How to Eat More Soy
Soybeans are one of the best protein sources available. Soy is cholesterol free, and although it has fat, it's unsaturated. Okinawans eat more soy than any other people in the world. Bradley Willcox, MD, of The Okinawa Program, links that consumption to an extremely low incidence of both breast and prostate cancer. Consuming soy reduces low density lipoprotein, LDL, the bad cholesterol. In fact, according to the Food and Drug Administration, consuming 25 g of soy protein per day may reduce the risk of heart disease. Here's how you can get more soy in your diet. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Use soy milk with your breakfast cereal. If you choose a breakfast cereal like Nature's Path Organic Optimum Power Breakfast Cereal, you'll get soy in the cereal itself as well as flax for heart healthy Omega 3 fatty acids and blueberries for their anti oxidants.
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Buy meatless soy products. There is a whole range in the frozen food section of your grocery, from meatless hamburgers and hot dogs to chicken nuggets. Boca Meatless Burgers are tasty and nutritious. Gardenburger makes a similar product line. Be sure to read the labels. Some of these products contain wheat gluten, to which some are allergic.
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If you like the taste of real meat, use soy as a stretcher. Meat and fish will get increasingly expensive as more of the developing world can afford them. Soy is a far more efficient way to produce protein. Calorie by calorie, tofu, made from soy, has more protein than beef. By cutting your use of meat by half in stews and soups and adding tofu instead, you'll create dishes with the flavor of the meat with soy's benefits.
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If you bake your own bread, fold soy flour into your regular whole grain blend. There are two kinds of soy flour, natural which retains the bean's fat, or defatted with the fat removed. Be sure to store this flour in the refrigerator so it doesn't get rancid. Soy flour tends to cook more rapidly than other flour so cut your normal cooking times or lower your oven temperature.
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Soy cheese is hard to find in most supermarkets, however it is available at health food stores and specialty retailers like Trader Joe's. Soy cheeses have as much protein as cheese from milk, but no saturated fat. They are available in a variety of flavors including mozzarella, Swiss, Monterey Jack and garlic herb. Tofutti make a spreadable soy cream cheese.
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Try miso and tempeh. Miso is a tasty base for a soup. White miso isn't as salty as its dark cousin. Tempeh is a soy cake that is processed differently from tofu. It's firmer and has a nutty, meat-like flavor. It's a great ingredient for a vegetable stir fry.
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Silk makes a dairy free coffee lightener that is far healthier for you than Coffee Mate or any other lightener with hydrogenated fat.
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Eat soy snacks. Buy protein bars with soy. Genisoy makes a line of protein bars with just 2 to 3 g of carbohydrates and 15 g of soy protein. The company also makes soy chips, which are a nutritious potato chip alternative. Edamame are the beans themselves. After boiling and cooling, they make a handy snack or appetizer.
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The tastiest way to add more soy is to eat it for dessert. A good choice is the line of So Delicious Dairy Free. So Delicious makes two dozen different products, all organic. This is not diet food. Some of these desserts get fully half their calories from fat.
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