Soy-Free Restaurant Find

Out of desperation, our family went to the Ninety-Nine Restaurant for dinner last evening.  After an afternoon and evening out with the kids, my husband was starving and I'd spent the same time studying and wasn't in the mood to wait for my own cooking.  This is when having Soy Allergy sucks the most.

Fortunately, my younger son's symptoms are not anaphylactic as yet.  He only exhibits some behavioral issues at this stage.  We try to limit his exposure to prevent his symptoms from progressing, and for our own sanity (he's not pleasant when he's had too much).  But I can't tolerate any amount of soy in my system at this point, so eating out is very dicey.  My ears have even been known to begin itching just from contact with a dirty table or my husband's kisses after Chinese food.

I've done the 99 before...with varying degrees of success.  Tonight was a complete success.

So what did I eat?

• Panko Crusted Haddock (w/o the pasta & sauce usually offered)
• Plain White Rice (a side usually reserved for a teriyaki dish)
• Water w/ Lemon

I probably will not post much for the next week.  Too busy studying, but I will try to come up with something good for my next post....

Sincerely, 

Soylesse Greenapple

Xanthan Gum

Xanthan Gum - Let's just agree to refer to Xanthan Gum as XG from now on to save me from having to type the whole thing out over and over again.  

Yesterday, we learned that XG was not from a legume plant called Xanthan, but the only "gum" to be a chemically engineered food product on our Soy Allergy "Do Not Eat" Lists.  Since this ingredient is listed in so many things, I wanted to know more.  Here is what I learned:

According to Wikipedia, XG is a product made by fermenting plant-based sugar using a bacteria and isopropyl alcohol.  This substance is then dried and ground into a powder.  A liquid is then added to form the "gum" substance.  It is most commonly found in salad dressings and sauces because of it's ability to thicken them in a resting state.  The food industry likes XG for this application because it has a unique property: when a product containing XG is shaken, mixed or chewed (gross!) it will thin out so that it can be easily poured, but once the activity stops, the mixture thickens to its original state so that the dressing or sauce clings to the food it is meant to cover.  I'm paraphrasing here to make it a little easier to understand, but anything in quotes is taken directly from the Wiki article. 

Because XG is also "very stable under a wide range of temperatures and pH," it has a ton of other uses for the pre-packaged food industry.  XG stabilizes emulsions (combinations of water-based & oil-based liquids), so it gives better shelf life and a more pleasant/uniform texture to frozen foods, beverages, toothpaste, and gluten-free baking, just to name a few uses.

Commercial uses and health reports:

• The oil industry uses copious amounts of XG to help them drill.  It thickens the drilling mud so that it can carry the solid waste left by the drill bit back to the surface.  
• XG is added to concrete mixes that are poured underwater, to stabilize the concrete and prevent the structure from being compromised while it sets up.  
• XG is used in many cosmetics, especially gel formulas.  For my fellow theatrical people, it is also a common ingredient in fake blood & slime recipes.
• Serious respiratory symptoms were found in workers exposed to XG particles, and the link to XG was confirmed.
• XG can be created from a variety of raw source materials.  The three most common are also common allergens: corn, wheat & soy.  Most products will not tell you with which ingredient their XG fermentation was grown, so this makes it  a dicey gamble for anyone allergic to any of the three.
• XG is considered to be a "highly effective laxative."  You always wanted to know that, didn't you?

I am a firm believer in eating as close to the original state of a food source as possible.  I feel that food was created by nature the way our bodies are meant to eat it.  Don't get me wrong...I'm not a strict raw vegan or anything...but I would rather eat my fruits & veggies uncooked & unsauced, with a few exceptions, and I prefer my baked goods to be made without any chemically altered ingredients, if possible.  I do eat & cook meat:  chicken & turkey mostly, ham (I always check the smoke & ingredients), bacon (likewise), and the occasional bit of lamb as a treat when it's in season.  I have given up beef -- it doesn't agree with me, and I'm on the bandwagon about the environmental cost of producing it.  

I wouldn't really have a lot of options for protein if I became a vegetarian with my allergies, but I feel that I'm making the right choices for me and for my environment.

Yours sincerely, 

Soylesse Greenapple

Kookaburra sits in the old Gum Tree-ee!

Merry, merry king of the bush is he-ee.

Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!

Gay your life must be!

This song comes to my head whenever I read labels with the terms Gum Arabic, Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, etc.  If you're anything like me, you have absolutely no idea what these ingredients really are, and maybe you think they are related to your chewing gum in someway.

