The Trouble with Soy
Food allergies are no fun....and can sometimes be difficult to figure out...
Yesterday,I was incredibly ill. Intense stomach pain, incredible headache--so much so that I couldn't complete an important essay and get out a critical email (some of that also has to do with a problematic wireless connetion, but that's a differernt story.)
I really didn't eat all that much--some cereal for breakfast, an egg,
soup for lunch, a treat from the bakery, and coffee. I thought that maybe I hadn't slept enough the night before, or I was coming down with a bug of some sort.
Until I looked at the ingredients in the soup. Progresso's Chickarina (an old fave) has soy protein in the meatballs and soy oil in the soup. And I'm allergic to soy.
My food allergies though don't take on the usual symtoms. I don't need an epi-pen, don't have to worry about aniphilactic shock. For me, it's crippling stomach pain, serious acid reflux, gas, bloating, headache, sometimes itchy/burning welts, and hair loss. Antacids like Zantac can help slow the reaction and make some of the pain go away--sometime just enough for me to be able to function.
The food allergies are new-or at least I'm paying attention to them now because of their intensity (the pain can be wicked unbearable.) I forget about the pain though, or can't pinpoin what it is that I've eaten, and I'm so used to being in pain most of the time, that I then forget to do something about it.
So far, I've narrowed down the allergies to four culprits: soy, canola, eggs, and strawberries. I never had a problem with eggs--that I was aware of--but yesterday I noticed after I had my morning egg that my stomach started to bother me. I don't know if it's how the egg was cooked, or if it's *just* eggs. I've known about the soy for years. Soy inhibits the absobtion of medications for hypothyroid (bet you didn't know that!) and can also effect T3/T4 absobtion in people who don't have thyroid trouble. This is an un-discussed effect of soy--but it's out there in medical publications. Many doctors don't know about it because most don't spend that much time with hypothyroid patients other than to rubber-stamp their medication perscriptions (at least that's what happens with me.)
Soy, unfortunately, is becoming a common food additive. It's seen as "healthy" even though there are many people who are violently allergic to it (a friend's small son is also highly allergic to soy and eggs.) So, when I finally read the soup can, and saw how much soy was in my favorite soup, I realized that I can no longer eat my favorite soup unless I wanted to deal with being incredibly ill afterward.
As a baby, I was lactose intolerant and was raised on one of the first soy formulas. Odd how that's switched--no problems with milk at all.
The other two allergens have their own effects: the eggs give me wicked nasty acid reflux and the canola usually gives me huge, painful, itchy, burn-y hives on the back of my hand, my arm or leg. Strawberries give me hives on the back of my neck, and my hair falls out in handfulls.
Canola's going to become an increasing problem for me, too, as the ban on trans-fats continues and restaurants look for "healthy" alternatives. Two of those healthy alternatives are soy and canola oils. Restaurants can use corn, sunflower, safflower and other oils, but the decision on which oil to use will always come down to cost. And if soy and canola growers can produce their crops cheaper than corn and the others, then that's what's going to get used...
and I'm going to get sick. A lot.
It's hard for me to assert myself and ask what sorts of oils are used. I don't like to bother people with my health problems. Sometimes the waitstaff doesn't know, and I can get the exasperated heavy sigh because they have to go in the kitchen and find out about the oil. Then I have to determine what I can possibly eat. Somtimes that ends up eliminating most of the menu. My safest bet is usually the salad with a grilled chicken breast--then again, many salad dressings contain soy, and the chicken breasts are processed with soy (did you know that many fast-food chicken breasts are re-formulated and re-processed with fillers like soy?? that's why they always look so uniform.)
I'm surprised the amount of soy in soup. I don't like to eat big, heavy lunches all the time, and my favorite lunch is soup. So, I'm going to invest in a good stock pot and make my own soups. I'll freeze what I don't use right away which will give me a nice supply of lunches. But that takes time...
Still, if putting the time into making soup is going to keep me out of serious, intense, debilitating pain (I even had chills yesterday--no, it wasn't a virus. I've had chills like that before from allergic reactions) I'm just going to have to spend the time making soup.
Thank goodness I'm not allergic to my favorites: coffee, good wine, steak, nice fresh fruit.
At least not that I know of.
That's the trouble with food allergies--lots of doctors won't do the "scratch test." There's the expectation that you'll determine it yourself by elimination. But when the allergen is a food additive, it's difficult to determine what, exactly, it is in a prepared food that is causing the allergic reaction. I've been relatively lucky to have figured out the soy and canola problems (the canola reaction happens happens within minutes.) But I guess I'm going to have to suffer, and keep popping Zantac, until I figure out every item that's an allergen.
Wow. Eating just got more complicated. What a pain. Literally.
I'm off to a holiday party tonight--one of the business orgs I've got (loosely) involved with--and I'm dreadding all the little things on the buffet table. I'll have to look at each one carefully, and carry some Zantac with me. Just life I guess.
Yesterday,I was incredibly ill. Intense stomach pain, incredible headache--so much so that I couldn't complete an important essay and get out a critical email (some of that also has to do with a problematic wireless connetion, but that's a differernt story.)
