Swapping Cow's Milk for Soy Milk Lowers Blood Pressure and Cholesterol, Meta-Analysis Finds

Switching from cow's milk to soy milk lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, a new review of randomised trials finds. Soy milk drinkers saw systolic blood pressure fall by 8 mmHg and diastolic by 4.7 mmHg, with non-HDL cholesterol down 0.26 mmol/L, LDL cholesterol down 0.19 mmol/L and the inflammation marker CRP down too.

The systematic review and meta-analysis, from Dr. John Sievenpiper's team at the University of Toronto, is published in BMC Medicine. It pooled 17 trials in 504 adults lasting four to 16 weeks, typically swapping 500ml a day of cow's milk for soy milk. Sweetened soy milk did just as well as unsweetened, and none of the 19 health markers studied got worse. The authors say labeling soy milk as an ultra-processed food may be misleading when it comes to heart health, as the university reports.

The authors conclude:

Current evidence provides a good indication that replacing cow's milk with soymilk (including sweetened soymilk) does not adversely affect established cardiometabolic risk factors and may result in advantages for blood lipids, blood pressure, and inflammation in adults with a mix of health statuses.

If you're still pouring dairy on your cereal, a fortified soy milk is an easy swap.

Canada's food guide famously ditched the dairy group in 2019, and a meta-analysis of 30 trials found vegetarian and vegan diets cut cholesterol and apoB.

Your heart says pass the soy milk.