Avoiding soy on a vegetarian diet?

[CoolStuff]

So I guess that means avoiding all the good things that are substitutes made with soy. Oh well.

What do you suggest? What might be something you didn't know had soy in it?

(other than tofu, soy milk, the fake meat made with soy, etc)

And if you had to choose between the chemicals and hormones in a cow, and soy, which would you choose? (at a bbq, burger or veggie burger)

Another thing, how can you naturally raise testosterone? Other than exercising.

[Boreas]

Lots of stuff has soy bean oil.

I just ate a can of tuna with soy bean broth. Not likey to happen to a vegetarian I know, but I am on a plant based diet, and eat meat occasionally.

Why avoid soy by the way?

[september]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Why avoid soy by the way?

I can think of at lease one reason - soy proteins are often less digestible than both plant and animal proteins, IIRC.

I don't much like the soy taste myself. Personally, I drink rice milk instead of soymilk... the aftertaste on soymilk is killer. Bleh.

So that's my little way of avoiding soy.

[hymalaia]

A lot of people think soy wreaks havoc with your hormones. I think it mimics estrogen, thus you get the "soy makes you gay!" scare tactics from right wingers. That might be a little extreme, but I wouldn't discount the original idea altogether. I haven't done much research but some sources I trust argue heavily against soy. Perhaps the problem is that most soy in the US is genetically modified. If you are going to use soy make it organic.

Still, when there are viable alternatives even for vegetarians, I say why risk it? There are plenty other legumes and grains where one can get protein. Soy is just one that happens to be heavily marketed.

Keep in mind that fermented soy products are very different and generally considered beneficial health wise. Miso and soy sauce are examples.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Originally Posted by hymalaia

Keep in mind that fermented soy products are very different and generally considered beneficial health wise. Miso and soy sauce are examples.

Don't forget about tempeh as well, at least according to Dr. Mercola.

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by CoolStuff

What might be something you didn't know had soy in it?

Virtually anything processed, even a fastfood burger.

"Someone on a junk-food diet is getting soy flour in the fast-food hamburger bun, soy protein in the burger itself, and soy oil in the fries; soy is in every one of these products because it's cheap and abundant. You'll find soy hidden in so many foods, and small quantities add up."

How Much Is Too Much? (Features) Mary Vance

[Ree]

Originally Posted by hymalaia

A lot of people think soy wreaks havoc with your hormones. I think it mimics estrogen, thus you get the "soy makes you gay!" scare tactics from right wingers. That might be a little extreme, but I wouldn't discount the original idea altogether. I haven't done much research but some sources I trust argue heavily against soy. Perhaps the problem is that most soy in the US is genetically modified. If you are going to use soy make it organic.

I was advised by my oncologist as a breast cancer survivor to avoid soy, precisely because of the effect on hormones.

[CoolStuff]

Originally Posted by hymalaia

A lot of people think soy wreaks havoc with your hormones. I think it mimics estrogen, thus you get the "soy makes you gay!" scare tactics from right wingers. That might be a little extreme, but I wouldn't discount the original idea altogether. I haven't done much research but some sources I trust argue heavily against soy. Perhaps the problem is that most soy in the US is genetically modified. If you are going to use soy make it organic.

Still, when there are viable alternatives even for vegetarians, I say why risk it? There are plenty other legumes and grains where one can get protein. Soy is just one that happens to be heavily marketed.

Thanks. What are some legumes and grains that make up for soy?

I agree. I think that I'm gonna get enough on accident, so I should avoid primarily soy products.

[Baltar]

There's an article about soy on the web site formerly owned by Erin Pavlina: Being Vegan and Eating Soy: Myths, Truths, and Everything in Between. A pretty fair and impartial evaluation of soy research, from what I remember (I read it a long time ago).

Originally Posted by hymalaia

A lot of people think soy wreaks havoc with your hormones. I think it mimics estrogen, thus you get the "soy makes you gay!" scare tactics from right wingers. That might be a little extreme, but I wouldn't discount the original idea altogether.

From what I've read, you'd have to eat HUGE amounts of soy to get any measurable effect from this. I'm vegan, and I eat soy products (mostly tofu and some processed meat substitutes), although I don't eat a lot of processed soy just because heavily processed foods are bad for you in general. Plus they tend to have a lot of sugar (soy ice cream) or salt (meat substitutes). Here's a brief quote from Wikipedia about soy:

Soybeans contain isoflavones called genistein and daidzein. Soybean isoflavonoids are one of a number of primary sources of phytoestrogens in the human diet that mimic estrogen. Since most naturally occurring estrogenic substances show only weak activity, it is doubtful that normal consumption of foods that contain these phytoestrogens would provide sufficient amounts to elicit a physiological response in humans.

