I’ve had many food groups that I have needed to remove from my diet over the past 10+ years. Soy has been a tricky one for me since it is a very popular ingredient in alternative foods. It can add a taste, texture, protein or flavour that lends itself well to foods produced with alternative ingredients. Currently I have found I can handle small amounts of fermented soy, but now we have had to pull it out again since it’s affecting my son.
There are a few different reasons to avoid soy, the big ones are hormone disruption, GMO’s and food allergy/sensitivity. Soy has a very unique quality, it contains compounds called phytoestrogens. These compounds look very close to estrogen, the prominent female hormone, found in our bodies. Yes, it is the prominent hormone in females, but men do have small amounts in their body. Phytoestrogens can be a helpful compound, but when the body is out of balance with its hormones, it can become a hindrance.
GMO’s – I know, I’m opening a big fat can of worms adding that word to my blog. For those new to focusing on food, GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. In a nutshell, some very smart scientists figured out how to identify, and remove a piece of genetics from one living cell to add it to another different type of cell. A good example of this would be removing the gene that makes your eyes green, and putting that gene in the beginning cell of a dog. In essence, you are customizing your future dog. Thus, creating a whole new sub-breed of dog. As amazing as this is, we do not yet know everything there is to know about genetics, so when using this method to change a food, I am skeptical at best on how that impacts the food I am eating. This is a very hot topic for some people, so I will leave it at that.
Soy is grown mostly from GMO seeds, which changes some of its characteristics, and makes it easier to spray with pesticides to protect it from the nature around it. This is a big reason why some people choose to avoid all soy, or just consume organic soy.
Food allergies or sensitivities are probably the most important reason to avoid this food. Soy is in the top ranking for food allergens, meaning it has a higher rate of people who are allergic. I feel like avoiding only soy is simpler than some of the other allergens, such as wheat and dairy. The main ways soy is used in abundance is in salad dressings, vegetarian and vegan cuisine and Asian cuisine. The tricky part to avoiding soy is all the trace amounts used throughout prepared and packaged foods. For those sensitive, small amounts every now and again shouldn’t be much of a concern, but for those with allergies it will require label checks and careful asking at restaurants. Besides the obvious uses for soy, like soy sauce (yummy), tofu and edamame, where will we find soy products in our foods? One very ubiquitous one is lecithin. Lecithin, commonly from soy, is an emulsifier used in prepared foods to help achieve the right texture, it can also be used as a lubricant to keep food moving through the machines for production. More common places you will find soy is in dairy free and vegan pre-packaged foods. Soy is a great source of protein, so it’s often used to replace the protein, or to replace milk as a dairy alternative.
What options do you have to avoid soy? Checking food labels will become a must, but that’s relatively obvious when needing to avoid any food. Luckily, there are some great options around to replace common uses of soy. First being coconut aminos, known as a soy-free seasoning sauce. There are a number of companies now producing soy-free soy sauce. Yes, it sounds funny, but it’s the same principle as dairy-free cheese. There are two companies I have tried so far; Naked Coconuts, which has a simple soy sauce alternative and they also produce sauces such as teriyaki with their alternative and Bragg’s Coconut Nectar.
For salad dressings, it is understandable why so many companies choose to use soybean oil as the base. It’s an abundantly available oil that keeps liquid in the fridge, and does not lend much of a flavour to the dressing. Switching to making your own dressing is a very cost efficient way to replacing your soy based salad dressings, but not everyone wants to. Some brands that focus on other oils are Primal Kitchen, which uses avocado oil as their base, Drew’s Organics, which uses sunflower seed oil and Maison Orphée, which uses sunflower, olive oil or coconut oil.
Vegan or vegetarian alternatives are another place you can find soy used on a regular basis. Some companies formulate their products soy-free which is very helpful. Daiya brand foods and dairy alternatives are made with soy-free ingredients. Many other brands will offer some options that are soy free, it just comes down to checking out the packaging and reading the labels.
If you are struggling to find alternatives that are soy free, please contact me and I will do my best to help you figure it out.
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