People without a soy allergy can safely eat tofu every day, a U.S. nutrition expert said. A U.S. study also found that people who ate tofu at least once a week faced a lower risk of coronary heart disease, including heart attacks.
U.S. outlet TODAY reported on the 14th on whether eating tofu daily is healthy, citing Natalie Rizzo, a registered dietitian and the outlet's nutrition editor. Rizzo said most tofu is made with calcium sulfate, making it a good source of calcium, and that the isoflavones in soybeans are plant compounds with antioxidant properties. TODAY added that people with a soy allergy should not eat tofu.
Calcium content varies widely depending on how the tofu is made, so consumers should check the nutrition label, Rizzo advised. If protein is the goal, she said, choose firm tofu, which contains less water. According to TODAY, a serving of firm tofu contains 8 to 12 grams of protein, about twice the 4 to 6 grams in soft tofu. By South Korea's national standard food composition table, 100 grams of tofu contains 9.3 grams of protein and 100 grams of sundubu, or extra-soft tofu, contains 6.85 grams — a narrower gap. Tofu is a plant-based protein source containing all nine essential amino acids.
The related research was published on March 23, 2020, in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association. Harvard University researchers tracked 210,700 U.S. nurses and health professionals for more than 20 years and found that those who ate tofu at least once a week had an 18% lower risk of coronary heart disease than those who ate it less than once a month. A total of 8,359 cases of coronary heart disease occurred during the follow-up period. Soy milk showed no statistically significant association.
Because the study was observational, however, causation is difficult to establish. The paper cited as a limitation the possibility that tofu consumption may be a marker of a health-conscious lifestyle. Most participants were health professionals of European descent, and only 4.1% ate tofu more than once a week as of the midpoint of the follow-up period. Among women, the association was more pronounced in those who were premenopausal or postmenopausal without hormone therapy.
Some have raised concerns that isoflavones act similarly to estrogen and may increase breast cancer risk. In a post published on March 22, 2025, the American Cancer Society said eating soy foods is associated with either a reduced cancer risk or no change in risk. It did not, however, recommend soy supplements.
Rizzo recommended eating tofu alongside vegetables and whole grains, and rotating in other protein sources such as legumes and nuts. She also suggested having tofu one day and edamame or tempeh, a fermented soybean food, on another.