Strange soy intolerance - can you help?

May 8, 2007

Apologies if you've read this elsewhere - I'm cross-posting to a

number of relevant Vegan forums.

I've been a vegan for 7 years now. I discovered early on that I had

some sort of intolerance to soy " dairy " products, but not to other

forms of soy. The intolerance takes the form of a tingling of the

tongue and back of the throat ranging from barely noticeable to

almost causing me to choke.

Foods that cause this reaction, in descending order of severity are:

Soy milk

Soy cream

Soy custard

Soy ice-cream

Soy milk is sufficiently bad that the amount needed for whitening a

cup of tea can cause a very bad reaction. Soy ice-cream (Swedish

Glace, Tofutti) at the other end of the scale sometimes causes no

reaction at all and at worst gives me a slight tickle in the back of

the throat.

Conversely, it appears I can eat the following until it comes out of

my ears with no reaction at all:

Tofu

Tempeh

Soy sauce (all types)

Miso

Black bean sauce

Soy flour

TVP

Wide variety of soy " cheeses " (e.g. Scheese, Cheezly, Tofutti " cream

cheese " )

Products including soy and soy derivatives (e.g. Cheatin' chicken,

veggie sausages etc.)

Finally, I haven't tested this thoroughly, but anecdotal evidence

seems to suggest that thoroughly cooking the soy dairy products

removes whatever it is that causes the problem (so I can do lasagne

using soy cream without problems, for instance).

Up to now, this hasn't caused me a major headache as I've just used

rice milk instead of soy, however I'm currently trying to rebalance

my diet to decrease carbohydrates and increase protein. Being able

to drink soy milk instead of rice milk would help with this.

So has anyone else had this problem or have any idea of what's

causing it? If so, do you have any advice for (UK) brands of soy

milk that might be OK?

Cheers,

Matthew

May 8, 2007

Hi Matthew -

Welcome to Vegan UK.

Your soya intolerance problem is interesting. I wonder if it could

actually be some other ingredient that is commonly used in soya-based

products, e.g. carrageenan ?

Paul

On 8 May 2007, at 10:14, Matthew Faupel wrote:

> Apologies if you've read this elsewhere - I'm cross-posting to a

> number of relevant Vegan forums.

>

> I've been a vegan for 7 years now. I discovered early on that I had

> some sort of intolerance to soy " dairy " products, but not to other

> forms of soy. The intolerance takes the form of a tingling of the

> tongue and back of the throat ranging from barely noticeable to

> almost causing me to choke.

>

> Foods that cause this reaction, in descending order of severity are:

>

> Soy milk

> Soy cream

> Soy custard

> Soy ice-cream

>

> Soy milk is sufficiently bad that the amount needed for whitening a

> cup of tea can cause a very bad reaction. Soy ice-cream (Swedish

> Glace, Tofutti) at the other end of the scale sometimes causes no

> reaction at all and at worst gives me a slight tickle in the back of

> the throat.

>

> Conversely, it appears I can eat the following until it comes out of

> my ears with no reaction at all:

>

> Tofu

> Tempeh

> Soy sauce (all types)

> Miso

> Black bean sauce

> Soy flour

> TVP

> Wide variety of soy " cheeses " (e.g. Scheese, Cheezly, Tofutti " cream

> cheese " )

> Products including soy and soy derivatives (e.g. Cheatin' chicken,

> veggie sausages etc.)

>

> Finally, I haven't tested this thoroughly, but anecdotal evidence

> seems to suggest that thoroughly cooking the soy dairy products

> removes whatever it is that causes the problem (so I can do lasagne

> using soy cream without problems, for instance).

>

> Up to now, this hasn't caused me a major headache as I've just used

> rice milk instead of soy, however I'm currently trying to rebalance

> my diet to decrease carbohydrates and increase protein. Being able

> to drink soy milk instead of rice milk would help with this.

>

> So has anyone else had this problem or have any idea of what's

> causing it? If so, do you have any advice for (UK) brands of soy

> milk that might be OK?

>

> Cheers,

>

> Matthew

>

May 8, 2007

Thanks. I've considered that, but I don't think it's the cause;

pretty much everything listed as ingredients in soy milk I've had in

other products without problems (e.g. carrageenan is used in the

vegan cheeses).

I know tofu is made from soy milk, so one possibility I was wondering

about was whether it was some component of soy that was filtered out

or neutralised by the curdling process. This might also explain why

I'm OK with the " cheeses " , if they're made in a similar manner. I

don't know enough about the composition of soy or the curdling

process to be sure though.

Cheers,

Matthew

, Paul Russell <prussell wrote:

>

> Hi Matthew -

>

> Welcome to Vegan UK.

>

> Your soya intolerance problem is interesting. I wonder if it could

> actually be some other ingredient that is commonly used in soya-

based

> products, e.g. carrageenan ?

>

> Paul

>

> On 8 May 2007, at 10:14, Matthew Faupel wrote:

>

> > Apologies if you've read this elsewhere - I'm cross-posting to a

> > number of relevant Vegan forums.

> >

> > I've been a vegan for 7 years now. I discovered early on that I

had

> > some sort of intolerance to soy " dairy " products, but not to other

> > forms of soy. The intolerance takes the form of a tingling of the

> > tongue and back of the throat ranging from barely noticeable to

> > almost causing me to choke.

> >

> > Foods that cause this reaction, in descending order of severity

are:

> >

> > Soy milk

> > Soy cream

> > Soy custard

> > Soy ice-cream

> >

> > Soy milk is sufficiently bad that the amount needed for whitening

a

> > cup of tea can cause a very bad reaction. Soy ice-cream (Swedish

> > Glace, Tofutti) at the other end of the scale sometimes causes no

> > reaction at all and at worst gives me a slight tickle in the back

of

> > the throat.

> >

> > Conversely, it appears I can eat the following until it comes out

of

> > my ears with no reaction at all:

> >

> > Tofu

> > Tempeh

> > Soy sauce (all types)

> > Miso

> > Black bean sauce

> > Soy flour

> > TVP

> > Wide variety of soy " cheeses " (e.g. Scheese, Cheezly,

Tofutti " cream

> > cheese " )

> > Products including soy and soy derivatives (e.g. Cheatin' chicken,

> > veggie sausages etc.)

> >

> > Finally, I haven't tested this thoroughly, but anecdotal evidence

> > seems to suggest that thoroughly cooking the soy dairy products

> > removes whatever it is that causes the problem (so I can do

lasagne

> > using soy cream without problems, for instance).

> >

> > Up to now, this hasn't caused me a major headache as I've just

used

> > rice milk instead of soy, however I'm currently trying to

rebalance

> > my diet to decrease carbohydrates and increase protein. Being

able

> > to drink soy milk instead of rice milk would help with this.

> >

> > So has anyone else had this problem or have any idea of what's

> > causing it? If so, do you have any advice for (UK) brands of soy

> > milk that might be OK?

> >

> > Cheers,

> >

> > Matthew

> >

>

May 9, 2007

Hi Matthew

Have you checked that the soy products which cause you problems are

completely free of dairy? For some reason, some brands of soy products still

use casine and lactose. I've never quite understood why, but that could be

the cause of the problem. Even if not, check the ingredients, and see if

there's a common one that could be the cause of the problem.

BB