The Need to Change
Have you ever felt your life change in an instant, the deep, almost shocking realization that something you have just seen or heard or understood or experienced means a permanent change in the pattern of a lifetime ?
I had this experience recently when watching a NZ television program about cruelty in the treatment of bobby calves. The brutality of some individuals who deserve no better treatment themselves was not the main issue for me … New Zealanders do not support the ill treatment of animals once they are aware of it For me the revelation was the fundamental issue of what it takes to produce cow’s milk for human consumption on a commercial scale, the definition of ill treatment. Kiwis are all aware of the importance and relevance of the rural industries, but I had never been aware until that disturbing instant, that the basis of commercial milk production was the forced insemination of the herd of dairy cows, maintaining a cycle of regular pregnancy, birth, and immediate forced and permanent separation of the bobby calf from the mother, making it possible for the mother’s milk to be marketed for mass human consumption. That has to be an extremely traumatic experience for the mother and the calf. I can no longer ask anyone to do that for me.
Leaving aside the issues of significance to the New Zealand economy , and even questions of the consumption of animal products generally, I turned my attention to the immediate elimination of dairy products from my diet.
Calcium and Protein Equivalence
The obvious choice was soy milk. The first concern about losing the nutritional benefits of cow’s milk was alleviated quickly. Soy milk is fortified particularly with calcium, some products having more than cow’s milk, and has benefits of its own … it is a complete protein (contains all the amino acids we must get from our diet), a real benefit in a plant food. Many products have the same protein level as cow’s milk (3.2 gms / 100 ml ). Soy has a mildly lowering effect on LDL cholesterol. Initially this was enough to convince me that as I believe my diet is good, switching to soy milk would be a nutritionally safe move. In addition, some products at least are equivalent to cow’s milk in Vitamin B2, B12, D.
The first negative conclusion was that soy produced a completely different taste result in tea from cow’s milk. I found myself with a reduced desire for tea,. Despite having almost identical protein and carbohydrate levels as cow’s milk, soy milk seems to satisfy more as a food than just an accompanying liquid, meaning my appetite for it is limited. This is beneficial when recommended daily amounts are considered below.
Soy Taste Evaluations
The second consideration was that the thought of Soy did not excite me. I had previously had tofu in my diet and had made it tasty through simmering in tomato / basil / soy sauce, but drinking it? So the first product I tried was So Good Almond Milk. The taste was pleasant, a definite almond taste (and what a great flavor almond is – many years ago I enjoyed Amoretto, Almond liquer)) – despite having only 3% almond content. But this was nothing like Amoretto, it is more like Almond water than Almond milk. So Good Regular(Sanitarium) is a good white colour, has a good milk flavor … but this became the problem. Flavour is added, and it came to taste like that, an imitation flavor that didn’t quite get there. It has only 3.5% soy content, possibly making added flavor necessary. The same flavor comment applies to the Vitasoy products Original, which has good soy content at 17% minimum (with no malt flavor despite listing barley malt as an ingredient), and Soy Milky (14% minimum soy content). Vita Soy Coconut Milk was pleasant, a thick texture and creamy taste, enjoyable on my cereal especially when mixed with a soy product to help cut down the high fat content 20 gms / 100 ml, but I don’t want the taste of coconut so prominently in my diet. It has added flavour also, perhaps un necessary in this one. It is based on an 8% content of coconut cream. I had become so used to cow’s milk as an accompaniment that the taste of it was neutral for me. I am looking for a replacement that my body can adjust to in the same way, and coconut is not it or me. Neither is Vita Soy Oat Milk, the oat / tapioca taste not sitting well. Oat Milk is also low in protein (only 1 gm / 100 ml ) and is relatively high in carbohydrate at 11.8 gms / 100 ml. I did not initially consider Rice Milk. I have a well established aversion to soggy glutinous rice products since an unpleasant disagreement with a Rice Pudding when a child..
MyTaste … My First Choice. Vitasoy Calci Plus
After all this, I really enjoyed the Vitasoy product Calci Plus. This has no added flavor, has good soy bean content at 15% minimum, and a good fllavour from pearl barley, barley malt and raw sugar – I have always preferred the taste of raw sugar over refined white sugar and so I have come to like it in tea as well, Calci Plus works very well on my cereal, I am enjoying it more than the previous combination of cow’s milk topped with a little cream, which had come to taste too rich. I was actually wanting a change from that anyway. Calci Plus has a light brown colour and a creamy taste, it is nice enough to drink on its own, although I have not drunk milk on its own since childhood.
Vita Soy products are made from whole soybeans, contrasting with So Good for example who use soy protein isolates, produced by severe processing methods and resulting in the proteins being denatured. I was happy with the solution I had found to my immediate problem, and considered the initial job to be done Indeed, when on occasion I allowed a little cow’s milk in my tea, I found I no longer enjoyed that taste.
