A SERVING of soya bean a day keeps the doctor away.

Eating a serving of soya bean curd or drinking a glass of soya bean milk every day reduces the risk of breast cancer by 18 per cent for Chinese women in Singapore, a study here has found.

The study by the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, the University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota, tracked more than 34,000 Chinese women over 10 years.

They were split into two groups based on the amount of soya proteins in their diet, from popular dishes and drinks including fried soya bean curd ('taukwa' and 'taupok'), soya bean curd sheets and a local dish of soya bean curd, vegetables and fish cakes called 'yong tau foo'.

One group consumed soya proteins at amounts below the entire original group's average daily intake - roughly a standard serving or 115g of soya bean curd, or a 240ml glass of soya bean milk - and the other group consumed more than that.

Of the 629 of them who developed breast cancer over the past decade, 290 were from the group that ate more soya proteins, and 339 from the other group.

This meant that women who consumed more soya proteins were 18 per cent less likely than those from the other group to develop breast cancer.

The study results, published in the British Journal of Cancer last month, were presented on Monday at a breast cancer sympsosium held by NUS.