For the record, the Kookaburra's Gum Tree is a variety of Eucalyptus, and doesn't seem to be related to the other Gums I just listed.

Forgive me for being a little bit autistic, but that's the way my mind works, so here is what I needed to learn to understand Gums:

What is "gum" exactly?  

Gum, according to Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), is defined as:       

A vegetable secretion of many trees or plants that hardens when it exudes, 

but is soluble in water; as, gum arabic; gum tragacanth; the gum of the 

cherry tree. Also, with less propriety, exudations that are not soluble in 

water; as, gum copal and gum sandarac, which are really resins.

Which gums are from plant species related to soybeans?  Are they all legumes?  

After searching the internet for some kind of plant family tree, I finally found a list of all leguminous plants.  Soy is a legume, technically, and therefore in the same plant family as peanuts, peas, and beans.

According to Answers.com the following plants are categorized as leguminous:

-Peanut, peanut vine

-Chickpea, chickpea plant, Egyptian pea

-Guar, cluster bean

-Soy, soya, soybean, soya bean, soybean plant, soja, soja bean

-Wild Pea

-Lentil, lentil plant

-Horse Gram, horse grain, poor man's pulse 

-Locoweed, crazyweed, crazyweed

-Bean, bean plant

-Pea, pea plant

-Sesbania

-Vetch

-Moth Bean

-Adzuki Bean, adsuki bean

-Snailflower, snail flower, snail bean, corkscrew flower

-Mung, mung bean, green gram, golden gram 

-Cowpea, cowpea plant, Black-eyed Pea

-Asparagus Bean, yard-long bean

This list is not complete.  Carob and Acacia should also be on this list.

According to the above list, Guar Gum is derived from another lentil, but what about the others.  

So far my research is proving to be quite extensive, so I'll have to devote a post to each of the Gums, but the simple answer is:

Xanthan Gum is a sugar based fermentation grown with either corn, wheat or soy.  It's a chemical compound.  XG will not always list the source of the product, and all three that I know of are common allergens. This is not necessarily the product of a legume, but can be soy-based, unless otherwise specified.  If someone has a link to document the regulation of soy in the creation of XG, please let me know.  I have one unverified source claiming that XG is no longer made with soy in the U.S., and I would like to put this particular claim to the test.

Gum Arabic is also known as gum acacia.  It is a natural gum, made from the hardened sap of two species of acacia trees, which grow wild in Arabia and Africa.  The acacia tree is part of the Fabaceae  or Leguminosae Family, and is therefore considered to be a legume.  

Locust Bean Gum, also known as carob gum, carob bean gum, and carobin, is a common ice cream additive.  The Carob tree, and its seed pods are a relative of the pea, and as a member of the Fabaceae family, it is also a legume.

Gum Tragacanth is also a natural gum made from dried sap.  In this case, from several species of Middle Eastern legumes, known collectively as "goat's thorn" and "locoweed."  Locoweed, we see on the list above.  The gum can also be called "shiraz gum," "gum elect" or "gum dragon."  Key word here: legume.

Chewing Gum is made from either natural latex or synthetic rubber.  Not from legumes, but watch out for those flavorings...those could be soy-based.

The Question of Gums

I recently perused an on-line grocery store that purports to provide allergen-free grocery items to its customers: Allergy Grocer.  It was suggested to me by a good friend whose son has had more allergies in his young life than most people even know exist...believe it or not, you can be allergic to potatoes and cherries!

He used to be allergic to Soy as well, though current tests show that he has "outgrown" this  and several other allergies.  This mother-son team are inspiration to me.  If they can successfully navigate  life with his allergies, my family can certainly live with ours.

As I went through the listing of what was supposed to be Soy Free food items, I kept seeing several labels with gums in them:  Acacia/Arabic, Xanthan, Guar, etc.  In my initial research, I was told to avoid foods containing gums because they are "secret code words for soy".  Well, that may not be exactly true, but I also am not about to rush out and try eating foods with gums listed in the ingredients.  These plants are all also legumes and related to the soybean.  Apparently, many serious soy allergy sufferers also react to soy "cousins," so I'm not sure I would really consider these food items to be soy-free.  In fact, most "what to eat when you're allergic to soy" websites list all of these items and several more to be strictly avoided.

Feeling puzzled and confused, I emailed the grocery store's customer service department to point out their lack of adequate soy-free provisions and also to get clarification on their claims.  According to the on-line grocery store, these gums are now required to be free of soy contamination and since they are technically not made from the soy plant, they considered them to be allergen free.

