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.

So far the soy free diet has not proven to be too tough.  If it has done one thing it has led me to a bit more variety in my eats.  For lunch I had my usual, a tomato sandwich but I had nothing to pu ton it as Vegenaise contains soy.  Looking around the refrigerator I found a bottle of garlic marinade from Williams-Sonoma.  I drizzled just a little over the tomatoes and it was one of the best tomato sandwiches I have had.

On a night when I would have had typical veggie burgers, last night I made rosemary roasted potatoes, macaroni & not-cheese and baked beans.  The baked beans gave me a slip as I typically fry soy crumbles to add a bit of texture to the beans but of course, that’s soy so I had to brainstorm for a bit until I realized I had bought Sunshine Burgers on my soy free grocery run.  I crumbled a burger and fried it with a diced onion to add to the beans and they turned out perfect.  I had a few ingredient substitutions to make in other places but everything turned out great.

The milk issue is still on the drawing board.  I have found that Pacific almond milk seems to be a bit less watery than Almond Breeze and has less of the afterbite I’m not fond of, it even foams a little better when I steam it for coffee.  I’m still planning on getting hazelnut milk when I run out of almond to see if I like it better.  I’m curious to see how the almond milk would taste in mashed potatoes where imparting an almond taste would be really bad.

I went through my stock of cooking supplies and noticed most contain soy.  I use a vegan Worcestershire sauce that contains soy, Vegenaise, as mentioned, contains soy, as do many of Asian cooking products and any sauces that I would make for an Asian dish.  I would like tofind some replacements for these, namely the Vegenaise and Worcestershire but I can easily do without these if I have to.  Besides, this is all about having to with out, right?

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.