Lifestyle Choices

The following gives a quick reference to the many and varied soy foods available

• Miso: Soybeans fermented into a paste. It has a meaty taste, excellent for seasonings or as a soup base.
• Natto: A bacterially fermented soybean.
• Soy flour Soybeans ground into flour. Substitute part of the wheat flour in a recipe with soy flour to increase protein content.
• Soy grits: The oil is extracted from the soybeans; the residue is coarsely ground.
• Soy oil: The oil is extracted from the bean.
• Soymilk: A liquid extracted from the soybean that is meant to be used in place of milk.
• Tamari: Naturally aged and fermented soy sauce.
• Tempeh: A mold-fermented soy patty.
• Tofu Curdled soymilk, using a mineral coagulant, and pressed into a cake.

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In addition to the major soy foods described above, there are a number of lesser known ones. These include the following: Natto. Made from fermented, cooked whole soybeans that are mixed with a bacteria culture and aged in plastic bags, natty can be used over rice, in miss soups, and with vegetables.

• Soy cheese. Made from soymilk, it has a creamy texture and can be substituted for dairy sour cream or cheese.

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The naturally fermented, dark-brown liquid called tamari or shoyu is true soy sauce. Tamari is made by mixing cooked soybeans with a grain and a mold, then allowing the mixture to ferment in salty brine from twelve to eighteen months.

You will find natural shoyu or tamari in Asian markets and health food stores, packaged in glass containers. Use tamari as you would soy sauce in rice and vegetable dishes, soups, casseroles, marinades, and stir-fries. Do not boil tamari sauce-add it at the end of cooking to preserve all its enzymes and nutrients. A little bit goes a long way, as it is salty and very high in sodium.

Milling the soybean into meal for animal food produces soy oil, an important but little known ingredient in our diet. Most likely when a product label says simply “vegetable oil,” it really contains soy oil. Most commercially sold baked, fried, frozen, canned, imitation dairy, and processed meat foods contain soy oil. Free of cholesterol and saturated fat, soy oil is a good source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which are believed to help prevent heart disease. Use soy oil in recipes as a substitute for other types of vegetable oil. The high smoking point of soy oil means that foods may be fried at high temperatures virtually smoke free. Other soy oil byproducts include lecithin, which helps to keep mixed foods blended; vitamin E, used to make supplements; and sterols, which pharmaceutical companies use to make supplemental sex hormones.

Also known as soybean curd, tofu is becoming a popular staple in this country. This completely flavorless, cheese like food is made by adding a coagulant to fresh, hot soymilk, which curdles the liquid. The curd then is formed into cubes. Typically, the curdling ingredient is either niggard, a substance found in sea salt, or calcium sulfate, a natural mineral. Tofu made with calcium sulfate is exceptionally high in calcium, with as much as 130 milligrams in a 4-ounce serving. Acidic foods such as lemon juice or vinegar also can create curds. (more…)