The World's Best - And Worst - Soy Milk

This week's sign of the apocalypse.

People in Australia, including some who are lactose intolerant, are demanding Bonsoy soy milk to put in their coffee because it tastes so good that there is no substitute.

"I'm lactose intolerant and I'm really fussy about my coffee. Bonsoy is the only one that tastes good," she said. "I tried another brand of soy milk but it just doesn't taste the same.

That's taken from Sarah Whyte's article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sounds great, right? What terrific advertising for a product. Except for one little detail. Bonsoy has been banned and recalled.

On December 24 Food Standards Australia warned against drinking Bonsoy after 10 people, including a newborn baby, fell ill with thyroid problems in NSW. A national recall was ordered.

Bonsoy was found to contain "unusually high levels" of iodine, which may affect the thyroid. It is enriched with kombu, a seaweed product. One cup of Bonsoy milk was found to contain 7500 micrograms of iodine – more than seven times the suggested daily dose for adults.

Yet some cafés are stocking black market batches of Bonsoy, and people are buying it under the counter.

Has the world gone entirely nuts? People are risking their lives for soy milk? Why?

Most Consumers Never Think About Soy

What we don't know can hurt us.

Ignorance about soy and soy products is depriving the majority of Americans from the benefits of soy products and soy alternatives to milk.

That's the conclusion of a study conducted by 8th Continent soymilk owner Stremicks Heritage Foods, reported on by NutraIngredients-USA.com.

The article by Shane Sterling said:

More than 50 per cent of consumers polled in a recent survey admit they know very little about soy with less than one in five consuming soy products on a weekly basis, according to a new survey.

Less than one in 10 said they had discussed the health benefits of soy products with doctors or health care providers, while 36 per cent of adults and 41 per cent of parents had never tried a soy food or beverage. ...

But only 17 per cent consume soy products on a weekly basis; 34 percent monthly.

About 37 percent have drunk soymilk with about 40 percent of respondents saying they have never tried it because they believe it tastes bad. A quarter said they found it to be too expensive or felt they did not know enough about its health benefits.

Of course the study is somewhat self-serving. 8th Continent will be launching a product fortified with the additives that consumers already try for by other means. It's still helpful to have some concrete information on the alternative market, one that few outside the industry have any facts about.

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive and comprised more than 2000 US adults. About a quarter of these had children under 18 years old.

Beverages in School Lunch Program Must Have Milk's Nutritional Value

Last week I informed you that "The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced [that] parents or legal guardians may request, in writing, soymilk as an alternative to cow's milk for children receiving National School Lunch and Breakfast Program meals."

That came from a press release put out by the Soyfoods Association of North America. Not surprisingly, they selectively quoted the announcement and left out the parts now about soymilk.

The International Dairy Foods Association was a little slower on the draw, but it sent out its own press release yesterday.

It also has good news for parents of lactose intolerant children.

[The] USDA also made statements that supported lactose-free milk as the beverage of choice for lactose intolerant children, although it was not included as part of the regulations. Lactose-free milk already is allowed in the school meal programs, and documentation is not required for a student to receive lactose-free milk instead of regular milk. USDA indicated that "there is no need to offer a fortified milk substitute to a student whose medical or special dietary need is lactose intolerance."

What the regulations actually say is that any other beverages served in the program must be the same nutritional value as milk:

Beverages that could substitute for fluid milk, such as soy beverage or fruit juice, will be required to be nutritionally equivalent to whole milk with regard to calcium, protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, riboflavin and vitamin B-12 content. Currently there are no soy beverages that provide all of these nutrients at the same level as milk.

Note the sly dig at the soyfoods people.

I still can't find the source of this information on the USDA.gov website. The page on the National School Lunch Program hasn't be updated since July. I'll try to find the original ruling and see what other important tidbits it might have for people who don't have a side in this fight.

Silk Soymilk Recalled

I don't usually post news of recalls of food items because they may contain traces of milk. There are other sites that cover this in detail.

In fact, I took the news of this case directly off the Food and Drug Administration website.

