Soy

Apparently it's food week on my blog!  Haha....since I mentioned milk yesterday, I felt like I had to share something else that's helped our health tremendously.  For the past year, Emilynn has complained and complained about her stomach.  She would either have a really upset stomach (I'll spare you the details), or just complain it hurt.  She would hold it saying it hurt, or sometimes just say her tummy was "grumbly."  We couldn't pinpoint anything causing it, I tried keeping food journals in an attempt to see a connection but couldn't figure it out so I gave that up.  I discussed it with her pediatrician at the 3 year check up.  She immediately recommended an elimination diet and told me the cause was probably dairy.  Hmmm...I had issues with this for several reasons.  First of all, our dairy is the best quality dairy and I fully believe in it's health benefits.  Secondly, I know sometimes doctors aren't really trained in nutrition, so I couldn't figure out what she was basing this on.....just a generalization I guess.  Thirdly, my "mommy instincts" told me it wasn't the case.  I don't know why, but I just didn't believe it.  She has been drinking milk (and lots of it) since she was 1 year old without incident.  Oh, and the dr. did not ask me to come back for a follow up or anything, I felt like she basically dismissed us to figure it out ourselves or just "deal." 
I decided to research it a bit and decide what I thought was best for our girl.  I consulted two of my friends who think the way we do about food and are also considered "weird"- haha!  One gave me some interesting advice.  She suggested we try to cut soy out of our diet.  Hmmm....we don't eat much soy anyway, or so I thought!  Once I started researching it, I realized we probably eat soy ALL THE TIME!  It turned out to be really simple though, I just started reading labels more carefully and not buying products with soy in them.  It was amazing!  We cut them immediately and it's been over a month now and Emilynn has not complained once about her stomach.  It is truly unbelievable!!  A lot of family members had known and heard her complain about her stomach.  I am thankful that we found out what was causing her problems.  The friend that gave me this tip said she had another friend who could not tolerate soy, it made her very ill.  I know of someone else who gets sick when they have MSG, which has soy in it. 
Apparently it's in lots of things-chocolate and candies, all kinds of processed foods, and many, many things.  Here's a list of some things on ingredient labels which may mean it contains soy: 

• soy (obviously)
• hydrolyzed soy protein (HSP)
• mono- & di- glycerides
• MSG (monosodium glutamate)
• soy lethicin
• soy protein (concentrate, hydrolyzed, isolate)
• soybean oil
• teriyaki sauce
• textured vegetable protein (TVP)
• bulking agent
• hydrolyzed plant/vegetable protein (HPP or HVP)
• gum arabic
• guar gum
• lethicin
• mixed tocopherol
• natural flavoring
• stabilizer
• thickener
• vitamin E
• vegetable gum

I know that sounds like a lot, but it gets easier as you get used to reading labels and scanning ingredients.  I have found I really don't like buying things with a huge ingredient list anyway.....I don't know about everyone else, but I don't know what that stuff above really is, so I don't know that I want to be eating it!