Soy info please

“I've been trying to add soy to my diet for better health, etc. and I have a few questions:

What is the difference between the following:
Soy flour
Soy grits
Soy milk powder

I've been making a porridge for breakfast with corn grits and soy powder and ...

whoa ... INCOMING!!!

*ducks*

Sheesh, you southerners are so aggressive! You can use butter on your grits, but I'm going with the soy so THERE!!

Anyway, it is pretty tasty with salt and pepper, and would be good for backpacking except for one thing, the stuff sticks to the pan pretty bad.

Does anyone know the diff between those types of dry soy products, and have any other recipes for adding soy to the diet?”

“Having a bachelors in Agricultural Economics, I encourage you to support the American Farmer, even if you do trash the grits in the process...

j/k

See if this helps.”

“Lyndy: My younger son is a vegan, so I end up using a lot of soy when I cook for him.

I find that soy milk replaces milk very nicely (unit for unit) for most recipes. If you want to be cautious, make sure the fat content is similar (e.g. don't use non-fat soy milk to substitute for whole milk).

Different processing results in different kinds of products (flour and grits - I think are just milled/ground differently)... generally the name is a good indicator of how the product can be used/substituted... i.e. soy flour for flour (although the soy has got no gluten to speak of), soy grits for grits, soy milk powder for powdered milk.”

“soy sorry i cant help you out!”

“Chili36, that is an excellent site. There was a lot of info that I've not seen anywhere else. Thanks. I have to get some more printer paper so I can print some of the recipes.”

“Also, Pedxing, isn't it unusual that a child would decide on his own to become a vegan? My older daughter has been avoiding meat lately, and I wonder if she is deciding to be vegetarian. She says she hasn't but her three closest friends are vegetarians.”

“That site that Chili provided pretty much explained the differences between soy products and was very good. Pedxing's right, everything basically starts with the soybean and the processing is what makes various products from the bean. Tofu is a good soy product to add because most kinds have calcium too. That organic soymilk powder from the Mail Order Catalog is great for backpacking and at home. I use it daily. On the trail it can be mixed with Genisoy meal replacement powder to provide a complete lightweight meal that only has to be mixed with water. I always carry it in my pack for an emergency meal or for winter use when it's really cold out.
TVP granules can be added to soups and sauces at home for more soy if your just looking to add soy to your diet. Rehydrate first if you add them to sauces. Soy flour is used for baking and is different from the soymilk powder. There's some good vegan cookbooks in the Mail Order Catalog and somtimes they go on sale. Some good ones that I have are Vegan Nutrition, The New Farm Vegetarian cook book, The Almost No-Fat cookbook (great book), The TVP cookbook, Cookin Healty with one foot out the door (fast, easy vegan cooking). Even check your library and there's lots on the internet too.”

“All I know is that you don't want to be anywhere near me about 6 hours after I eat soy. :)”

“Maybe you are allergic, Smiley. I haven't had any problem with soy so far. Cheese, salami and beef, however, seem to cause me gallbladder pain and indigestion.”

“Try Response textured flake TVP if you have problems with the standard kind. It has the sugar from the soybean removed so it's more digestable.”

“LyndyS... my kids are pretty unusual. They both have strong values and think for themselves. My vegan son (14 y/o)became vegetarian a few years back, because for ethical reasons. When he started learning about farming techniques - the handling and raising of egg-laying chickens and dairy cattle - he decided that it was morally inconisistent for him to eat eggs and dairy. It's a lot of extra work, but I have to back him up on this... he gave up things he really enjoyed (like ice cream) because of his values.

I posted a thread here about 6 months ago asking for advice on what to bring on the trail for him... I got lots of useful and amusing responses.”

“how do you kow it's yor gallbladder? maybe it's your spleen er sumpthin....


my wife drinks soy milk all the time. i don't care for it but i guess it'd be better than nuthing...”

“For some reason vegan food always generates amusing responses. Pedxing, I really admire your son for his diet and it will pay off for him healthwise. It isn't easy being on a diet like this because it's so opposite of the standard American diet, especially if you travel and have to depend on eating out. That can be a challenge.”

“Thanks Rich. It does generate some interesting responses... it pretty much freaks some of his friends right out. They are really surprised because he is so big and healthy - they can't imagine that he could live, let alone thrive on that kind of diet.

