Abstract
Background: Several dietary and non-dietary approaches have been recommended to help managing the clinical symptoms of ulcerative colitis (UC). One potential approach is the consumption of soybean due to its anti-inflammatory properties, which may aid in controlling disease severity. However, no research has been conducted on the effects of soybean consumption on disease activity in individuals with UC. To address this gap, a randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted to investigate the effect of soybean consumption on disease severity, quality of life, disability caused by the disease, and mental health in patients with mild to moderate UC.
Methods: Thirty participants were assigned to either receive 30 g/d of soybean plus routine UC treatments (n=15) in the intervention group or only routine UC treatments (n=15) in the non-intervention group for 8 weeks.
Results: At the end of the trial, anxiety score of the patients in the soybean group was significantly reduced compared to the control group (P=0.02). However, no significant differences were observed in depression and psychological distress scores between groups. Moreover, there were no significant differences between groups in terms of quality of life, disease severity, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-related disabilities.
Conclusion: Findings from this study provide evidence that soybean consumption significantly improves anxiety of patients with UC, while no significant changes were found in terms of quality of life, disease severity, IBD-related disabilities, depression, and psychological distress. Further studies are required to confirm these findings.