Abdominal fat is particularly bad for your health raising the risk of heart attacks and diabetes more than fat in other parts of the body.

It s thought that soya, a vegetable protein interferes with the processing of excess sugar into fat and cuts the amount that is accumulates across the stomach.

Researchers in the US gave a group of postmenopausal women a 120 calorie soya shake every day, while another group were given a non soya drink. After 3 months there was little difference in weight between the two groups, but the soya drinkers had lost fat around the waist while the other women had put it on, the American Society for Reproductive Medicines annual conference heard.

Previous studies have shown soya and tofu, a meat substitute made from soya bean curd, cut the risk of ovarian cancer and heart disease.