He's going to do 1/2 his junior year of High School in China... I'm wondering how his vegan diet will manage then (although its probably not much harder than being vegetarian). The family he'll be staying with has a machine that makes fresh soy milk (my dad and my other son have visited there, but I haven't been), so there is some hope.”

“So many people of asian or indian backgrounds eat mostly vegetables so maybe your son will find it pretty easy to follow his values in China. I recently tried chinese eggplant and found it to be much nicer than the ordinary kind. Your son will probably come home with lots of interesting food ideas.”

“I think it would be easier in China. I always thought that they don't eat as much meat as the population here.”

“Its more the language issues I'm wondering about... when we eat out we have to virtually interogate the waiters at some places (especially at Asian places)and he still ends up with food that has bits of ground pork or things like that. Maybe his hosts can make a card in Chinese that he can show the waiters.”

“pedxing - Your son is fortunate to have this opportunity for foreign travel and study. And he is fortunate to have parents that will permit it.

I have been trying to get past some conflicts that have prevented me from taking a course in Chinese Culture. From a marriage I have a lot of Chinese relatives and have actually learned quite a bit. And I worked in a Chinese Restaurant for two years.

One daughter had an internship in Costa Rico and she loved it. She wrote to Johns Hopkins U. and got them to let her study there the first semester of her Senior Year. Foreign study and experiences are great.

Good luck.”

“That's a good idea. That's the one really hard part about following a diet like this. It's easy to do at home, but if you have to depend on outside sources for your food it's not easy.”

“Oh and Stratdewd, it was my doctor who told me that it was my gallbladder that was inflamed. I had an ultrasound and catscan and no other problems were found. As long as I don't eat much of cheese (especially cheddar), beef or salami type foods, I am fine. A lot of my friends have had their gallbladders removed, so I feel fortunate that my problem was so easily controlled.”

“Silk chocolate soymilk..............o my god!! too heavy for the trail but...Smart Bacon is great for backpacking...made by Lightlife
miso soup is also great trailfood.”

“Well I put in an order to the Mail Order Catalog for some TVP chunks, flakes and soymilk. Some of the recipes from the site that Chili36 posted look really good, plus I got the okay to add the TVP granules to the taco ground beef that I make a lot for my family. My husband got some info from his parents and two siblings about high cholesterol and blood pressure that has him suddenly more interested in trying to change to more vegetables, more fiber and less saturated fat.”

“That's great Lyndy. I've been doing business with them for many years now. They have good vegan food some I couldn't find elsewhere, like the TVP chunks. Try marinating them in the Tofu steak recipe.”

“I got an email from the Mail Order Cat that they shipped my order this monday and it would be here in about 4 business days. Yesterday I made a bean soup with navy beans, tomato paste, miso paste and Mori Nu tofu and it was great. My husband even loved it.

Today I found a book in the new book section of the library by Dr. Barry Sears called "The Soy Zone" which has some great recipes and other info about getting your lipid levels and body fat to good numbers. A lot of good lifestyle info about eating whole fruits and veggies and keeping your blood insulin levels down by eating less refined carbs.”

“Sounds like some good stuff, Lyndy.”

“mmmm...I love the TVP on the trail. Its a great lightweight source of protein and rehydrates well.
I have stirred it into a tomato sauce and it makes a good spicy "meat" sauce over pasta.
Dare might digress...
:o)”

“Okay, I got my order from the Mail Order Catalog and I might have over-ordered just a tad. It looks like enough food to last a family of four through a second great depression!

I've been cooking, and the TVP in spagetti sauce is great. Ground beef-like taco TVP using salsa came out great too. I need to learn how to use the soymilk powder. We'll see how it goes.

What was interesting is that the TVP is made out of soy flour. The soy milk looks very much like soy flour. I'm still a little confused about this stuff.

The Barry Sears book, the Soy Zone is really good, if you get past the nagging suspicion that he was sponsored by a large agricultural conglomerate that is looking to create a bigger market for it's already prepared processed tofu products like Harvest and Morningstar brand.

So I'm going to do the Soy Zone diet and see what's what. Basically it is a cut back on processed carbs, as well as eating small amounts of whole grains, but eat large quantities of low-carb vegetables and eat 70 grams of soy protein (for women)each day. He promotes eating protein (fish, lean meat, soy, or eggs) at every meal or snack, along with a similar number of grams of carbs and a few grams of healthy fat. Everytime you eat, the food should be balanced so that your insulin is within a good range.

