It is not an understatement to say that soy is in nearly everything.
Here are the top 10 foods the average person does not realize is filled with soy. The following ingredients all mean soy: hydrolized soy protein, edamame, soy protein isolate, soybean oil. It’s also important to note that the following ingredients often contain soy: vegetable oil, hydrolized vegetable protein, vegetable broth, artificial flavour.
1. Salad dressing
Every single bottle of salad dressing out of 123 types in my grocery aisle contains soy or soy bean oil, including brands like Kraft, Newmans Own and Presidents Choice products, which is the home brand for Loblaw grocery stores in Canada.
2. Bread
Out of the 82 varieties of bread including the very fancy home made looking ACE bakery products, only one did not list soy as an ingredient. That one did however list vegetable oil and when I called they confirmed that they did use soy oil in their vegetable oil.
3. Crackers
All kids love crackers and hooray I found 2 varieties that do not contain soy: Stoned Wheat Thins and President’s Choice brand stone milled crackers. Unfortunately Goldfish and the other 16 kids branded crackers all contain soy.
4. Premade dessert
Want to grab a cake, or cupcakes at the grocery store for your next event? It’s not going to happen if you are avoiding soy. All items in the bakery department at Walmart contained soy or a soy byproduct. I was excited to see ‘School Safe’ branded products in the bakery department which were all peanut-free, but unfortunately all of them contain soy.
5. Breakfast Bars
In a hurry in the morning and need something quick? You won’t be able to find a soy-free breakfast bar. A check at a large grocery store (with a variety of brands such as Nutrigrain, Kelloggs, etc) and at our local health food store left us empty handed!
6. Chips
The variety of chips seems to have ballooned in the past 10 years. Our local grocery store had 82 varieties of chips available. Kudos to Presidents Choice brand tortilla chips and Cape Cod brand Kettle Cooked Chips for being the two that did not contain soy.
7. Cookies
The go to for many families is a store bought bag of cookies. Oreos, Goldfish cookies, Mr. Christie chocolate chip cookies and most other varieties contain soy. Fortunately, Enjoy Life brand makes a variety of cookies and snack bars that are all soy free!
8. Sunday Brunch
IHOP used to be our family Sunday morning ritual when we lived on the west coast. They have a 17 page allergy menu available and we were glad to see that some of the more simple items were soy free (oatmeal, yogurt tube). Pancakes, French toast, egg dishes, all bread products and all the breakfast meats (bacon, ham, sausage) contained soy.
9. Burgers for lunch
Burger King Canada has an 8 page allergy menu with a list of all the items they carry. Of the lunch and breakfast items there were 2 items (French fries and chicken fingers) that did not contain soy or share a fryer. Unfortunately on the first page they noted that the fryer oil contains soy oil.
10. A Steak dinner
A night out at the Keg (who has an excellent allergy menu) could include bread to start and a French onion soup to share. For your main you choose a steak, Caesar salad and baked potato. For desert a slice of cheese cake . As you are leaving you grab a mint. Looking over the allergy menu you find that every – single – one of these menu choices contain soy. Even the mint.