I really didn't eat all that much--some cereal for breakfast, an egg,
soup for lunch, a treat from the bakery, and coffee. I thought that maybe I hadn't slept enough the night before, or I was coming down with a bug of some sort.
Until I looked at the ingredients in the soup. Progresso's Chickarina (an old fave) has soy protein in the meatballs and soy oil in the soup. And I'm allergic to soy.
My food allergies though don't take on the usual symtoms. I don't need an epi-pen, don't have to worry about aniphilactic shock. For me, it's crippling stomach pain, serious acid reflux, gas, bloating, headache, sometimes itchy/burning welts, and hair loss. Antacids like Zantac can help slow the reaction and make some of the pain go away--sometime just enough for me to be able to function.
The food allergies are new-or at least I'm paying attention to them now because of their intensity (the pain can be wicked unbearable.) I forget about the pain though, or can't pinpoin what it is that I've eaten, and I'm so used to being in pain most of the time, that I then forget to do something about it.
So far, I've narrowed down the allergies to four culprits: soy, canola, eggs, and strawberries. I never had a problem with eggs--that I was aware of--but yesterday I noticed after I had my morning egg that my stomach started to bother me. I don't know if it's how the egg was cooked, or if it's *just* eggs. I've known about the soy for years. Soy inhibits the absobtion of medications for hypothyroid (bet you didn't know that!) and can also effect T3/T4 absobtion in people who don't have thyroid trouble. This is an un-discussed effect of soy--but it's out there in medical publications. Many doctors don't know about it because most don't spend that much time with hypothyroid patients other than to rubber-stamp their medication perscriptions (at least that's what happens with me.)
Soy, unfortunately, is becoming a common food additive. It's seen as "healthy" even though there are many people who are violently allergic to it (a friend's small son is also highly allergic to soy and eggs.) So, when I finally read the soup can, and saw how much soy was in my favorite soup, I realized that I can no longer eat my favorite soup unless I wanted to deal with being incredibly ill afterward.
As a baby, I was lactose intolerant and was raised on one of the first soy formulas. Odd how that's switched--no problems with milk at all.
The other two allergens have their own effects: the eggs give me wicked nasty acid reflux and the canola usually gives me huge, painful, itchy, burn-y hives on the back of my hand, my arm or leg. Strawberries give me hives on the back of my neck, and my hair falls out in handfulls.
Canola's going to become an increasing problem for me, too, as the ban on trans-fats continues and restaurants look for "healthy" alternatives. Two of those healthy alternatives are soy and canola oils. Restaurants can use corn, sunflower, safflower and other oils, but the decision on which oil to use will always come down to cost. And if soy and canola growers can produce their crops cheaper than corn and the others, then that's what's going to get used...
and I'm going to get sick. A lot.
It's hard for me to assert myself and ask what sorts of oils are used. I don't like to bother people with my health problems. Sometimes the waitstaff doesn't know, and I can get the exasperated heavy sigh because they have to go in the kitchen and find out about the oil. Then I have to determine what I can possibly eat. Somtimes that ends up eliminating most of the menu. My safest bet is usually the salad with a grilled chicken breast--then again, many salad dressings contain soy, and the chicken breasts are processed with soy (did you know that many fast-food chicken breasts are re-formulated and re-processed with fillers like soy?? that's why they always look so uniform.)
I'm surprised the amount of soy in soup. I don't like to eat big, heavy lunches all the time, and my favorite lunch is soup. So, I'm going to invest in a good stock pot and make my own soups. I'll freeze what I don't use right away which will give me a nice supply of lunches. But that takes time...
Still, if putting the time into making soup is going to keep me out of serious, intense, debilitating pain (I even had chills yesterday--no, it wasn't a virus. I've had chills like that before from allergic reactions) I'm just going to have to spend the time making soup.
Thank goodness I'm not allergic to my favorites: coffee, good wine, steak, nice fresh fruit.
At least not that I know of.
That's the trouble with food allergies--lots of doctors won't do the "scratch test." There's the expectation that you'll determine it yourself by elimination. But when the allergen is a food additive, it's difficult to determine what, exactly, it is in a prepared food that is causing the allergic reaction. I've been relatively lucky to have figured out the soy and canola problems (the canola reaction happens happens within minutes.) But I guess I'm going to have to suffer, and keep popping Zantac, until I figure out every item that's an allergen.
Wow. Eating just got more complicated. What a pain. Literally.
I'm off to a holiday party tonight--one of the business orgs I've got (loosely) involved with--and I'm dreadding all the little things on the buffet table. I'll have to look at each one carefully, and carry some Zantac with me. Just life I guess.
posted by Tish Grier at 7:37 AM
2 Comments:
God that sucks... I need to make more soup too... and freeze it because C doesn't like most soup. But I LOVE soup. Especially in winter. Have you done any researching into freezing soups? Are there certain things that freeze well and others that don't?
I know that beef and chicken soups freeze fairly well, as does corn chowder (and probably a few other chowders, too.) I'm going to have to look into the whole freezing soup thing to see if there's any (like maybe mushroom) that don't do well when frozen...
In winter I live on soup. Ingensitng warm things and wearing wool are ultimate to my winter survival. :_)
Post a Comment
<< Home