thickeners in vegan/soy foods
#361286 - 10/05/10 07:58 AM
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jennkenn
Reged: 10/02/10
Posts: 17
Loc: Long Island, NY
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Are there more fillers/thickeners in vegan and soy foods like yogurt and ice cream than regular dairy products? I'm so much more into eating foods with labels I can actually read; the less ingredients the better. However, these ingredients do not always agree with me  , and now I have to opt for these foods with all of these gums and thickeners. I know they aren't bad for you per se but I just want to know what the heck my body is doing with the these chemically made substances. I'd cut them out all together (soy yogurt, soy/vegan cheese, dairy-free ice cream), but then I just feel like I'm constantly eating bread/rice/carbs. Also, has anyone experienced headaches form such foods?
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IBS-A...just looking for some answers!
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Quote:
these chemically made substances.
You might be happy to know that not all of the thickeners you'll see as ingredients are lab-made. Gum arabic (acacia), corn starch, potato starch, guar gum and agar agar are natural thickeners. There's nothing inherently bad for you in any of them, unless you happen to be allergic to one of them or unless you find that any of them is an IBS trigger for you personally. These thickeners have a long history in natural vegetarian recipes and products (often as an alternative to milk products or gelatins). They also offer a lot of SF, so I'm thinking that would be a bonus. 
BTW, even at her lowest point, my daughter was able to eat Stonyfield Farms O'Soy Organic Chocolate yogurt with no trouble. (She's never had trouble w/soy, luckily.) It's got a nice taste and texture and the thickener is pectin. I swear that stuff was keeping her alive for a while there! If you can handle soy, I can't recommend it highly enough. You can even mix your acacia fiber supplement right into it. (There are lots of other flavors which are also tasty, but my daughter can't handle the IF of the fruit flavors.)
hope this helps,
kem (daughter w/ibs-d)
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So funny you say that about the Stonyfield O'Soy yogurt because I bought it yesterday and tried it today. I agree that it was really good...better than the Trader Joe's yogurt...but I'm still getting headaches. I'm trying to see if I'm just going through a withdrawal of some sorts or if there is something in the products that aren't agreeing with me. Did you daughter get gassy at all from the O'Soy because there is milk in it (in the active cultures)?
Can anyone help explain the headaches? This is what I've found so far on one website (obviously not the only answer I'm going with).
"Soybeans contain tyramine, a natural headache trigger, so all soy products have some headache potential. As soy is processed in the manufacture of certain products, and soy protein is thereby broken down (hydrolyzed) into its constituent amino acids, glutamate is released, and monosodium glutamate (MSG) — a potent migraine trigger — is formed."
-adapted from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5381403
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IBS-A...just looking for some answers!
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