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Originally Posted by ani'smommy
 Can someone elaborate on how soymilk is made? We drink raw cow's milk here, but I'm just curious. How is it overprocessed?
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| Soy milk can be made from whole soybeans or full-fat soy flour. The dry beans are soaked in water overnight or for a minimum of 3 hours or more depending on the temperature of the water. The rehydrated beans then undergo wet grinding with enough added water to give the desired solids content to the final product. The ratio of water to beans on a weight basis should be about 10:1. The resulting slurry or purée is brought to a boil in order to improve its nutritional value by heat inactivating soybean trypsin inhibitor, improve its flavor and to sterilize the product. Heating at or near the boiling point is continued for a period of time, 15-20 minutes, followed by the removal of an insoluble residue (soy pulp or okara) by filtration. There is a simple yet profound difference between traditional Chinese and Japanese soy milk processing: the Chinese method boils the filtrate (soy milk) after a cold filtration, while the Japanese method boils the slurry first, followed by hot filtration of the slurry. The latter method results in a higher yield of soy milk but requires the use of an anti-foaming agent or natural defoamer during the boiling step. Bringing filtered soy milk to a boil avoids the dangerous problem of foaming. It is generally opaque, white or off-white in color, and approximately the same consistency as cow's milk. When soybeans absorb water, the endogenous enzyme, Lipoxygenase (LOX), EC 1.13.11.12 linoleate  xidoreductase, catalyzes a reaction between polyunsaturated fatty acids and oxygen {hydroperoxidation}. LOX initiates the formation of free radicals, which can then attack other cell components. Soybean seeds are the richest known sources of LOXs. It is thought to be a defensive mechanism by the soybean against fungal invasion.In 1967, experiments at Cornell University and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, NY led to the discovery that rancid, paint-like, off-flavors of traditional soy milk can be prevented from forming by a rapid hydration grinding process of dehulled beans at temperatures above 80 °C. The quick moist heat treatment inactivates the LOX enzyme before it can have a significant negative effect on flavor. All modern bland soymilks have been heat treated in this manner to destroy LOX. Normal mature soybeans actually contain three LOX isozymes (SBL-1, SBL-2, and SBL-3) important for undesirable flavor development. One or more of these isozymes have recently (1998) been removed genetically from soybeans yielding soy milk with less cooked beany aroma and flavor and less astringency. An example of a triple LOX-free soybean is the American soybean named "Laura". The University of Illinois has developed a soy milk that makes use of the entire soybean. What would normally constitute "insolubles" are ground so small by homogenization as to be in permanent suspension. Commercial products labeled "soy drink" in the West are often derivatives of soy milk containing more water or added ingredients. |
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Originally Posted by cristeen
Also be aware that fresh soy milk that you make at home will spoil in... 5 days maybe (I'm guessing, I know it has a very short life-span). Whereas a lot of soy milk sold in stores is shelf stable, and even the refrigerated stuff usually has a life span of a couple weeks (from when it's made to it's "sell by date").
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Originally Posted by UUMom
OTOH, no society has ever eaten soy at the rate Americans do. A little tofu in a stir fry is not the same as a toddler drking liters of the stuff daily. Such high consumption of soy products is a modern experiment.
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Originally Posted by melissa17s
My experience in S.E. Asia is the exact opposite. I have never seen so many variations on soy. It is a huge part of the diet there. Not just a little in the stirfry- bean curd with veggies, tahu or tau hoo (another dialect for tofu) in soup, tahu goreng, fried to look like match sticks and dip in spicy peanut sauce, as a dessert with fruit, gelatonous variations, fermented soybeans (different than soy sauce) to marianate meat or in veggie stirfries, tempe, soymilk, fish stuffed in tofu fried, ... These are not "new" dishes. They are traditional part of the diet in that area and eaten more frequently than meat.
Homemade soy milk tastes very different than American processed. It is much beaner tasting. In fact part of the processing done here is to remove the beany flavor. As was stated before, it is not gmo, if it is organic. |
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Originally Posted by melissa17s
My dh is laughing at your soymilk claim, and he says, "... and Japanese don't eat sushi!" He grew up there drinking it, as did his father, and so on. His mum did not, though, because she does not like the taste.
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Did it taste 'beany'?|
Originally Posted by UUMom
Asians *do not* drink soymilk in the quantities Americans do.
And fermented soy is a whole different, more healthful way to consume soy. Drinking soymilk as Americans do *is* new. |
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Originally Posted by Rainbowbird
One thing to bear in mind about fermented foods, soy or otherwise: they can be tough on the tummy. Japanese men have the highest rate of stomach cancer in the world, and it is believed that this is due to a high ingestion of fermented foods, like Miso and others. Yes, they can be healthy in small amounts, but like everything, too much of a good thing is bad.
