Soy Facts

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Mark Messina, PhD, MS

Mark MessinaDr. Messina is the co-owner of Nutrition Matters, Inc., a nutrition consulting company, an adjunct associate professor at Loma Linda University, and the Executive Director of the Soy Nutrition Institute. He is a former program director with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he initiated a research program on the anticancer effects of soy.

Since leaving the NCI, Dr. Messina has devoted his time to the study of the health effects of soyfoods and soybean isoflavones. He writes extensively on these subjects, having published more than 60 articles and book chapters for health professionals, and he has given more than 500 presentations to both consumer and professional groups in 42 countries.

Dr. Messina is the chairperson of the editorial advisory board of, and writes a regular column for The Soy Connection, a quarterly newsletter that reaches over 500,000 dietitians and other health professionals. He has also organized and chaired eight international symposia on the role of soy in preventing and treating chronic disease and has organized soy meetings in China, India, Brazil, and Italy.

Dr. Messina is the co-author of three books, The Simple Soybean and Your Health (Avery Publishing Group, 1994), The Vegetarian Way (Crown Publishers, 1996), and The Dietitian’s Guide to Vegetarian Diets: Issues and Applications (Aspen Publishers, 1996, Jones and Barlett, 2004).