soy update
so as you may know, there has been previous heated discussion about soy, which can be revisited here and here and here and here.
so i'm in spain. i hate soy products because they taste bad and are really bad for your health, but every once in a while i'd cave. the other day i caved and got some soy yoghurt. according to gung ho vegans it's better than caving and going for normal yoghurt. i don't have an opinion on that.
anyway, this was certified organic soy yoghurt, certified by three different parties in europe, and sold in spain, which is one of the world's largest exporters of organic food... funny, they have none in their stores.. but yeah. so, the point of that was to say it wasn't genetically modified or chemical-ridden.
my experience were as follows. i have a very healthy diet, where most of my food is raw vegetables and fruit. i don't eat bread or wheat products except on rare occasions, and all of teh food i buy is organic. i buy everything dried, like beans, legumes, never canned, and i buy whole products like whole grain organic brown rice. i don't buy anything in a box, and the only jarred things i have is organic ketchup to eat with my own homemade fries, made with organic potatoes and organic olive oil. the point is, i am very health conscious. i also don't eat any soy because i believe it to be poison for the reasons mentioned in the previous post.
so the other day i was like "gee, i really miss yoghurt..." so instead of buying something made of pasteurized dairy, which i believe to be horrible for you--keep in mind i am vegan for health reasons above animal rights reasons, which are also important, but health is my primary reason--i ended up buying sojasun's organic soy yoghurt. this is a french brand sold in spain so you're unlikely to have heard of it unless you've grocery shopped in organic health food stores in either of these countries. so i pick the better of all the evils, one that contains just soybeans, water and bacterial cultures.
the point is, it's good quality stuff. it was the more expensive one available.. i always buy what costs more if it's better quality, because you can't put a price on life.
anyay, i ate some. the days before, it's also important to note that i also ate a different brand of soy yoghurts that i got, which were also certified organic by more than one party. so basically i've had soy for three days, onto four. this wasn't a large amount either.
anyways, upon eating the sojasun, i started to become jittery. something in my body was setting off a warning signal. it felt like my blood pressure went up, or something was aggravating my circulatory system because i know what normal circulation feels like. i couldn't explain it... it wasn't severe, but it was noticeable, and i am very sensitive to my body's signals. my arms also felt significantly heavier and harder to lift too. i don't know if that was because my body was concentrating on everything else that was going on in my body that it decided that lifting arms was not a priority, but something was happening. then i felt this pain in my abdomen, on the right side, similar to the pain i felt when i had unimportant/nothing-to-worry-about ovarian cysts during my non-veg days. my throat was hurting a bit and i had some gas in my stomach. i'm on the third day of my period, and like, my uterus apparently forgot about my period because it hasn't kicked in all day. phytoestrogens? i think so.
the thing is with healthy diet is that there is no reason for gas, bloating, etc. because your digestive system is not disrupted. soy disrupted my digestive system. it caused me to feel all wacked out and it made my throat hurt and my abdomen. it also gave me a nauseating feeling. i tossed it in the garbage.
when i was eating soy regularly as a non-vegetarian through my processed foods, and then later switching my source of soy to pure soy foods as a vegetarian then vegan, i never experienced these problems. this is because my body has adapted to it all since day one. it's like building up a tolerance for alcohol--your body notices a toxin, but after repeated exposure, you feel it less. so, much like drinking alcohol, i stopped soy use for a super duper long time, and then had a bunch at once, which wasn't too much, but still more than zero. i've also been eating organic since i've dropped soy, and thus been way healthy... and then i decide to eat soy, and my body had an instant reaction. it's like not drinking for a long time and then drinking again. you feel it if you've given your body enough time to clear alcohol from its system.
anyway, that was my most recent soy experience. not to override the previous soy experience with tofu and soymilk making my period stop. not to forget, if you didn't get it from the creative wording, but it also stopped this time. also, when eating random tofu but large quantities, those fermented nigari ones from the st. lawrence market/big carrot/veg food fair/etc. i would feel pains in my chest.
p.s. i am not allergic to soy. i've never been allergic to anything, i've gotten tests done, all that jazz. if my body can't tolerate it it's because it's not good for you. i hope someone can get something out of this experience.
oh, and here is another link. this is a different source than the previous link in the previous post: http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/avoid_soy.htm
it may require you to put your email address to sign up for their newsletter in order to read the entire article. you could just do that to see the article and then upon receiving your first email just unsubscribe if natural health isn't your thing.