Too much insulin will cause you to be fat, and will cause damage over time to your body. This last part reads just like Atkins. I lost a lot of weight on the Atkins diet a year before I got sick with the Lyme disease. The fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue that came with it was an immune overresponse that can be calmed by reducing animal protein. So I cut back on the meat, the pain subsided, but the weight piled on. What I should have done is added more vegetables, not starchy food. So I will try this and see how it goes.”

“Good luck with it Lyndy. I heard that too about the the immune response reaction with animal protein. TVP has an indefinite shelf life so whatever you ordered it won't go bad.”

“What do you call the name of those people who feed of hypochondria? Oh yeah, corporate America!”

“Keys Words I Hear in LyndyS's message:

over-ordered
what is interesting...
I'm still a little confused
nagging suspicion
Promotes, everytime, should, cut back, more vegetables

I could have told you that and saved you the money.”

“How helpful BPT?
I think I smell a troll.”

“What money are you going to save me? I took the book out of the library. And the soy I ordered is very inexpensive. I smell an ill-informed troll.”

“And we both know what this particular troll smells like (the name is a dead give away from those of you who are up wind).”

“Looks like a troll has landed on this thread.”

“Just trying to make you see a point.
Do you have fibromyalgia LyndyS? I say that because I happen to know that the medical community thinks fibermyalgia patients suck resources out of the medical system and take money away from patients with REAL medical problems. Fibermyalgia is a catch diagnosis for 'can't find anything really wrong.' The patient complains of pain when there are no diagnosable reasons for it. Most people with fibermyalgia really need pschychiatric help.”

“And yes, I'm a troll. so what”

“I haven't used any medical resources for fybromyalgia because I believe that the medical community cannot cure it. But I can cure it myself. And you are obviously an insurance industry idiot.”

“What, nothing to say to that? Where is your "proof" that fibromyalgia is a "psychiatric condition"? In reality it is an immune system condition and has very real, medically measurable symptoms, like swollen knees and elbows that don't relate to an injury or arthitis. But there is no medicine for it, and no reason to see doctors and use "medical resources that others need" for it. All that is required is exercise and proper nutrition.”

“I know a woman with fibromyalgia. She lives in a van. She went to the emergency room one weekend, complaining about her nonspecific pain. They ran several expensive tests on her and could find nothing wrong with her. While there was no real reason to admit her (no medical emergency), the emergency room staff admitted her, gave her valium (for free, normally she would have to pay for it) and a room to sleep in for 2 days. This is VERY expensive and takes a hosital bed away from someone who is really sick and could use it. A couple days later she showed up in her regular doctor's office complaining of neck pain. She said the doctor's in the emergency room had hurt her and she wanted her regular doctor to assist her in bringing a lawsuit against the emergency room doctors.

Fibromyalgia is a huge problem and it DOES take resources away from patients with REAL medical problems. The reason why there are doctors specifically for it is because most doctors don't want to deal with these people. They aren't really sick. They are enabled by the system to act sick for attention, disability, and social reasons. How a know this? You could probably guess.

I am not saying YOU have this problem. But it is a huge problem in the medical community.”

“You are confusing a medical reality with people who latch onto a condition to get attention. There are many people who use other condition names for the same reasons, like back injuries. The insurance industry makes an effort to discredit all people claiming a back injury, just because some people use this condition as an excuse to not work. But you chose to lambast me, someone you don't know, just because I have a diagnosis that you have a negative experience with. That is wrong, and you should admit it.”

“Backpackersthrone? Would that be an outhouse or a cat-hole?”

“Backpackersthrone, thanks for clarifying that you didn't mean what you said towards LyndyS personally. I happen to know her personally and she's a very credible and honest person.”

“Just for the record, the local hospital here just laid people off because they have don't have enough patients.”

“Wow Rich, that does seem strange. There have been ads on the radio in NJ about a medical malpractice insurance crisis where doctors can't get the insurance or can't afford it. I don't know how much of it is true but it sounds a bit ominous, like we will have a shortage of physicians if it is real.

The soy diet seems to work great, except for the gas. I hope that my body adjusts. Do you have the recipe for making the chicken tender type stuff out of the tvp chunks? I have the marinade part but I forget the part where you form it into a shape and bake it.”

