Any Non Soy Vegans?

A few months before becoming vegan, I gave up soy because of the high estrogen content and possible thyroid complications . After doing my own research, I found that it is alright if I limit my consumption and only eat non-GMO, organic soy products.  I don't miss meat products, so I don't eat too many meat substitutes (although soy chorizo is awesome), and I definitely won't eat it at restaurants because it is likely to not be organic, and because of the high sodium content.

Any comments, questions, suggestions, agreements, etc?  I'd love to hear what others think about soy.  Are there any other vegans who don't eat soy products?

I had a hard time thinking that organic soy could be bad for you since it is a plant source.  Any plant source could be genetically altered and be horrible for you (high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, etc), and with our USDA lack of organic guidelines (that was my mini-rant! haha)

I'm actually trying your hemp 'sorbet' and I'll tell you if it works out.

I actually alternate between wheat gluten, nuts, legumes and beans because I really have to be careful about how much soy I eat. I go food shopping twice a month, and if I eat soy products for two weeks as a protein source, the rest of the month I eat legumes and beans to alternate, then gluten, then nut-based proteins [hemp, flax, walnuts, etc] in a cycle. It's been working out so far.

I find that I break out a little more when I eat a multitude of soy products [soy in every meal for two weeks] so I try to break it up. It's been working so far.  I would like to add that I eat non-GMO, organic soy products, if i can afford it, otherwise I do legumes because they are cheaper.

I'm also going to nitpick here a little about rosemariedias' soy products list and origins. Tempeh is actually Javanese, soy milk and tofu are chinese and I don't see a problem with eating them in moderation, but in the end, what you want to avoid is soy isolates and additives and to have variety in your meal choices [soy for one meal instead of multiple], so check your labels/get non-GMO soy products from a health food store if you can.

Also to the person concerned about Quorn, it's actually protein made of fungus, so you're okay if you wanna be soyfree vegetarian, but it's not suitable for vegans as it uses egg albumen and other animal by-products.

There's actually an organization [Cornucopia Institute] that measures whether products on the market are actually keeping to their non-GMO/organic claim and I encourage you to check it out: http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/05/soy-report- and-scorecard/
Also this thread on the veganism lj community might interest you as well:http://community.livejournal.com/veganism/144 9334.html

Good luck!

Hey,

I'm studying nutrition at college, but we have only really gone over the basics of soy so far. We have learned that it's usually estrogen modulating, not necessarily estrogen enhancing, but it does depend on the person. Peoples constitutions are all different, so no one can say soy is bad for everybody, or good for everybody.

There are a range of foods that affect the thyroid, not just soy. Isoflavones are in a lot of foods. So if someone has an underactive thyroid, they should avoid those kinds of foods. But I have heard of people with overactive thyroids being treated with these foods.

Infants are most at risk when it comes to soy, since they have only just begun to develop. I would never feed a baby soy formula, but I would also never feed a baby cow's milk either.

I don't think soy is harmful if it's consumed as part of a diet that contains a wide variety of foods. I think eating it at every meal is definitely a bad idea, but I would love to see a long term trial on people that eat it every day & at almost every meal. Who knows, the long term effects might be nothing. But I wouldn't eat ANY food at every single meal. Our bodies aren't designed to thrive on repetitive diets.

I eat some tempeh, but once a day absolute max, and I may have a glass of soy milk. But otherwise, I try and get my protein from other sources. I agree with you that natural & organic is always best. I would never take soy supplements, soy isolates or GM foods. I think you will be fine so long as you don't eat excessive amounts of soy. I personally stick to tempeh because it's not as processed as tofu, and it's the whole beans...

I hope I did not offend any Japanese or Chinese by saying that soy was traditionally eaten fermented by the Japanese.  Good luck with everything.