How ‘soy free’ are you?

Source: whatcanieat.com.au

Over, recent years, it seems that many have resorted to avoiding foods that contain gluten. While it does seem that while soy is easier to avoid in Australia, there really is very little (if any) awareness of soy allergies and intolerances. I recently came across a post entitled, “How ‘Gluten Free’ are YOU?” and thought I’d be able to make an interesting one with regard to soy allergies.

Soy (in itself) seems to be a controversial food. Many believe that soy is ‘good for you’, while others proclaim that soy protein has many dangerous side effects. While I personally don’t have any comment to make on these claims, one thing’s for sure. Soy is still a fairly ‘new’ food in western civilisation – something that has been almost forced into our diets with most not even realising it! And with almost all normal breads off limits to those with soy allergies, it can make ‘living without’ both a difficult and challenging task.

Additionally, as we know, many food allergy networks from around the world proclaim that soy oil and soy lecithin are safe for inclusion within the soy free diet. Personally, I get sick if I eat too many products containing these soy ingredients. I actually seem to react worse to soy on some occasions than gluten, oddly enough. Perhaps there may be a little ‘d’ for danger associated with gluten but a big ‘D’ with soy. Who knows

Anyhow, I’ve included a poll below for you to see where you stand in the realm of soy avoidance:

Personally, I would say I’m at Level 3 on the whole scale of things. I normally avoid soy lecithin and soybean oil, yet products that warn about the presence of traces of these ingredients (such as Cadbury Dairy Milk bars made in the UK) are normally ones that I allow in my diet. I also include Lindt 70% and 85% bars in my diet. Fortunately, to this day, they’ve never made me sick.

But each to their own. Let me know of your thoughts.

The Importance of an up-to-date Blogroll

Updating my blogroll is one of those jobs that I never seem to get around to. There is always something else to do.

Of course, being away from my home computer, it has been difficult to visit all the blogs that I (and many others) are loyal fans of.

I could start updating the blogroll myself…but… if I had to do it all on my own, I’d be up all day and night (and I’d probably miss a few of my loyal readers’ blogs as well).

So can you help me out! Head straight on over to the ‘contact’ page and send your link through, briefly describing what your blog is about. I prefer it to feature some aspect or other of gluten / allergy free living, if possible. Feel free to recommend friends’ blogs too!

So head on over to my contact form, fill out your details and submit your link. Don’t miss this opportunity to have the site of you and your favourites featured on my Blogroll.

Click here to add your details… :)

We are NOT fussy eaters!

Normally, I don’t post on a daily basis, but when I saw a web article pointed out by some people on Coeliac UK‘s wall I couldn’t stop myself from responding to the following article published earlier today (by Yolanda Zappaterra):

Sourced From: The Independent

Being Modern: Fussy Eaters

by Yolanda Zappaterra

Hosting a dinner party used to be fairly straightforward. Your guests either ate meat or they didn’t and you planned the menu accordingly (making a mental note not to invite the awkward veggies again). But somewhere in the past couple of decades we seem to have collectively lost our culinary way, and the simple act of feeding friends has become as complex as cracking a cryptic crossword.

Oddly, it seems that our interest in and love of food has risen in direct proportion to our inability to eat it – particularly in the UK, where we have the highest prevalence of food intolerance in Europe. And while no one would want to belittle serious and systemic allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis, as anyone who still has the balls to give dinner parties these days knows all too well, mostly the endless emails back and forth are about nothing more than fussy eating.

For despite surveys showing that up to 30 per cent of people claim to have a food allergy, a Food Standards Agency report in 2008 estimated that only about 2 per cent of adults actually do. What the rest of us have are various levels of food intolerance. We choose not to consume bread, pasta, milk, alcohol, sugar or additives. We imagine these choices make us interesting and will provide hours of fascinating conversation.

While we’re not for a minute suggesting that we’re unsympathetic to such intolerances, let’s call a spade a spade. Food allergies are serious and life-threatening. Food intolerances are just that, a symptom of our seeking to avoid anything that vaguely disagrees with us.

So the next time you’re invited to a dinner party, do the right thing and say you eat everything. Because it’s the polite thing to do, because you’ll be giving your host the pleasure of making something delicious rather than the headache of finding gluten-free recipes they’ve never made before and won’t want to make again, and because in a world in which 925 million people are undernourished, you sure as hell shouldn’t be worrying about that slightly unpleasant bloated feeling you get after eating a slice of bread.

Personally I especially find the words in the final paragraph to be some of the worst advice ever.  On the other hand, of course, I also (not that long ago) discussed a potential cure for celiac disease – Dr. Wise’s Gluten Relief. This may be a wiser option for those who feel tempted to give in to this terrible advice, as the post itself has attracted numerous comments which are a must-read for all visiting this site.

That been said, I urge my readers to take up this matter with The Independent as a matter of urgency, so that society is NOT misled by the message in this article. It needs to be removed from the net immediately.

Cadbury Twirl Bites (UK). Where to get them in Australia?

As most of you would have probably guessed, I’ve developed quite an obsession with finding soy-free milk chocolates! Something I’d be able to have in order to remember my childhood years…

Recently I heard about a new product that was recently released in the UK (i.e. Cadbury’s Twirl Bites). According to their Nutrition Facts on the product, it appears to be both gluten free and soy lecithin free, as well as being free from all common allergens apart from milk.

Previously, I made a plea to the Chocolate Industry with regard to the fact that so many chocolates in the marketplace contain soy lecithin – an ingredient that most (if not all) soy allergic folk must avoid in their diets.

It also puzzles me as to why Cadbury Australia and Cadbury New Zealand continue to use soya lecithin in virtually *all* of their chocolates, when soy allergies are on the rise but particularly when the brand in the UK switched to using ammonium phosphatides (already some decades ago). Apparently the change occurred in order to eliminate a somewhat undesirable taste that soya lecithin typically imparts in chocolate. [1]

That been said, it may be worth knowing that the UK brand Cadbury’s chocolate does contain proprietary vegetable fats – an additional ingredient which recently infuriated the local Aussie and Kiwi chocoholics when recently added to our local products manufactured by this multinational corporation. Remarkably enough, they seemed to take customer feedback seriously enough to revert back to the original ([vegetable fat]-free) recipe. They claimed that they were reverting to a “cocoa-butter-only” recipe. Of course, the presence of soya lecithin and PGPR never changed during this time. In fact, it seems as though soya lecithin has recently been added to both their flake bars and Pascall Eclairs, both of which used to not contain any soy at all!

So much for the “Cocoa-Butter-Only” claim. Sounds similar to the wretched scam that Whittaker’s continues to make.

That all said, my quest for the perfect soy free chocolate is far from over. And in fact, I have recently found an Australian chocolate maker, Slitti, that uses pure chocolate (i.e. soy-free) couverture in making various treats and products. I have yet to try their products, but will report back some time down the track as I find out more.

Meanwhile, if any of you have been able to source these tasty-looking Twirl bites here in Australia, I’d love to hear from you; even any other really good soy-free chocolate suggestions will always be most welcome. I’d also love to hear what you think (if you happen to be in the UK) of the Twirl Bites if you’ve tried them?

[1] Sourced from Google Books – Robert J. Whitehurst, Emulsifiers in Food Technology p226