[Jessica Adlin]

I highly recommend the book, "The Whole Soy Story, the Dark Side of America's Health Food" by Kaayla Daniels.

[Boreas]

I have also heard some reports from a study saying that soy is linked to alzheimer's, it is tough to know what to make of this, since there is another study saying that soy reduces the chances of alzheimer's. Bah.

My advice is this:
-------------------------
Eat Whole Grains:
Whole wheat, Brown Rice, Oats, Barely, Rye, Buckwheat, Sorghum, the list is endless really.

Eat mostly vegetables and some fruit:
Hey it might depend on how they are grown, but it is hard to go wrong here, grow your own as much as possible, that is what I do.

Eat pulses and legumes:
What infinite variety is here, and it is all cheap!
Lentils
Split peas
Beans (Black, Pinto, Kidney, Red, Navey, Great Northern, Chickpeas, Fava...)
-----------------------------
Doing that should give you all you need IMO.

I am on a plant based diet, so I eat fish or have yoghurt about once a week to get b12 and some amino acids. If you are a vegetarian, than just do stuff like yoghurt.

Usually I cook all the grains together (wheat,rye,rice,oats,barely) to make my cereal for the weak, then I add soymilk. The only time I really consume soymilk, but it comes with b12 and I want to avoid vitamin pills (no real reason to avoid them).

Anyway, hope that helps someone!
Please give comments/thoughts if you have em'.

[CoolStuff]

Thanks everyone! great answers

[bluskygirl]

I recently did some research on thyroid function and the role that iodine plays (we Americans are disturbingly deficient in iodine). In the process of reading, I found some information about soy's ability to prevent absorption of several important minerals into the body, some of them related to thyroid function, which is why if you're one the gazillion people on a thyroid pill, they tell you to specifically avoid soy products.

I recently took myself off soy (I was an avid soy latte drinker). I switched to almond milk. It's sooooo yummy; has tons of good natural calcium and all the other benefits of almonds. The other thing is it's not any more fattening than soy milk, so you have to eat your almonds too if you want to get all that good fat. In case you were wondering, I put myself on an iodine supplement as well, because I have been feeling increasingly as though something is "off" internally. The symptoms seemed to be pointing to hypothyroidism. After my research, I wondered if all the Soy I was drinking combined with not having enough iodine was the problem.

[Kate Saltfleet]

How about seitan, it's a mock meat made of wheat gluten (although if you can't tolerate gluten you really are out of luck )

[Excellent Lodestar]

Basically, anything that Big Agra promotes is probably not in your best interest health-wise. Corn, Soy,Wheat(Sorry).
Paleo diet avoids all that. I can't wait to hear the FDA come out and say we need grains to prevent XYZ Disease.

Soy? It's EVERYWHERE...
Welcome to Soy Online Service

[newmark]

I could well be missing something here, but how does anyone know soy is so bad?
In East Asia soy has been eaten for centuries and the people here don't seem particularly unhealthy. Birthrates are high and Japan has good longevity.

[babuji]

I think Soy Beans on their own are great, very healthy food.

I personally do not like any of the refined by products of Soy, such as Tofu or Soy Milk.

I once saw a how Tofu was made, and I just felt that all the "good stuff" is taken out from the original soy beans, and whatever is left over is what results in Tofu.

I would think Soy Milk is the same way.

As a general rule, anything that is overly processed or refined probably does more harm than good to our bodies. For example, (refined sugar, rice, flour, etc.)

The following is quoted from an excellent article by Yogi Gupta:

For example, take sugar – sugar is refined. All the vitamins and mineral salts, including the vitamin D, is taken out in the form of molasses. And what we eat is the refined sugar, white sugar which does not have vitamin D. When we eat the sugar, what happens? The white sugar cannot be digested in the absence of vitamin D, and vitamin D is taken out of your teeth and bones, to protect the person’s health. So, we see the cause of fractures, weak bones due to the molasses being removed from the white sugar. And now where does the molasses go? They are given in the big farms to the pigs. Some person humorously remarked, the best part of the sugar, which is the molasses, should go to the human beings rather than going to the pigs.

Similarly is the case for rice. In Burma, in the eastern part of India, there are big factories where rice is polished, in big factories. And the rice polishings are loaded on big ships which take all those polishings to England, where vitamin B tablets, B tablets, the vitamin B-complex tablets are prepared. The people in India who eat the polished, white rice get sick, have neural breakdown, and they go to their doctor, and he says, “You are deficient in vitamin B-complex.” And then, they have to eat the same tablets of vitamin B-complex which had been prepared from the rice polishings which were shipped from Burma to England, and have come back in the form of vitamin B-complex.

So, it is a big story. Anything that has been processed and changed so, it degenerates. It does not provide the real food values in a good life

The article in it's entirety for those that are interested: Yogic Food Concepts - Yogi Gupta