“The malpractice is abig issue here and it's one of the worst parts of the country for that right now. Some doctors have closed and others are threatening to close. My orthropedic doctor being one of them which really stinks. Others are not taking new patients or doing risky procedures.
I don't form the tvp chunks, but just marinade them and brown them in a frying pan. You can try to lightly coat a cookie sheet and bake them a bit. I make a herbed loaf out of the granules that comes out pretty good. It stays together well mixed with instant gluten flour.”

“That herbed loaf is about the only thing I form and and bake with TVP. You need the instant gluten flour to make it otherwise it will not stay together. Although if you eat eggs you could use those and accomplish the same thing. If you want the recipe let me know. I don't always bake it and sometimes make burgers out of it that are just as good if not better.”

“I'm the wife who drinks soy all the time. Silk Vanilla for me. Yummy. I make Soy Latte every morning. It's enriched with calcium, so it's got the same as cow milk. I also eat Soy yougurt in the afternoon (harder to find). Tastes the same as cow stuff.

I think being Veganeese is way harder that Vegetarian if you are hardcore about reading lables to avoid all the "hydronated-animal-product-gobbledygook" out there.

And the troll is full of hooey on many levels. I am financial operations analyst at our local hospital. If the woman was living in her car, more than likely she had no insurance and was a self-pay, which means we just wrote it off and she just made some doc richer still. She coulda been on medicaid, but they pay what they are gonna pay and we write the rest off. Not that big a deal. That's how we operate....so to speak (hee, hee). As for taking someone elses bed...that's crap too. If we are full, we just divert to the hospital down the street. No big deal. Any we wouldn't send anyone if it would jepardize their health. I don't see a problem with treating the poor woman.

And YOU, my dear troll have obviously never suffered joint pain! I had Rocky Mtn Spotted Tick Disease a couple years ago. Had it when I was a child, too. Have always have mild joint pain, but this last bout really kicked it in. Tested neg for Lupus and Fibro, but pos for Rheumatoid. All auto-immune diseases, all related, and the all STINK. NO FUN AT ALL.

By the way, I have no idea what a troll is....an imposter? I can see that they are just a little jaded and cynical, eh?”

“Well then welcome, BuffaloBabe. I'm sorry for being abrupt before but it gets old having people comment on how we talk about everything, not just backpacking. We really like it that way.

I'm glad that you tested negative for Lupus, that is one scary illness. I tested positive for it a year ago. Then I had to wait 3 months to see a rheumatologist about it ('cause I had an HMO and therefore was next to dirt). The doc was an idiot and I went back to the GP and told her that I didn't want any more tests or rheumatologists and was just going to deal with it myself. I have a traditional insurance now, and so far feel really healthy, just some swollen elbows occasionally. Just want to lose 20 lbs.

When I first got sick, I became all out of sorts physically and mentally, and had serious insomnia. That woman in the van could have fibro AND mental illness, because her chemistry is unbalanced by an illness.

A troll is someone who wants to dis someone or stir up trouble but doesn't want everyone to know that it is them so they make up a second (or hundreth) persona.

Rich, yes I would like that recipe for the herbed loaf. I can't use the gluten flour so I'll have to use the egg or some other egg alternative. Thanks for the help. Also I found a great recipe website www.allrecipes.com”

“Also I found a horseradish sauce to perk up Nayonaise that has no animal products in it. It is an obscure polish brand. I can send it to people if they are interested. I have one to give to Rich when I see him next.”

“Herbed Loaf
Serves 8 (16-18 slices)
Mix in a large bowl:
3 cups of TVP granules
2 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp. basil

Let stand for 10 minutes.
Microwave for 2 minutes on high or saute until soft:
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Add onions to the rehydrated TVP and stir in:
1 cup instant gluten flour or 3/4 unbleached or whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. each garlic powder, oregano and marjoram
1/2 cup parsley, finely minced

Lightly oil a loaf or bread pan and pack mixture in tightly, smoothing top. Bake 350 degrees about 45 minutes. If loaf begins to get too brown on top, cover with foil. After removing from oven, let stand in pan 10 minutes, then run a knife round edges to loosen and turn loaf out on to platter. Loaf can be served with Tomato sauce or mushroom gravy

Per serving: Calories: 196, Protein: 24 grams, Carbs: 21 grams, Fat: 4 grams”