Could vegan alternatives be worse for you?

Question

By this I mean, alternatives like chicken style tofu, meat free ham, nut cutlets (high in fat), soy ice cream and chocolate and vegan cheese? Are they healthier that the 'normal' products, I dont understand how SOY can me made in to so many different products...are there alot of bad things in these alternatives?

Answer 1

Quick unresearched thought: probably. Seems like everything that is supposed to be a healthy alternative to a "normal" product ends up being bad for you. Exhibit A: aspartame. Also it seems like the more something is processed the worse it is for you, be it bologna or some of these soy products. I'd take edamame over some weird thing that looks kind of like ham any day.

Answer 2

I guess there could be additives like preservatives and artifical colors and so on But soy products are usually marketed to vegetarians and "health nuts" and I would think they would avoid putting things in the food that would discourge the customers from buying it.

No telling what a food company will come up with though. "Granola" was supposed to be "health food" and now you can find "Marshmallow Granola Bars" and things like that.

Somebody is probably going to answer here with the alleged "dangers of soy" feminizing men, causing thyroid problems, etc. Media hype. I have eaten soy foods for thirty years and I don't have any of those problems. It's nonsense. There are some weird results in soy research, but then there are other studies that contradict those claims. I had to study statistics in college and it's pretty easy to make things look the way you want by emphasizing some results and ignoring others. If the "soy dangers" were real then the FDA, AMA and ADA would all be supporting it. They aren't.

Answer 3

Vegan products are often not at all healthier than the "normal" alternatives Any processed and prepared food is going to have its failings and any diet that depends heavily on a few ingredients is also going to have real pitfalls. Soy is an Oestrogen mimicker and too much of it upset your body's hormonal balance, but so many vegan foods from health stores and even supermarkets are made with it that we end up supposing that it must be good for us or surely they would not use so much of it..besides, vegan food is somehow perceived as being healthy in and of itself.
Try to vary the prepared foods you use, Quorn is made from mushrooms, not soy and although I would not recommend every product made from it, the "Meat"balls, fillets and pieces are all very useful and have a good mouth feel..besides lending themselves to a variety of recipes as a simple replacement for chicken..although Quorn requires much less cooking.
Mostly I would suggest that a vegan prepares most of their meals for themselves...get a good vegetarian recipe book and make what substitutions are necessary,making sure that you have as varied a diet as possible with plenty of fruit and veg as well as nuts, oils and pulses. And when you do buy prepared foods, check out the addatives in them..pointless colourings, preservatives if food that is already tinned or frozen or dried and does not need any other preservation, and flavor enhancers ..which are worse than salt and used as a substitute for it...you can add your own salt after all.if these things come high on the list then think twice before buying.

Answer 4

Yes they can. Soy first of all has to be organic. GMO-soy, including soy protein isolate and TVP, is everywhere. GMO-soy is where soybeans have been added the Brazilian nut gene to make it more pest resistant. Many people are allergic to nuts. They have also found that the DNA fragment for the protein,can also be excised out of the soy's DNA and put into your gut bacteria's DNA (so you end up making this protein in your own body forever as long as the bacteria has the gene in its DNA and duplicates - a good week of antibiotics may get rid of the GMO-bacteria).

Processed food is not healthy in the first place. You could be omnivore or herbivore, eating processed food with animals or without animals/animal by-products is not healthy. You have to take responsibility for what you put in your body, so take the time to prepare your food and know what is going in. Because many times food toxins (preservatives, additives, conditioners, flavorings, colorings) are not processed and are just wrapped up in your fat tissue and put away in your body for the rest of your life.

Answer 5

Soy milk/curd alone as a food is not harmful if eaten in moderation( any food eaten to excess or exclusively can be harmful). It's what is done to soy that can be unhealthy. Check the labels to see what is in these soy products.

Answer 6

They are likely to be bad simply because they are less like the living forms than the "real" alternatives. They are likely to be high in trans fats as well as soya, and in the potentially carcinogenic isoflavones in the toilet itself. The best thing to do is to design your own diet based on established nutritional principles, based on fresh and unprocessed foods.

Answer 7

Here's a pretty good compilation of the latest determinations re: soy and soy products. http://www.frot.co.nz/dietnet/basics/soy.htm

Of course I can't boast the overwhelming authority of a person who took a statistics course "in college" LOL ... but a number of research universities have concluded that soy can be problematical.

An interesting note is that Asians regard soy as a condiment rather than a protein staple. Anyone who has spend time in Asian cultures would know this. Soy consumption as a protein source is peculiar to the misplaced western notion of "strict vegetarian/vegan of convenience".

However, from a business perspective soy and soy products are a multi-billion dollar business. It's gigantic and tons of money on soy products and soy futures exchange hands worldwide daily on futures and commodities markets. Probably one of the more lucrative commodities on the world market--fortunes can be made and lost in soy futures at the stroke of a key.

And where there are obscene amounts of money to be made you are going to have self-interest and the health of the public be damned.

Strict "Veggers" in modern societies by and large are "faddists", IMO and hence extremely gullible to market manipulation and possess little innate or folk wisdom about the diet they cling to with ferocity usually reserved for life and death matters. So they inadvertently eat a lot of crap that is unhealthy.

Flexitarian vegetarians tend to be "thinking" vegetarians and intune with those cultures that eschew fads for moderation, balance, exercise and spiritual practice.

Answer 8

afaik- they are healthier, especially in the way they are made.

I do not do soya in a big way so i dont really know too much about it.

I think its safe to say, Its certainly good in moderation, but like all things in life : Only as part of a balanced diet

Answer 9

many vegan alternatives are high fat and veggie protiens are not as compleat. it is always best to eat a vierity of foods including meat ,cheese, and vagan produtcs