For four weeks, 60 women, average age 53, followed a low-cholesterol diet that provided 30 percent energy from fat, 15 percent from protein and 55 percent from carbohydrates. Welty, the lead author and an associate professor at Harvard, emphasized that the study used unsalted soy nuts eaten in three or four portions during the day, keeping the blood levels of soy protein steady. Those with normal blood pressure also benefited from the soy diet, reducing systolic and diastolic readings by...

Statewide, an estimated 1.2 million acres of crops will be sprayed from the air this year. State officials say aerial spraying increases the yield of corn and soybean crops as prices increase. The state agency that regulates crop dusting has certified 118 pilots this year, four times more than normal. State officials urge farmers to alert neighbors to the crop dusting, so they won't be startled by the low-flying airplanes. Farmers should alert neighbors to low-flying planes, officials...

Department of Agriculture reported that farmers this year planted the fewest acres of soybeans in more than a decade. Soybean prices surged to the market limit after the USDA said that acreage dedicated to soybeans slid 15 percent to 64. The decline in soybean acreage came as farmers switched to corn to take advantage of record high prices. An unexpected draw on gasoline inventories leading up to the peak driving months of July and August surprised the market and helped vault oil prices...

VIDALIA Concordia Parish s risk for the deadly soybean rust will increase over the next few weeks, agriculture experts say. Soybean crops at risk due to rain. Asian soybean rust causes plants to drop their leaves before they are mature and can affect the number and quality of beans in pods. Because it needs living tissue to survive, rust often makes it through the winter by using kudzu one of more than 80 plants the parasitic spores infect as a host. The disease, which can be detected in...

Paul Warm, sunny weather last week boosted the development of corn and small grain crops in Minnesota, but also dried the soil, according to the weekly crop report from the Minnesota field office of the U. The report also said there were 5.3 days suitable for fieldwork last week as the first cutting of the state's alfalfa crop reached 80 percent harvested. Soybeans were also doing well, with 79 percent of the crop rated in good or excellent condition. For corn, the average height last week...