I am at the end of my first week of reading labels more extensively than I ever have as a vegan.  The soy industry has a firm grip on every aspect of our food supply, and nowhere is this more evident than in processed foods.  Soy protein isolate, soybean oil, soy lecithin – all components of just about every processed food you pick up.  Although some processed foods don’t contain soy, the fact is most do and the only way to truly avoid it is to eat whole foods.  Fresh vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts, which are indeed the best foods for your body, are also the only road to getting zero soy.  With that said, I have not been eating only whole foods.  I have found a processed food here or there without soy.  Our garden is still producing tomatoes, cucumbers and okra.  I picked a small amount of pinto beans last week.  These items typically give me a good lunch but I get lazy in the evenings, the time I really shouldn’t.

The milks I have been trying, which I have spouted about over the last two posts, have been narrowed down to hazelnut.  I have tried a few over the past week.  Almond: too much of a bite.  Rice: too watery.  Oat: grainy, gritty, liquid paper. Hemp: powdery, not as bad as oat.  Drinkable but far too expensive.  Hazelnut tastes light enough, doesn’t have a bad aftertaste and isn’t too expensive.  I spend the most time on the milk subject because I drink a lot of it.  I use it extensively in my coffee and in my cooking.

I have read many articles about soy interfering with thyroid activity.  I haven’t noticed a difference in my energy levels or any weight fluctuations since starting this plan but this is only the first week.  Those differences, should they come, would be expected later on, possibly near the end.

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?

Hemp milk, a relatively new product to the store shelves is finding itself in the news a bit in places.   I have read a bit of good information on it, finding it is loaded with calcium and phosphorus (46% and 43% of RDA respectfully), not to mention vitamin B12 (25%).  Hemp, illegal to produce in the US, is grown mainly in Canada and exported.  The biggest supplier of hemp milk is Living Harvest.

I have tried the Original Flavor, it has a slight nutty flavor and not too bad.  As a regular drinker of soy milk I couldn’t say I would use it to replace the soy milk but otherwise it makes a nice change.

Wild Oats does carry it in the shelf-stable milk area.  $3.59 for 32 ounces.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_5518510,00.html