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.