You can google this to verify it...there are tons of studies out there on the high stomach cancer rates in Japan. |
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Originally Posted by UUMom
How old is your dh? Thing have changed for the current generation, for sure! I would hope your dh did not get soy milk as produced in the US, and I would think he didn't drink the sort of soy produced in the US. If he got tradtional milk, that is not the same as what is available in the US.
So I am thinking that even the Japanese can fall into the ease of proceesed/packaged foods. I hope the soy milk there respects the ancient ways of processing. I *never* worry about traditional /ancient type foods grown and processed in traditional ways. |
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Originally Posted by Chicharronita
When I was growing up in Japan in the 70s, almost everyone ate traditional meals, with very little soy or soy milk (my family preferred cow's milk over soy milk, and I didn't even know about the latter until moving here to the States).
My mother, who still lives there, says things have changed, and there's all kinds of processed soy products available now. Looks like they've fallen for the soy hype like most Americans. In addition, it's true they are eating other processed foods as well, including massive amounts of junk food. When I was growing up, you hardly ever saw young people with acne. Now it's extremely common for teenagers to have "pizza face." |
That's so sad. Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking more about 'diets of old' and not the sort of aseptic packaged soy milk people in the states buy to pour on everything, & give to small children in large amounts to drink etc. You're right things have changed so much. My understanding is that soy milk in parts of Asia (in the 'old days' lol) was often a meal in itself, and that the soy milk we have here in the US (Vanilla !Chocolate! Encriched! Vitamin D added! ) isn't at all the same as tradtional soy milks, and were not drunk or used in the same large quantitites as currently consumed.
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Originally Posted by UUMom
Melissa-- I love food and culture! It's a great source of joy for me. I still keep thinking about going to grad school and studiying food and culture. There is a uni near me that offers that as an MA, and sometimes I drool thinking about it.
:If your dh wouldn't mind, might he recall how much soy milk he drank on a daily basis? (Metric is ok, I can do conversions, no problem). And if it was flavored? Did he drink it with meals, or on it's own as a meal? What would he eat with if he drank it with food? And anything else he could share. I know I sound crazy, but this is incredibly interesting to me from a anthropological prespective. |
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Originally Posted by melissa17s
I want to clarify a few things- I totally agree about quality... I was commenting before on the quantity aspect of your comment. I see it alot in threads here that state very little soy is consumed elsewhere compared to US, but I disagree.
Dh is EurAsian from Singapore. As a child, he usually drank 3 or so 8 oz. glasses of soymilk at school, and maybe a can of Yeo's soymilk at home (same size as pop can- we can get it at our local Asian grocery). He says that Chinese families in S'pore drank soymilk the way many American families drink cow's milk. S'pore's population is 78% Chinese. The Malays (13%) also drink soy; it is cheaper than cow's milk, which is not a really part of their diet. We are very careful to only buy organic here from the US. I feel it is better to eat than traditional from the Asian grocery store. In fact, I am scared of foods that come from Chinese sources because of the things showing up in pet foods from China, such as melamine and acetaminophen. |
It seems soy milks are very popular now in some parts of Asia, and are drunk similarly in quantity and quality as in the US. It seems it has been in the past 20 years this change has occured. So for hundreds of years, soy milks were one thing and now they are another.
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Originally Posted by melissa17s
Yes, S'pore is very wealthy. Dh is in his mid thirties. We just went back last Dec.-Jan. and it was so different from our trip 4 years ago. When dh was a kid, they still had kampongs, which were small fishing villages. Now, everyone lives in flats (some with 20,000 people in one complex). If you want to learn more about the food culture in the area, google the words Singapore and "Makan", which means to eat.
Yes, there are Western influences, but it is still predominately Asian with everyday food. Some Western things adapt to appeal to the S'pore market... such as Mcdonalds. On tv, they advertised this fish sandwich like crazy because hamburgers are not all that popular. It is a freeport, so you can get any packaged food you want- including US organics, but it is to expensive for most people. The most popular places to eat are the Hawker Centers, where food is cheap (about $2-3 US for a plate full). |
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Originally Posted by melissa17s
UUmom, you will be over half way to S'pore, if you get to Korea
I saw something earlier in the thread about gmo in "tofu pups" and so on... Lightlife, which makes smart dogs and tofu pups does not use gmo according to their website http://www.lightlife.com/ouringredients.html but they are a subsiderary of Conagra, so it maybe only a matter of time. Also, Yves states on their packaging that they do not use gmo. Neither company is organic. |
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Originally Posted by Ygle
Where have you read this? Any research info? I've read articles *suggesting* a link between high soy consumption and developmental issues but those always involve soy formula, whereas individual studies with regular soy consumption showed no difference... I would be very interested in anything actually showing a real connection -thanks for any info!
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