links eating soy with better thinking ability [Video]

Could adding tofu to kids’ diets help them at school? A new study presented this week at the NUTRITION 2024 conference indicates the answer is yes.

Study authors found that “school-aged children who consumed more isoflavones from soy foods exhibited better thinking abilities and attention,” according to a press release from the American Society for Nutrition.

Soybeans are part of the legume family. They have been cultivated in Asia since the 11^th century B.C., according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health said they have been cultivated in other areas since the 1950s.

“Soy foods are often not a regular part of children’s diets in the United States,” said Ajla Bristina, a neuroscience doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who worked on the recent study. “Our study adds evidence of the importance of nutrients found in soy foods for childhood cognition.”

Bristina was slated to present the findings Tuesday morning at the NUTRITION conference, held …