How healthy are free from foods?

Hi everyone,

This comes up time and again on gluten free sites because most processed gluten free replacement foods are very high in fat and sugar and low in protein.

Lots of plant based foods are aimed at vegan diary free and gluten free as its a wider market and they can highlight the 'free from' aspect. And my question is free from what because the implication is it is in the free from aisle its expensive it must be healthy.

Now I eat soya creams and ice cream and soya is one food group that concerns me as it is a very powerful protein so my approach is with respect and in moderation. So why do I eat it, thats easy my body does not like dairy equivalents so I haven't eaten ice cream for over 20 years and now buy Swedish Glace and Alpro single cream and I enjoy it with lots of fruit as part of my diet, anothermember has mentioned this on a couple of posts in replies and its a very good point.

I think the answer is to make our own plant based milk goodies so they are just that...full of goodness.

So do you worry or have concerns about any food groups that you eat like soya?

Here's the ingredients of Swedish Glace vanilla ice cream:

Water, sugar, dextrose, vegetable oils (palm, coconut), SOYA bean powder (6.6%), flavouring, emulsifiers (mono-and di-glycerides of fatty acids, citric acid esters of mono-and di-glycerides of fatty acids), salt, stabilisers (locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan), vanilla bean pieces, colour (carotenes).

[Veeee]

Does the soya ice cream have similar ingredients Jerry?

[Hidden in reply to Veeee]

Hi Veeee, those are the ingredients in the soya ice cream, basically its emulsifiers (gums) that are used extensively in mayo's as emulsifiers bind water and oil and they use artificial sugar and stabilisers so theres far worse ingredients in may other foods.

Soya has bad press because of the oestrogen and fermented soya seems to be a good solution. 😊

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I was eating it this evening as I read this fascinating thread. Any packaged food is bound to have the food chemicals/colouring/artificial flavour/glucose syrup/fructose etc. It has only 2% soybean powder listed as an ingredient. Thinking about it, it sounds like all marketing and it has no substance to it. Quite depressing, in fact.

I try not buy it too often, just to give my body some respite from these food toxins/chemicals (sugar, glucose syrup, YUK). Yes, I wish these weren't loaded with what used to be called "E-numbers" and sugar/sweeteners. It would have been nice if the SGI ice cream was made from "nice" (healthy) ingredients. But for £2.50 mass-produced ice cream? It's bound to be full of cheap ingredients, to put it bluntly. Swiss sounds nice but it is made by Unilever and made in a factory in Lithuania. Not quite sure where "swiss" is coming from. Pure marketing? More than likely? Make us think it's so much nicer than what it is made of?

At least, the government stopped "Diabetic friendly" label and made it illegal. I'm sure people still buy the products whatever the label says.

I doubt you would need to worry, Jerry. You eat, sensibly. This is a very politically incorrect statement, but in my area, I am a little apprehensive as I approach the ice cream section where larger people (three times the size of average-sized people, whose trolleys are loaded with heaps of processed foods) tend to congregate. Would that be their "weekly" shopping, I often wonder...They are not interested in losing weight AT ALL. I do dread to go to that section with a basket of shopping. I could normally tell when someone who's very overweight but is losing weight by eating sensibly. Their trollys are not full of cardboard boxes.

To answer your question in the OT. It's all marketing/manipulation. They know your vulnerable spot and their marketing trick may/might motivate you to buy their products by nicer packaging, appeals to someone's psychological trigger e.g. healthy, less-sugar, "Swiss" (quality?), gluten-free, soy (vegan) etc when it contains ONLY 2% soya powder listed as an ingredient. Made me wonder what it is actually made of. No "real food" in it, by the look of it.

[Veeee]

Also soya has had some bad press. This has caused people to be more careful.

[Hidden]

There's alot of stuff in that Jerry. I prefer to make most of my own things from scratch (just received my nut bag to make my nut milk) but I have to admit I do love Iceland's No Bull Burgers. I don't think the very odd manufactured food should be too bad as long as you don't eat it all the time.

I'm making black bean burgers tomorrow and have my sourdough dough ready to bake tomorrow.

[Agoodenough]

This is interesting. I am cautious of soya as my son saw a nutritionist and she says no one should eat soya. I think small amounts is probably fine. You have to pick your battles a bit in my opinion as the nutritionalist didn’t eat soya but did eat animal products so I think I would rather say I ate a bit of soya occasionally. I think a problem would only arise if you had an allergy to it or you over ate it by eating fake meat products on a daily basis or a few times a week. She also said people underestimate the dangers of MSG which is an interesting point. I have been eating GF bread recently and it doesn’t feel very healthy to me but seeing as I am trying to eliminate if I have a gluten intolerance I will carry on with it until I master making an edible homemade GF loaf. If I can make things myself I would rather do that 🙂

[andyswarbs Volunteer in reply to Agoodenough]

There are nations such as china that eat a lot of soya and have done for many many years without issue. So just on that basis I would question any nutritional advice saying avoid soya. That said...

There are links of soya to IGF1 (as is found in dairy), and that should not be ignored.

Processed soya is always to be limited. So edamame beans are a healthier option. Back to asian countries, they consume huge amounts of tofu without problem.

I think the core issue is that there are beneficial consitutents of soya that overall actually make it a good product. It is this "overall" that must be weighed up with any item. I am very against dairy because any positive nutrients are easily and plentifully available elsewhere, whereas the negatives are unavoidable and lots of research shows significant detrimental effects.

I don't see any significant detrimental research on soya, mostly it is just theory.

[andyswarbs Volunteer]

"free from" sadly can be method of selling foods that are highly processed to a vulnerable group of people. When you have reactions then you have little choice. But I feel one can fight reactions that are caused by poor gut health.

For instance I avoided gluten for 15 months during the lowest moments of my arthritic horror story. Now I have no problems with gluten and consider the wider range of foods a healthier lifestyle.