Reply #65: Not "massive" amounts of soy

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Soy has been part of East Asian diets for thousands of years, and we can assume that people who tolerate and utilize soy well have an evolutionary advantage there. Even so, they eat only limited amounts of unfermented soy.

An American infant fed on soy formula ingests far more unfermented soy than the typical Asian adult. An American vegan who drinks soy smoothies, eats soy hot dogs and soy cheese, and chomps on edamame as a snack is ingesting far more unfermented soy than the typical Asian.

I'm of European descent, and I found that I could not tolerate even a daily soy smoothie for more than a few weeks before I developed a sensitivity. The stuff gave me indigestion and caused all my mucus membranes to itch. No, it was not in my head, because I got the reaction even if I didn't know that soy was in a particular food or drink.

I didn't eat or drink any soy for about a year, and than I needed to go to Japan. I wondered what would happen when I encountered Japanese food, but I was fine. I ate miso soup (one teaspoon or tablespoon of miso in fish broth with a few squares of tofu floating in it) daily with no problems. Japanese cooks use soy sauce, but they don't drench the food in it, so again, no problem. I don't like natto, but that's fermented. Soy milk drinks are available in Japanese stores, but they don't seem to be a huge part of anyone's diet, since I've seen them only in "juice box" sized containers.

I spent 5 weeks in China twenty years ago, and we had a tofu-based meal ONCE. Again, soy sauce was a condiment, but it was sprinkled rather than poured.