Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Soy flour, soy protein, & bloating

Calories eaten yesterday: 1242
Fat: 25g (19%)
Carbs: 106g (36%)
Protein: 135g (46%)
Weight this morning: 133.2 (One week ago: 135)
Calories burned in exercise today: 144

Down another 2.6 pounds today. That's a loss of 8.8 pounds since Sunday. It has got to be the soy flour. As soon as I cut it out...whoosh. In fact, 133.2 is a new low for a Wednesday. My overall low to beat is 132.2, which I hit way back on July 6, and that was a Friday, when I usually see my lowest weight of the week. (I bounce up over the weekend since I just lose water weight during the week.)

Did some research yesterday on soy flour and bloating and learned that soy flour can cause bloating (from the carbohydrate component), but soy protein isolate and concentrate not so much because most of the carbohydrate is removed. Here's my research:

Found this on soy flour and protein in a Google search.

Q: How is soy protein different from soy flour?

A: It is the oligosaccharides in soy flour which cause problems with gas and bloating. These carbohydrates require the enzyme alpha-galactosidase to be broken down properly. Unfortunately humans often do not have enough of this enzyme. So when these carbs are not broken down in the small intestine, they pass to the large where they are fermented by bacteria causing gas and bloating. Soy protein isolate (SPI) is almost pure protein and thus considered practically free of "flatulence factors." (http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/soyflatulence.html)

Making things worse, soy flour also contains enzyme inhibitors which further delay the absorption of the full soy bean.

Extracted soy protein contains none of these enzyme inhibitors or carbohydrates. Thus many people who avoid soy flour are completely fine when consuming isolated soy protein. But as each of us is different, the best test is always to try.


Too bad I can't take an alpha-galactosidase pill!

From:
http://www.wellnessfoods.ca/FAQ.htm

And from another site:
Q: What is the difference between Isolated Soy Protein, Soy Protein Concentrate and Soy Flour?

A: On a dry weight basis, isolated soy protein is 90% protein, soy protein concentrate is 70% protein and soy flour is 50% protein.

Q: Does consuming soy protein cause GI problems such as gas and bloating?

A: All DrSoy protein bars and cookies are made with a soy protein isolate which is specially processed and should not produce gas or flatulence, as it is essentially free of flatulence-producing carbohydrates as found in many products made from the whole soybean.


From:
DrSoy.com's FAQ

Slept in today, but got some walking in. I got Lisa's photos of last Thursday's staff dinner up. They are on the main page of my Flickr account until I add more photos, so check them out soon! My boss Jon sent me the photos he took, so I will work on getting those up in the next couple of days.

My lower body workout yesterday killed my glutes! My butt is so sore! But it's a good sore - the kind that tell me I worked out hard. Tomorrow - upper body, my favorite.

The two months of NS eggs I ordered came today. Just in time. I ate my last egg breakfast yesterday and don't have enough whole eggs left to make another breakfast (I need four eggs - one whole egg and three whites, and I only have three eggs left). So I have tomorrow's breakfast.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Whoopie Victoria!!!
Repeat after me.... no more soy.... no more soy.. LOL
Glad to see you are feeling better about things!

Arthur_of_Old said...

Wow, isn't that the truth. Well, no more soy flour any way. She has it parsed out regarding which soy products causes the bloating. I have seen it first hand; soy isolates and soy protein seem to be fine.

She is very adroit and effective at terminating any one item that is affecting her body, then, dealing with it.