Mount Crawford, Virginia -- April 23, 2008 --- WhiteWave Foods Company is voluntarily recalling 11-ounce plastic single serve bottles of Silk Soymilk Chocolate Flavor because it may contain undeclared milk protein. The individual bottles are printed with both a "use by" date of May 7, 2008 (printed as 05 07 08) and a Universal Product Code (UPC) of 2529360028. Consumers can find this information on the back of the individual bottle.

People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk protein run the risk of a health problem or illness if they consume this product. Some reactions have been reported.

This affected product was distributed nationwide and reached consumers through retail and foodservice outlets. WhiteWave's sales team is working with distributors to actively recover any affected product remaining on store shelves.

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE RECALLED PRODUCT

This recall includes only 11-ounce single serve plastic bottles of Silk Soymilk Chocolate Flavor with both a "use by" date of May 7, 2008 (printed as 05 07 08) and a UPC code of 2529360028. Consumers should look for this information on the back of the bottle.

The Company apologizes for any inconvenience to its customers. Consumers who purchased the product may return it to the place of purchase for a full refund or exchange. Consumers with questions can contact the Company at 1-800-587-2259.

The Food and Drug Administration has been notified of this recall.

Milk contamination in any food is a serious issue. Milk contamination in soymilk gets right to the heart of the milk alternative community. Some reports of reactions have been collected in various areas nationwide, although none appears to be serious.

Because few firms can afford to dedicate plants to absolute non-dairy use, most foods are susceptible to cross-contamination in industrial processes. It's an important reminder that even vigilance in reading labels and trusting brand names can't always protect you or your families.

You can't go through life mistrusting every bite of food either. The best course is to regularly check the FDA (click on Recalls & Safety Alerts) or allergy sites that follow recalls or create a news alert through Google or Yahoo or one of the other services to flag recall announcements. And if you are dangerously anaphylactic, always carry an Epipen or the equivalent.

Learn to Make Soymilk at Home - From YouTube

How many kabillion videos are there on YouTube? I'm sure not even the YouTubers know, because while you just read that sentence another jillion or so were uploaded.

It didn't occur to me to turn to YouTube for getting cooking demonstrations, but then I'm probably the last American never to have seen a show on the Food Channel either.

But a random link alerted me to videos about making soymilk at home. And a quick search showed that some two dozen options are available.

The first one to come up is from a blog, The Daily English Show, which describes itself as "The Daily English Show is the world's first daily online English language show."

Anyhow, show #424 is titled, simply, How to make soymilk.



The Everyday Dish people also have one called Homemade Soymilk. Don't you love informative titles? Everyday Dish is a vegan cooking show that shows its audience how to prepare "meals with whole grains, beans, fresh fruit and vegetables, along with tofu, tempeh, seitan and to die for desserts."

Ah, Soyabella

Making soymilk is not the easiest process at home. Of course, these days there are gadgets that will do anything for your except pick up your socks.

The Soyabella Soymilk Maker by Tribest is designed to make making soymilk quick and easy, so its ad copy says.

The Soyabella Soymilk Maker is the elegantly easy way to make fresh soymilk and a variety of other delicious recipes in your own kitchen. Simply add soybeans and water to the Soyabella Soymilk Maker and you get fresh soymilk in about 15 minutes. Soyabella is also great for making milk from a wide variety of beans, as well as for making fresh rice milk, rice paste, sesame paste, and porridge. It can even be used as a coffee grinder and mill by using included accessories. Plus, the Soyabella Soymilk Maker is extremely easy to clean.

Tribest, the site I linked to, is the maker of the Soyabella. It can be purchased there for $129, but a quick Google search shows that it is available elsewhere for less.

Tribest contact information:
Toll-Free (888) 254-7336
International +1 (714) 879-7150

You can also go to the Tribest site and find information about distributors in Germany, the UK, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand.

I'm Back - And Not a Moment Too Soon

C'mon, world. I was only gone for a week. How could everything have gone to hell so quickly?

You know my usual rants about reporters not getting it right. Here's a world-class example from Jen Braaten of the Grand Forks Herald:

With age comes the susceptibility to anemia, or inadequate iron. Anderson also notes that the lactose enzyme gets smaller within the body, making it more difficult to digest milk or milk products.