x-posted to other places :o)
so i'm in spain. i hate soy products because they taste bad and are really bad for your health, but every once in a while i'd cave. the other day i caved and got some soy yoghurt. according to gung ho vegans it's better than caving and going for normal yoghurt. i don't have an opinion on that.
anyway, this was certified organic soy yoghurt, certified by three different parties in europe, and sold in spain, which is one of the world's largest exporters of organic food... funny, they have none in their stores.. but yeah. so, the point of that was to say it wasn't genetically modified or chemical-ridden.
my experience were as follows. i have a very healthy diet, where most of my food is raw vegetables and fruit. i don't eat bread or wheat products except on rare occasions, and all of teh food i buy is organic. i buy everything dried, like beans, legumes, never canned, and i buy whole products like whole grain organic brown rice. i don't buy anything in a box, and the only jarred things i have is organic ketchup to eat with my own homemade fries, made with organic potatoes and organic olive oil. the point is, i am very health conscious. i also don't eat any soy because i believe it to be poison for the reasons mentioned in the previous post.
so the other day i was like "gee, i really miss yoghurt..." so instead of buying something made of pasteurized dairy, which i believe to be horrible for you--keep in mind i am vegan for health reasons above animal rights reasons, which are also important, but health is my primary reason--i ended up buying sojasun's organic soy yoghurt. this is a french brand sold in spain so you're unlikely to have heard of it unless you've grocery shopped in organic health food stores in either of these countries. so i pick the better of all the evils, one that contains just soybeans, water and bacterial cultures.
the point is, it's good quality stuff. it was the more expensive one available.. i always buy what costs more if it's better quality, because you can't put a price on life.
anyay, i ate some. the days before, it's also important to note that i also ate a different brand of soy yoghurts that i got, which were also certified organic by more than one party. so basically i've had soy for three days, onto four. this wasn't a large amount either.
anyways, upon eating the sojasun, i started to become jittery. something in my body was setting off a warning signal. it felt like my blood pressure went up, or something was aggravating my circulatory system because i know what normal circulation feels like. i couldn't explain it... it wasn't severe, but it was noticeable, and i am very sensitive to my body's signals. my arms also felt significantly heavier and harder to lift too. i don't know if that was because my body was concentrating on everything else that was going on in my body that it decided that lifting arms was not a priority, but something was happening. then i felt this pain in my abdomen, on the right side, similar to the pain i felt when i had unimportant/nothing-to-worry-about ovarian cysts during my non-veg days. my throat was hurting a bit and i had some gas in my stomach. i'm on the third day of my period, and like, my uterus apparently forgot about my period because it hasn't kicked in all day. phytoestrogens? i think so.
the thing is with healthy diet is that there is no reason for gas, bloating, etc. because your digestive system is not disrupted. soy disrupted my digestive system. it caused me to feel all wacked out and it made my throat hurt and my abdomen. it also gave me a nauseating feeling. i tossed it in the garbage.
when i was eating soy regularly as a non-vegetarian through my processed foods, and then later switching my source of soy to pure soy foods as a vegetarian then vegan, i never experienced these problems. this is because my body has adapted to it all since day one. it's like building up a tolerance for alcohol--your body notices a toxin, but after repeated exposure, you feel it less. so, much like drinking alcohol, i stopped soy use for a super duper long time, and then had a bunch at once, which wasn't too much, but still more than zero. i've also been eating organic since i've dropped soy, and thus been way healthy... and then i decide to eat soy, and my body had an instant reaction. it's like not drinking for a long time and then drinking again. you feel it if you've given your body enough time to clear alcohol from its system.
anyway, that was my most recent soy experience. not to override the previous soy experience with tofu and soymilk making my period stop. not to forget, if you didn't get it from the creative wording, but it also stopped this time. also, when eating random tofu but large quantities, those fermented nigari ones from the st. lawrence market/big carrot/veg food fair/etc. i would feel pains in my chest.
p.s. i am not allergic to soy. i've never been allergic to anything, i've gotten tests done, all that jazz. if my body can't tolerate it it's because it's not good for you. i hope someone can get something out of this experience.
oh, and here is another link. this is a different source than the previous link in the previous post: http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/avoid_soy.htm
it may require you to put your email address to sign up for their newsletter in order to read the entire article. you could just do that to see the article and then upon receiving your first email just unsubscribe if natural health isn't your thing.
x-posted to other places :o)