The first day of no soy consisted of a trip to the grocery store to find replacements for my typical vegan staples.  I replaced my soy milk that I use mostly for coffee with almond milk, which I am not a big fan of.  There’s something about that little bite it has that I don’t like and the watery consistency does not sit well with me.  I’ll need to try a different milk or maybe a brand other than Almond Breeze.  We picked up Soy-Free Earth Balance to use for baking, that shouldn’t be a big change  I found that so many things, as I expected, contained soy in some form.  While I didn’t plan on being able to remove every minute bit of soy from my diet I think I did a pretty good job of it.  Buying stuff at Trader Joe’s might be a task though as most of their items have soy protein or soybean oil somewhere in the list of ingredients.  Most items at Trader Joe’s are processed in some way and it seems soybean oil must be a necessary additive when doing so.

I managed to find veggie burgers without soy, Sunshine Burgers list just four ingredients and soy is not one. Amy’s California Burgers are also soy-free but I am not big on their flavor as they have far too much of a dirty mushroom taste.  I like mushrooms but I would rather just eat a big portaboello than have my veggie burger lend the flavor.

Day one, no change noticed, but it is only one day.  Do I really expect any change?  Probably none other than grumpiness due to the fact that I can’t have my usual goodies.

For the next 30 days I will be giving up a staple in my diet, soy.  As a vegan, soy is included in so many things I eat daily.  If you read labels you will notice soy is in just about everything.  While I realize that I may not be able to avoid every presence of soy I will try to do the best I can to take it out of my diet for the next 30 days.   It may sound simple but I’m aware this will be tougher than it seems.  To be a soy-free vegan may seem impossible but I am determined to get through it.

Our trip to the grocery store today will consist of me trying to find replacements for my usual foods.  I will hopefully find a veggie burger without soy so I can have my junk food nights.  I will replce the soy milk I typically use in coffee with almond and hazelnut milk.  We use Earth Balance to bake as well as on baked potatoes and wherever needed but luckily they make a variety of Earth Balance that is soy-free.  It is the ingredient list of many things where this will get difficult.  As an avid label reader, as most vegans are, this will hone my skills to a higher level.

So, why am I doing this?  There are so many “studies”, which I typically find useless, that point out the impact of soy on the endocrine system that I think I will lend an open-mind to and see if removing it from my daily eating would make any change for me.  I will be looking for apparent changes that are noticeable to myself as I won’t be visiting a doctor to get daily blood tests and such as more scientific plans would include.  I will be looking for increased/decreased energy levels, weight loss/gain and anything else I notice that could be related.  At the end of the month I hope to be able to form my own opinion on soy benefits and drawbacks.  Check back for daily posts as I will document here any changes I notice and just how difficult this may or may not be.

Go out to get a coffee and you’ll most likely have the options of whole milk, 2% milk, skim milk and soy milk.   Why do you never find rice milk, almond milk, or goat milk for that matter,  as a choice in your coffee?  I decided to get out of the soy milk rut at home with my coffee and picked up some rice milk.  I used Trader Joe’s Rice Drink from the refrigerated section to try first.  I always found rice milk to be watery and this was no exception.  It is also a bit on the sweet side which isn’t a bad thing considering a like my coffee sweetened, usually with a vanilla syrup I make myself.   Steaming rice milk doesn’t seem to work well if you like foam.  You seem to get a good foam started but it all breaks down to nothing as soon as it gets heavy.  The rice milk lends no flavor to the end drink, so for me it doesn’t work.  No foam, no flavor, no worky.

I also tried hazelnut milk from Pacific Foods.   The consistency is the same as rice milk but the flavor is a bit better.  Still, if you like foam this one doesn’t work.  I’m sure the watery formulas of these two are what lends to the lack of foam production during the steaming.

For now I will stick with soy milk but I will be trying others.  Oat Milk?  Hemp Milk?