Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Equol is produced by only 25-50% of humans via gut bacteria, and this 'equol producer' status determines whether dietary soy provides significant health benefits.
Only about half of people produce 'equol' from soy. If you don't, eating soy might not give you the hormonal benefits others get. You can test your status or take equol supplements directly.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
However, it is produced by only 25–50% of human subjects (so-called equol producers); the percentage depends on the community in question and the dietary habits of its members [31–34]. Conceivably, these subjects might be the only ones who can fully benefit from soy or isoflavone consumption [111,123,124].
Why this rating
Well-established epidemiological and microbiological data; the percentage of producers is consistently reported.
Source
Equol: A Bacterial Metabolite from The Daidzein Isoflavone and Its Presumed Beneficial Health Effects
Baltasar Mayo et al. · Nutrients · 2019
DOI 10.3390/nu11092231
narrative_reviewCited 400×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Supplementation with S(-)-equol (10-30 mg/day) reduces the severity and frequency of menopausal vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) in both equol-producing and non-producing women.Moderate
- Equol supplementation improves arterial stiffness and may lower LDL cholesterol in overweight individuals, suggesting cardiovascular benefits.Moderate
- Equol supplementation prevents bone mineral density loss and reduces bone resorption in postmenopausal women.Moderate
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