Can someone with hypothyroidism eat soya and if not what are the alternatives.

[Caze]

I would like to eat less meat but.most dishes use soya products as meat substitutes. Any advice?

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Caze

Soya is not recommended except perhaps fermented soya.

If you want to eat less meat, why bother with "pretend" meat? I have eaten "less meat" for donkey's years, gave up red meat (beef, lamb) and eat chicken, fish (lots to choose from), turkey, very occasionally have local free range pork, occasionally a local butcher's sausage (excellent quality), some vegetable bases dishes. Never had, nor wanted, pretend meat in any form.

[gabkad in reply to SeasideSusie]

But not donkeys, right? SeasideSusie please tell me that Donkey's years doesn't

mean Donkey's ears........... I will forgive pork, chicken, turkey, duck, fish, shrimp,

cuttlefish, beef, horse, and lamb. But Donkeys? Never.

Actually, really. No.

Pretend meat is full of ingredients that make it the ultimate

processed food.

[Cooper27]

If you do want substitutes, then Quorn is an option. Some contains gluten.

I do agree with Seasidesusie though, you don't need the fake stuff. They're heavily processed, full of extra ingredients, and I don't think swapping a 1 ingredient food for a 30 ingredient fake version is really a healthier choice. You can find some tasty naturally vegetarian recipes to swap in instead

[hjh88]

A good way to avoid meat and meat substitutes is using beans and pulses. Things like lentil dhal with vegetable or paneer curry, mixed bean chilli, or vegetable stews bulked our with lentils.

[HashiFedUp]

I think soya is meant to be quite bad for people with thyroid problems. I avoid it as I know I feel unwell after having it.

[Punnet]

The issue with soya is misinformation on a huge scale. There is NO estrogen (what is usually quoted as being the problem) in soya so it is fine to eat as much as you like.

The thing people are mistaking for estrogen is phytoestrogen which is almost a carbon opposite to estrogen and actually helps prevent the uptake of estrogen by blocking the receptors for it.

I don't really want to get into yet another argument about this misinformation but can say that like peanuts and gluten you can have an intolerance to soya. You will find this out fairly quickly though. Bearing in mind that soya appears in many foods and is fed in humungous amounts to animals, it is a common factor in a lot of people's diets anyway. You should already know whether you are affected or not and then to avoid it is so difficult.

On a veggie note I do agree somewhat with not using processed foods (ALL processed foods) as substitutes but realise that people on the go sometimes need something that is easy. A veggie diet is a complete rethink of your eating habits which is usually a good thing.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Punnet]

Oestrogen is not the reason that hypo people shouldn't eat soya. It's because it stops thyroid hormones entering cells.

[Angel_of_the_North]

Just eat real food, not highly processed fake food (that includes soya meat substitutes). You can get protein from nuts, legumes, cheese, milk, eggs, seeds, kefir etc. But be aware that being hypo and not eating meat puts you at risk of B12 and iron deficiency. Eating processed food does not help the planet or you.

[Caze]

Many thanks for the replies. I was looking at soya as an option as I am gluten free, diabetic and following FODMap diet for IBS - so my diet is already quite restricted. However, I will give soya a miss.

[AnneEvo]

I'm vegetarian and very rarely eat meat substitutes. As someone else said you can get Quorn products. I sometimes make my own 'sausages' - main ingredients are mushrooms and chickpeas, or other pulses. I would highly recommend the 'Happy Vegan' by Fearne Cotton some great recipes in it. My niece bought me it for Christmas and though her family still eat meat they have several favourite dishes out of this book. One thing to bear in mind is, though you can get protein from other foods, quinoa, hemp seeds and amaranth seeds are classed as complete proteins - they have the full quota of all essential amino acids in sufficient quantities. Other plant foods do have all amino acids but in lower amounts . I would advise you to include seeds and nuts in your diet. You can easily find out say, the top ten nutritious seeds to eat.

[MariLiz]

Just a warning, when I did a Slimming World diet some years ago, I tried Quorn and it gave me the most terrible stomach pains. I’m not the only person to have this reaction, and not all of us had thyroid issues.