Soy-Free Food Recommendations?

Bunniato
Bunniato Posts: 17 Member
in Food and Nutrition
After 6 gruelling years of undiagnosed back pain and vomitting, I have finally discovered the source of my misery: soy intolerance.

Some websites have mentioned some foods that don't contain soy, but they really aren't exhaustive. I hate cooking, so I tend to buy prepackaged meals. Does anyone else have soy intolerance and knows what brands of, say, frozen TV dinners don't have soy in them? Or just anything that a broke college student can grab and eat easily. I'm basically living off of protein bars right now lol.

It's overwhelming when it feels like 90% of the foods I look at contain soy :(
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Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    I really have no idea what includes soy, but if it's really included in everything where you are (which country?) then your best bet is to learn to cook. Cooking overall doesn't take a lot of time and doesn't need to be complicated. Meat, fruit and veg are soy free, so are eggs, rice, likely pasta, couscous, and other things. To give you an idea: When I cook meals it never takes longer than 30 minutes, including prepping and logging. And usually a single pan (and a rice cooker) is all I need. For breakfast I mix oats with skyr, raising and fruit (and eat it cold, I'm weird). But a simple egg with bacon is also soyfree, unless the beasts were fed soy products and this ended up in the eggs/meat (check this). Then I just have a fairly ok brown bread with cheese or meat products. And various snacks, because snacks are a must.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,755 Member
    edited March 2023
    Bunniato wrote: »
    After 6 gruelling years of undiagnosed back pain and vomitting, I have finally discovered the source of my misery: soy intolerance.

    Some websites have mentioned some foods that don't contain soy, but they really aren't exhaustive. I hate cooking, so I tend to buy prepackaged meals. Does anyone else have soy intolerance and knows what brands of, say, frozen TV dinners don't have soy in them? Or just anything that a broke college student can grab and eat easily. I'm basically living off of protein bars right now lol.

    It's overwhelming when it feels like 90% of the foods I look at contain soy :(

    Check the organic brands, alot of them claim to be soy free. You're going to have to spend a boatload of money if you don't want to cook. I also highly recommend biting the bullet and cooking yourself. You can do it. Find simple meals that don't take much prep... stir fry's, pasta with whatever thrown in. You can do it.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited March 2023
    On the plus side, you've identified the problem, so now you can implement solutions :smiley:

    As you've discovered, many highly processed foods do contain soy, so the simplest solution is to eat less processed foods, which generally does mean biting the bullet and cooking.

    I read that you are a college student, but you didn't mention if you are living in a dorm or have access to a kitchen, frig, and freezer. If the later, consider batch cooking and freezing meals.

    One thing I do as a shortcut is to buy rotisserie chicken. I did some googling to see if this in general contains soy, and I see that Costco's does but Whole Food's does not, so you'll have to check your supermarket.

    Natural/organic brands will be more likely to not use soy. If your supermarket has a sections for these, it will make things easier. If not, get familiar with brands. Amy's Kitchen has over 72 soy-free prepared foods: https://www.amys.com/our-foods?search=soy+free&items=72 I see their soups and frozen foods in all my supermarkets. There are 201 (total) products near me. Check your supermarkets here: https://www.amys.com/where-to-buy

    If you like Asian food and want a soy sauce alternative, consider fish sauce. You may have to read labels. My brand, Squid, does not contain soy, nor does the first brand Amazon showed me, Red Boat, but I am not familiar with other brands.

    This is just here for an example; I never buy Asian food from Amazon; the mark up is appalling.

    https://www.amazon.com/Thai-Fish-Sauce-24-oz/dp/B001RMNAUM/
  • Bunniato
    Bunniato Posts: 17 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    I really have no idea what includes soy, but if it's really included in everything where you are (which country?) then your best bet is to learn to cook. Cooking overall doesn't take a lot of time and doesn't need to be complicated. Meat, fruit and veg are soy free, so are eggs, rice, likely pasta, couscous, and other things. To give you an idea: When I cook meals it never takes longer than 30 minutes, including prepping and logging. And usually a single pan (and a rice cooker) is all I need. For breakfast I mix oats with skyr, raising and fruit (and eat it cold, I'm weird). But a simple egg with bacon is also soyfree, unless the beasts were fed soy products and this ended up in the eggs/meat (check this). Then I just have a fairly ok brown bread with cheese or meat products. And various snacks, because snacks are a must.

    Honestly...Maybe this is somehow a blessing in disguise. I've never liked cooking, but I acknowledge that it'd be great for me if I did. But since it IS so difficult to find products without soy in them, this is a good excuse to force myself to cook even if I hate it.

    I'm in the US. "isolated soy proteins are used to emulsify fat and bind water, which keeps many products’ moistness without affecting other ingredients. Soy lecithin is often used in chocolate, margarine and cheeses to keep their ingredients from separating and clumping." - source

    I've only been searching foods for one day, but every product I've found that has more than 10 ingreidents includes soy in it! I've only been able to find non-soy products if they have only a few ingredients.

    @sollyn23l2 Thank you for your encouragement :) I'll try to start small and do easy meals
  • Bunniato
    Bunniato Posts: 17 Member
    @kshama2001 That was very helpful. Thank you! I'll keep organic products by my side :)
  • mnfva1
    mnfva1 Posts: 10 Member
    There are a several food brands out there that strive to be soy free (usually because they’re trying to avoid gluten and the top 8 allergens). I have a mild soy allergy so I try to limit my intake but I also have celiac so I can’t eat gluten therefore my foods are very specific. But if you want….
    Chocolate: enjoy life brands are soy free
    Cookies: enjoy life brand, simple mills brands
    General tso chicken- aldis has this delicious frozen chicken meal that is soy free (they have a brand called live g free that is free of the top 8 allergens including soy-cookies and this chicken is good, I’m not a fan of several of their other foods)
    Coconut aminos- if I want soy sauce I use this as my go to alternative.
    There are lots of soy free products out there but as one of the above posters said they tend to be more expensive as they are specialty products. Do you have a Kroger in your area? I find they tend to carry a lot of the soy free brands at a slightly cheaper price than other stores.

    At the end of the day if you learn to cook you will be better off. If you are cooking you do have to careful of some odd things..for instance most cooking sprays have soy lethician in them. There are some that don’t (I’ve found an avocado based one and coconut based on that don’t). Try to get 100% real butter as margarines or I can’t believe it’s not butter tend to have soy.

    Also, I don’t know if this will present an issue for you (if does for some and not others-it does not for me) but most chickens in the U.S are raised on soy based foods so there are people who react really badly to soy cannot eat chicken. I think you have to have an extreme allergy for this to be the case.
  • mnfva1
    mnfva1 Posts: 10 Member
    Also unreal has several chocolates (peanut butter bars and coconut bars) that are soy free. I think their version of m&m still contain soy.

    If you can’t tell I like sweet treats a lot.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,300 Member
    Soy is a B to avoid, especially if you have to fully avoid it (so no soy oil or soy lecithin).

    Pretty much any non organic non expensive frozen meals that contain meat will have soy. They use it as a filler to keep costs down.

    I had to totally avoid it for awhile and I ended up crying in the frozen foods section of the store because I just wanted a dang comfort meal. I was having a lot of pain so cooking was out of the question. I was depressed. It was not a good time.

    Luckily I have been able to add soy back in, though I do limit it and still avoid it as much as possible.

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