Health - Is Soy really healthy?

I'm going to start writing some short posts about one of my passions....researching ways to help my family achieve optimal health.  Its been a slow journey, over decades, and it's still continuing.  In each post I'll try to narrow the topic into small digestible chunks :-)

My search for the perfect protein began when my husband, whom is an athlete, also started to become a vegan.  

DISCLAIMER:  Now let me clear the air here, we are not fundamental about our eating choices, we make them 100% based on health.  Over the years Chris has found that his body just doesn't process milk well at all and it generally doesn't like meat.  The rest of us are generally vegetarians, more based on ease of making family meals and my concern when the boys were young of dealing with raw meat with a baby around (I.e. needing to pick them up before you had a chance to sanitize).  By "generally" I mean that Lance and I do eat chicken and tuna occasionally.  The only reason Jared and Titus don't is because they don't like it.  However, when we go to friends houses we (including Chris) eat whatever is served.  Remember the goal is simply "optimal health" for us, nothing more.

As I started to share my findings, a couple friends “whey”ed in on the protein controversy, pointing out some potential dangers of soy. “Soy” I did some more “hemp”y research into proteins. “Pea”cause of what I found I’ve decided to make some revisions to his “Diet”.

The short story is this: no one seems to know if Soy is the perfect protein or if it will kill you. Even the experts admit to being clueless. Concerns over soy include: its very high in allergens, the more you eat, the more likely you are to develop an allergy to it; it blocks the absorption of minerals i.e. calcium; the high levels of phytoestrogens that can be harmful to children; and as proteins go its not very efficient which can lead to pancreas issues.  However, when I found out that most soy is processed using "Hexane" I became really concerned. Hexane is a by-product of gasoline production and certainly not something you'd want to eat or even come into contact with. Most of the information I found said that it is seldom found in the soy after processing, but seldom is far from never.

Here's a few tips to keeping soy intake as safe as possible: 

• Tofu and Tempeh are considered safer than other forms of soy because they are less processed and seldom processed with Hexane.   
• The safest sources of soy are said to be "Pacifica" and "Westsoy".  
• Keep Soy protein to under 30mg a day.

I've decided to err on cautious and look for other sources of protein wherever I can.  I don't lose sleep about the little that is found in things like "Clif bars" and in trace amounts in other foods, I just avoid soy when I can.

Thankfully, finding alternatives, that are even better than soy, was simple.

This is the best article I found on protein (meat and vegetable sources): http://www.nutribodyprotein.com/protein-types.php 

Here's some of my top pics:

Milk Alternatives:  

• Almond Milk (Original Blue Diamond Brand) - I find this is best with cereal, especially nutty tasting cereal like Kashi.  We use the original because we found the Vanilla was too sweet.
• Coconut Milk (Unsweetened So Delicious Brand) - I use this for everything I mix milk with, from Mac&Cheese to smoothies.  By itself, it's a little bland (like skim milk), but it is full of Medium Chain Fatty Acids, B-12 and Magnesium.  They also make these delicious So Delicious Ice Cream Sandwiches taste just like when we are kids but have nothing bad in them (they even use Agave instead of Sugar).
• Goat's Milk - Many people who cannot tolerate Cow Milk can tolerate Goat Milk.  We use Goat's Milk Kefir, Yogurt and Raw Cheese.  I use the Redwood Farms brand - they haven't paid for the certification but its basically organic.  For the boys, the Coconut Milk version of Kefir and Yogurt didn't have enough fat and protein and for me I prefer the taste of the yogurt.

Protein Supplements/Powders:

• Pea Protein - Many of the meal shakes now come in Pea Protein version, such as Chris' morning "Alive Whole Food Multi-Vitamin Shake". Pea Protein is processed naturally with water, has a mild flavor and has a high protein efficiency ratio.
• Hemp Protein - Chris also uses this in his morning shake to pump up his protein intake and this is what I use in my breakfast shake and the boy's smoothies.  This type of protein is a great immune builder, it contains a ton of Amino Acids (something lacking in a vegetarian diet), lots of fiber, Omega-6 and its easily digestible.  I've found that all Hemp Protein powders are not equal, so this is a place where brand matters.  We use Living Harvest Hemp Protein because it's raw and seems to pack the biggest nutritional punch.  Taste wise it has a mild nutty flavor.

Other Items:

• Chicken Alternative - Quorn - this is a multi-fungus, now don't run-away!  Its also the most popular meat alternative in Europe.  Ironically, it looks like chicken and tastes like chicken.  When I serve it most people have no idea its not chicken.  It can be stir-fried, or eaten in nugget form.  Nice part is its already cooked so you just need to take it out of the freezer and warm it up.
• Burger Alternative - Garden Burgers - These are vegetable and mushroom based.  I really like the Original version and Chris prefers the Black Bean Chipotle.  I'm not a big Veggie Burger fan but these are really good (especially with Chipotle Sweet Potato Fries).
• Butter/Margarine - Earth Balance Soy Free - They use Pea protein and expeller-pressed oils.  It has a great buttery taste, melts well and bakes well.  Really no reason to use anything else.