The lactose enzyme gets smaller? Is it like The Incredible Shrinking Man? Why not just say straightforwardly - and correctly - that our bodies tend to make less of the enzyme as we grow older?

Blogs. Well, what can you say about blogs? On November 1, Jimmy Moore posted a screed against high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in his Atkins Diet blog, Livin' La Vida Lo-Carb. Numbers are not his strong point, though.

This is a scary thought for me personally because I used to consume the equivalent of 16-20 cans of Coca-Cola on a daily basis before I started livin' la vida low-carb. That's about 45g sugar, all in the form of high fructose corn syrup, per can. So I was guzzling down--BRACE YOURSELF--upwards of 900 grams of fructose just in my soda consumption before the Atkins diet. And we won't even talk about the HFCS that was in all those snack cakes I used to eat, too! EEEEEEK!

Sigh. High fructose is not at all the same thing as all fructose. HFCS comes in several varieties, but the type normally used in soft drinks is about 55% fructose and 45% glucose. That cuts the number of fructose grams down to just under 500. Still a lot, but 400 g - nearly a pound - less than he stated.

In addition, his screed against fructose has the basic problem that all sugar has about 4 calories per gram. So Moore was consuming a whopping 3600 grams/day of calories just from colas. That's in addition to those snack cakes. And presumably everything else he ate all day long.

So why blame the fructose? He doesn't list even a single thing wrong with his body that he himself attributes to fructose.

Although lack of understanding of all processes with sugar is a severe problem in this country, I wouldn't bother with this blog if Moore didn't also mislead with a more directly relevant comment:

Many people also have fructose intolerance, similar to lactose intolerance with milk-based products...

Not too terribly similar, though. It can't be. Lactose intolerance results from the lack of an enzyme to split the complex sugar lactose into simpler sugars. Fructose is itself a simple sugar, however. No enzyme needs to be manufactured by the body. The two conditions are similar only in that undigested lactose or fructose may cause gastrointestinal symptoms. Most doctors put hereditary fructose intolerance in the category of "rare" diseases, with no more than 1 in 20,000 affected. Lactose intolerance affects more than 15,000 in 20,000 worldwide.

Avoid screeds. They're bad for your health.

One more example before my blood pressure gets too high.

Reporters aren't responsible for headlines, so when I saw that the headline "Soy milk may be as effective as skim in promoting weight loss" over a story by Mike Danahey at the CourierNewsOnline.com wasn't backed up well, if at all, by the actual article I could have shifted the blame upward. But then...

The study is in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association's October 2007 issue. Volume 107, Issue 10, Pages 1811-1814 (October 2007) "Preliminary Study: Soy Milk as Effective as Skim Milk in Promoting Weight Loss," by Judith M. Lukaszuk, Paul Luebbers, and Beth A. Gordon.

The 56-day study followed 14 overweight women, ages 18 to 45, from the DeKalb area. They randomly were assigned to include about three cups a day of either soy or skim milk in their calorically restricted diets.

Those on soy milk also were given a soy protein supplement so that the protein intake levels would be similar. The diet was made up of 45 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and 25 percent fat.

"They then maintained the lifestyles they had when they started the study," said Lukaszuk. That included a woman who enjoys getting a latte every morning, but substituting soy milk and skipping the whipped cream.

All the women lost weight, decreased body fat percentage and went down in waist size, and the greatest losses were seen in those with high dairy intake, the study found.

However, the journal abstract said that:

There were no significant differences in weight, fat percent, abdominal circumference, and fat-free mass between groups.

One group did lost a pound more than the other, but that was not a statistically significant amount, so the greatest losses were due to dairy statement is misleading and shouldn't have been included in the article.

I have to note that the study put all the women on diets that served them 500 calories/day less than they usually ate. It's the calorie restriction that helped account for the loss in weight. However, the study, limited as it was, attempted to determine whether it was the protein in milk rather than some other property that accompanies weight loss. This very preliminary evidence indicates that any equivalent protein intake will work. Vegans and others on soymilk diets, take note.