Well, if that's true, then why do these websites beg to differ?  Julie's Soy Allergy Info Page  and  Cooking with Limits

My goal with this first blog thread will be to answer the questions that have been rattling around in my head recently on this topic.

Stay tuned, and please feel free to send me access to websites, books or even dietitians/doctors who might be able to weigh in on the subject.

Sincerely,
Soylesse Greenapple

A New Beginning...

Just over a year ago, the inside of my left ear began itching.  It drove me nuts!  I couldn't scratch the inside of my ear, and it felt like an insect had crawled into my ear and was dancing away in there.  For weeks I couldn't figure out what was causing it as the itching came and went at seemingly random intervals.  Even scarier were the episodes of fainting:  a slow fading into a sleep-like state where every attempt at muscle movement was a herculean effort.  It felt like my whole body was unable to move; even my lip muscles were so unresponsive it was hard to talk, let alone move my arms and legs or get to a standing position.  I would basically pass out and sleep for hours, usually on my couch.  It was getting kind of scary.

Then, one evening I was rushing to work at a theatre (it's kind of an on-call job) and grabbed a fast-food value meal on my way in.  I wolfed down the fried chicken pieces, the fries and the cola, knowing that I'd need a caffeine fix to get through the evening show.  I was there to follow one of the regular workers who was taking the following day off, and I needed to learn his job with great attention to detail.

Only a few minutes after I finished eating, my ear began to itch.  I was so used to it by then, that I almost didn't notice at first, but as the evening progressed I found it harder and harder to pay attention to the things I was meant to be learning...my ear began to itch so badly that I just couldn't focus on anything else.  Fortunately, I did have a great set of notes and several people looking out for me the next day, so that I managed to get through both shows without any real mistakes (but I almost messed up a complicated quick change because I was holding the costume the wrong way, until someone helped me turn it around).

That night when I finally got home, I went straight to my computer to look up my symptoms.  I had noticed a red rim around my lips in the mirror, and the itch, THAT ITCH!  What was I allergic to?  I knew I had been allergic to soy as a baby, but that allergy had subsided in my late toddler years.  A few years earlier I reacted to an overload of soy in my diet while breast feeding...both I and my younger child developed eczema rashes from the calcium supplements & soy milk I was consuming.  My whole family is lactose intolerant and both my kids were unable to digest even traces of Lactaid milk in my breast milk.  I'd hated rice milk with my first baby, so I decided to risk the soy milk this time around, since I hadn't reacted to it the few times I'd tried it.

So, Soy was the place to start, and right away I knew I'd hit the mark.

Now the question was: What could I eat?  What was safe?  What wasn't?  I'd been avoiding Soy milk and other obvious sources of soy since the eczema rash, but I'd been able to tolerate soy in small amounts until now.  How much would I be able to tolerate before having a reaction now?

The information on the web was not nearly as comprehensive and well-organized as I would have liked. One website claimed this, another refuted the same theory.  I knew right away that this wasn't going to be easy.  I also realized that if I was now having anaphylactic symptoms, that someday my younger child could also be facing the same future if I didn't change the family's eating habits.

Suddenly we couldn't eat bread.  Breakfast cereals seemed to be completely off-limits.  Even unsalted butter and canned tuna were on the Don't Eat List.  Soda, fast food, and even many fruit juices were just gone from my life.

Over the past year, while working on my first year of graduate school, I have had to relearn how and what to eat.  My family's eating habits have been challenged, especially because of sensory issues and members with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.  Eating at a restaurant or even at a friend's party is virtually impossible (though many of my friends and family members are educating themselves and have been amazingly supportive and accommodating).

Unfortunately, this learning curve has had me focusing on what I was eating, but not the proper proportions and time constraints have made it all too easy to ignore some of the healthier options I should have been sticking to.  I have gained back 25 of the 30lbs I lost while on Weight Watchers two years ago.  So now, I am back on Weight Watchers, this time determined to lose 50lbs total, and to learn to make this happen without the soy-laden convenience/packaged/diet foods that I am convinced caused me to plateau last time at only -30lbs.

I mean to use this blog to document my personal research into Soy, and it's prevalence in our food supply.  I also hope to clear up some of the confusion contradictory sources have created.  Lastly, I truly hope to increase awareness for this allergy which I believe is possibly the most difficult allergy to live with, once anaphylactic responses have begun.

I welcome responses to this blog, asking only that they are made in a respectful tone.  I don't claim to know everything or be a medical professional, so I fully expect to post at least a few things that are wrong or outdated at some point.  Anyone with more correct or up-to-date sources is welcomed to share, and I will edit or retract as appropriate.

Sincerely,

Soylesse Greenapple