The Reality:
The American diet is pervaded by soy. It is in many many processed foods, fast food and chain restaurants. Soy makes it way into our mouths without a hint of most of the nation knowing it.
Now, many of you may be asking, what’s so wrong with that? Isn’t soy a super food or something? Well, some studies do show soy helping everything from heart health to eyesight, but studies once showed that smoking was healthy for your lungs so who really knows? Not I. What I do know is that I have sensitivity to the stuff.
The Story:
At one point in my life I ate a significant amount of soy. I liked soymilk and tofu and even thought about going vegetarian and in doing so increased my soy intake to substitute for other meat products. Now, I have to admit, during this time my caffeine intake was out of control and sugar intake could sink a ship. What happened as a result was a state of emotional anxiety that bordered on the unmanageable.
I was never the type to take much stock in the idea that my food intake could really change my emotional state. However, after changing how I lived, what activities were in my life and started therapy my anxiety was still unmanageable and getting worse. I had two options left: take a look at my food intake or go on medication. I decided to go with the latter first before resorting to medications. With the help of the Know Thyself Nutritional Program (you can look at their website here:
http://knowthyselfnutrition.com/main.html) I began my journey into the concept that food could and would drastically change my life.
Within a few short days I had taken out all processed foods from my diet along with soy, citrus, wheat and fried foods. In short, I ate organic meat, rice, some fruit and a host of veggies. Long gone were the days of skittles (of which I am obsessed), caffeine or any of my favorite morning cereals (Capt’n Crunch, CoCo Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch). Now this period of eating only fruit, veggies, rice and meat only lasted two weeks. This was to detox my body back to all non-processed foods and take out all foods, which are known to cause allergic reactions or sensitivities (gluten, soy, peanuts and citrus to name a few). After the first week of eating this way me entire emotional spectrum changed. I hadn’t had a panic attack in nearly a week! By the end of the second week I had been panic and anxiety free the entire time and this hadn’t happened in YEARS.
In short, I knew one thing: the way I was eating was causing my anxiety. Now I just had to find out WHAT food was causing it and get it out of my system. In short order soy was put back into my diet. After a glass of soymilk at breakfast and lunch I began feeling irritable but I fluffed it off on all the schoolwork I had to do. By the next day however, I was in the fetal position. The thought of going outside or having to talk to someone was so overwhelming I panicked. I was in a full out panic attack. I realized it must have been off the soy, stopped eating it and over the next few days returned to my normal state. It was just that simple.
Since that time I have never eaten the amount of soy as I once did. It is however, it the vast majority of easy access foods in the U.S. and because of this I have, at times, eaten it on a regular basis in small amounts in processed foods (like at a fast food establishment or in cereal). The result is nothing like ingesting soymilk but I do have consistent irritability, emotional shifts and often feel paranoid and perceive judgment. Off of soy these go away almost completely. I do occasionally have “normal” panic attacks but I can actually feel the difference in my brain when they’re happening.
The Purpose:
The purpose of this blog is not to convince you that you might have sensitivity to soy. The purpose is not to convince you that soy is evil nor is it my purpose to try and change your eating habits. My purpose IS to let you know how rampant soy is in the American diet and let you in on the adventures (and misadventure) of my eating habits.
I will let you know the best restaurants to eat soy free are or, at least, let you know what foods at what restaurants you can actually eat. I’ll let you know the best grocery stores to shop, the best bakeries and keep you up to date on recipes that you can try.
