too much soy!

i am trying to cut down on my soy intake. any advice? i have switched to almond milk but am still eating soy yogurt, and then with soy cheese and a textured protein product i feel like it's just too much soy!

what are your soy alternatives?

Whoops, just noticed this is the Vegetarian forum. Heh. Okay, I'm going to presume you are vegan. You could try nut or rice cheeses, I've heard they're alright. For milks, oat milk is really quite tasty. Beans and lentils always make good meat substitutes.

EDIT: http://www.galaxyfoods.com/ourbrands/usa/rice .asp <-- Rice cheese!

I should add, too, it doesn't hurt to take in a lot of soy as long as you're balancing it out with other foods too. I eat a lot of soy products because I am lactose intolerant but in the UK, where non-soy lactose free alternatives are not so readily available. I just make sure to even things out with a well rounded, varied intake. :D

This might be useful: http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/search/labe l/soy%20controversy

there is a good coconut milk yogurt out there for a vegan alternative to soy yogurt.

you could eat seitan (wheat gluten) which has a nice meaty texture and you can buy it premade in most health food stores. also things like nut butters, grains such as quinoa, as well as chickpeas and other beans are good ways to get some non-soy proteins in your diet.

also, if you are going to eat soy, i'd suggest maybe you get less processed soy, like tempeh, tofu, or edamame.  there are some baked and seasoned tofu products out there that are quite delicious, since it seems you like the convenience of pre-made soy foods.

I have drastically cut down my soy intake.  My former steady consumption of soy products caused an increase of pimples in my t-zone and mid-cycle breast tenderness.  I really do believe that the phytoestrogens in soy can have negative effects on our hormones if soy is consumed excessively, and I know that my hormones tend to be a little out of whack as it is!

I still eat tofu 1x-2x week and some tempeh here and there, but otherwise I try to mostly avoid soy.

I use almond milk or hemp milk instead of soy milk (not a fan of rice milk), and hazelnut milk is really tasty but a little high in sugar so I don't often buy it. 

The coconut milk yogurt that apricotginger mentioned is to die for!!!  It is called So Delicious and my favorite flavors are blueberry, passionate mango, and plain.

You can search the internet for cheezy sauces made with nutritional yeast, and more solid cheese substitutes made with different nuts such as cashews and almonds.  I keep meaning to look through a copy of The Uncheese Cookbook!  I do buy Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet on very rare occasion but have learned to live w/o cheese substitutes in most occasions (or again, just whip up some nutri yeast cheezy sauce).

I don't do too well with gluten/seitan; it usually gives me a stomach ache and I feel grouchy and lethargic afterwards.  I eat a lot of beans, whole grains, nuts, and fruit & vegetables.  I try to keep my diet simple and minimally processed for the most part. 

You can also find recipes to make your own soy-free black bean veggie burgers which don't contain as much processed ingredients and gluten as, say, a Boca burger.

As Lexabear pointed out, too much soy can negatively affect a woman's hormones.  (don't know about men)  I was drinking about 2.5 cups of soy milk a day for cereal and coffee.  (I find rice milk to be too thin for my coffee, would be OK I guess for cereal)  But, to make it so I only have to buy one product, I started using Almond milk.  I need to go to the plain, though, because the vanilla is too high in sugar.  A close friend had breast cancer last summer, and when whe heard how much soy I eat, she warned me to get off of it.  Now I think that, if I just don't have the daily milk consumption, whatever else I might eat with soy should be OK. 

I do like the Rice Dream rice milk, and would highly recommend it for cereal and stuff.  Will be looking into that oat milk.  Sounds good! 

A word of warning, some people cannot tolerate a lot of wheat (seitan).  While I LOVE seitan, I have tried to not buy it much as I have done a lot of research which says that more people have a mild intolerance than you would think.  This can cause weight gain!!!  You might not feel sick when you eat it, but it could be doing bad things to you.  I have a close friend who lost about 70 lbs by just cutting out wheat!!  Just try and stay away from processed foods.  If you like bread, look for that dense German bread.  No wheat and it's very good.  I was thinking last night that I might create a recipe for a spread to put on top of this bread.  Maybe something like finely diced bell peppers, onion, cilantro, and tomatoes mixed with a teaspoon of flax oil.  I will post again to let you all know how it comes out.

Hiya! Here's a thought that's a follow up to the vegan lunchbox link ... instead of finding soy product alternatives, maybe consider not consuming too many dairy or meat substitutes. Don't get me wrong, they're fine now and then and very helpful for transitioning to a vegetarian style of eating. But most are highly processed products, often have tons of sodium and at least IMO tend to be lackluster in taste/quality.

Please keep in mind too that not all soy is created equal - if it doesn't say organic, it's almost a given to be GMO and chemically farmed.

Focusing on whole, unrefined foods has a beauty and simplicity, not to mention great nutritional benefits. With adequate calorie consumption there's no problem with protein for the average person, so we don't have to mimic the mainstream diet heavy in animal foods.

An eating style with lots of veggies, especially green leafy ones (raw and cooked), several fruits, beans/legumes and small amounts of nuts/seeds and starchy veg or whole grains packs the most nutrient dense punch. Those are my soy alternatives! I do eat edamame, and occasionally tempeh or tofu.

I would like to second the last post.  Try to get away from "meat replacements" and go for as many WHOLE foods as you can, foods in their natural state.  Proceesed veggie food is still processed, albeit sometimes less so.  And definitely check that soy products are non-GMO (genetically modified).  This is very important with soy since soybeans happen to be one of the things most often grown genetically modified.  You should stay away from GMOs at ALL COSTS - except starving, of course. 

Hi, acarr! :)

I, too, wanted to cut down on soy...as a vegan, I noticed that I was relying too heavily on it. I noticed mostly because of my acne- I think that either I was allergic to soy, or it was messing with my hormones because I had the WORST acne of my life.

To take away my dependence on soy, I started focusing on eating other things, rather than focusing on making sure I was getting enough protein. I ate breads with oats and other grains, quinoa, LOTS of veggies, almond milk (which you've already done :D), seitan in place of tofu, lots of nuts, more fruit, and potatoes.

Rather than finding replacements for the soy cheese and yogurt items, you could simply cut down on your consumption of them and try other thngs! If you're worried about protein, don't stress too much- you'll find that there is protein in a lot of other foods as well. :-)