Soy beans (edamame) are an obvious form of soy; you will be surprised how many of the foods you eat are hiding soy!

Is soy really hiding in everything I eat?

You may be surprised how many of the foods you eat each day contain hidden soy. I’ve written previously about  soybean oil (normally called vegetable oil) and soy lecithin. These are incredibly widely used in the international food industry because they are cheap, grown year round, and are not FDA regulated (i.e. these do not have to be declared as an allergen on packaging). These are often hidden in compound ingredients, as are other products that may be soy derived. I have to check ingredients every single time I buy something (even if I’ve bought it before). I don’t buy anything containing oil or emulsifiers unless those are 100% declared and identifiable (i.e. canola oil and sunflower lecithin). 

I also have to be careful about bathroom products because glyercin can be soy derived. I’ve changed our bathroom to natural products like shampoo bars and chemical free soap products.

What foods contain soy?

I’ve tried to keep the table below to ingredients. The reality is that these ingredients can be in anything other than raw fruit, most raw vegetables, and most unprocessed raw meats. Soy can be present in anything else including bread, biscuits, crackers, dried fruit (i.e. sultanas have oil added), deli meats, bacon, sausages, peanut butter, spreadable butter, margarine, spice mixes; I’ve even looked at tins of ‘beans in springwater’ which have had soy!

I’ve inserted the table it as a photo so that it’s possible to save the image to your phone or print it for your wallet.

Ingredients that may contain SOY

Note: Also miso (as a soup or paste)!