March 26/Arlington, Va./Des Moines Register -- The American College of Cardiologists released a 20-year study that showed a diet heavy in isoflavones can help reduce high blood pressure in young adults and African-Americans. Isoflavones in tofu are widely believed to produce enzymes that dilate or widen blood vessels, countering the destructive impact of cholesterol.

Tofu, long a staple of the Chinese diet, is made by coagulating soy milk, which is produced by soaking, grinding, boiling and straining dried soybeans. The Chinese eat so much tofu that they buy almost one third of the U.S. soybean crop to make the soy milk needed for tofu production.