Health Concerns with Soy : Iso Flavones
While camping over New Year, I had a chance discussion with a fellow camper who had the same product, Vitasoy Calci Plus along with a pack of Rice Milk. Asking her why she used Rice Milk, I was startled by her reply. She said you are not supposed to drink too much soy milk because it is high in estrogen! There is no warning information on any pack, and I saw that I had to do some research.
Articles addressing this concern are plentiful, some of course funded by the soy industry, but research is inconclusive. Soy is relatively high in Iso flavones, anti oxidants that act as “phyto estrogens”, mimicking the effects of estrogen in some cells, but also potentially inhibiting the estrogen effects in others. There is no real research on this balance. Estrogen receptor cells can pick up the Isoflavones, sending messages that change the behavior of genes, interfering with the way the information coded into genes operates, and potentially affecting hormone systems and other organs. I was alarmed … articles mention potential to “feminize” men, and this is one of the reasons soy milk is not now recommended for young children.
The Vitasoy website (www.soy.com.au) does not locate the term “isoflavones” .I contacted them for a response to this , and received a good statement, from which I quote
“Soy has been a regular part of the diet in many countries for centuries. There is no conclusive clinical evidence that demonstrates a risk to human health because of consuming soy or soy isoflavones as a regular part of a well-balanced diet.
There is no recommendation by the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) or Australia‟s Food Regulation Body (Food Standards Australia New Zealand -FSANZ) that soymilk should be limited to a certain amount per day.
Soy beans are a legume and like other legumes soy foods and drinks can be included as part of a healthy diet. They are high in fibre, have a low GI, are low in saturated fat, contain no cholesterol and have plant oestrogens (phytosterols) called isoflavones, an antioxidant. Soy has also been shown to help maintain healthy blood cholesterol levels and help to reduce heart disease.”
They stress that a balanced diet and balanced lifestyle are essential for health, and that serious concerns should be addressed by a doctor. It does seem that no conclusive danger has been established, and that some societies have traditionally used soy products for a long time. One article references a trial done on men at 40 mg Isoflavones per day with no result variation from the control group. Vita Soy products average 8 to 10 mg Isoflavones per 100 ml milk, with seasonal variations, so I have set myself an upper limit of 400 ml Vita Soy per day.
To their credit, So Good brand list Isoflavone content in the ingredients panel, at least for So good regular, and it is considerably lower than Vita Soy at 4.4 m per 100 ml
Health Concerns with Soy : Phytic Acid
No sooner had I digested all that, and got over concerns that I would soon find my breasts growing, than I came across another alarming internet piece, to do with Phytic Acid. Soy is high in Phytic Acid and it is considered an “anti nutrient”, in that it binds to mineral in the body, calcium magnesium, zinc, and prevents their absorption into the body. The writer came to the conclusion that however goo the ingredients on a pack of soy milk sounded, they effectively useless. I thought we had a major issue of labelling honesty to deal with here!
Further research showed that yes, soy does contain Phytic acid and yes it does bind to the minerals mentioned. Research in the UK measured daily consumption of Phytic Acid at between 500 to 800 mg per day, with over half of that coming from wheat products like bread, biscuits cakes. Vitasoy products contain l0.53 mg per 100 ml, so my daily allowed soy intake of 400 ml would contribute about 2 mg, about one three hundredth of the daily adult intake. For reference, wheat has 8.5 mg per 100 gm and oats 10.1 mg per 100 gm, so this issue too was overcome.
With relief, I felt I had solved my initial problem of replacing cow’s milk as an essential part of my daily diet. Soy does not work added to vegetables for mashing, the favour competes certainly with potatoe, but otherwise I was happy…
MyTaste … My Second and Final? Choice. Vitasoy Rice Milk
… my final choice for a while. The nagging worry about iso flavones returned. I use about 400 ml liquid on breakfast cereal, and I came again to be concerned about this. I purchased a pack of Vita Soy Rice Milk, to test my prejudices, and in fact it overcame them. This Rice Milk is 13% brown rice, has a good milk colour, a good milk taste, settles well in the stomach, and works very well with the new tea blend I was developing (using Oolong and White tea). Ironically, the pack declares it to be “naturally free from …dairy, lactose, soy …” and of course free from cholesterol. It has good calcium levels of 120 mg / 100 ml, but is very low in protein at 0.3 gms / 100 ml. My system accepts it as a liquid rather than a food, and my normal diet has good protein content. I have continued with Vita Soy Rice Milk for a year now, still enjoy it, and find it very acceptable in mashed potatoe, with some added margerine or butter.
When Enlightenment Comes
In their statement, Vitasoy said that there was a lot of material on the internet and it can be hard to know what among it all is evidence based. This may be true, but companies have now to get themselves organised to cope with the wide and easy spread of information, comment and opinion, soundly based or not. My favourite comment from this research is the following anonymous quote, elaborating on the allegation that Phytic acid in soy milk prevents the digestion of nutrients, in particular zinc, the “brain mineral”
“Zinc deficiency can cause a “spacey” feeling that some vegetarians may mistake for the “high” of spiritual enlightenment.”
