Is tofu good and okay?

Davy

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  1. Vegan newbie
I did a search to find the best sources of protein. Up came lentils, pintos, black beans and LENTILS.
Then I searched lentils and there's so much negativity on them.
Is Tofu good and okay on the Vegan diet?
 
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Yes, tofu is good, great even depending on how you cook it. It's versatile. I use extra firm, non gmo tofu and make scrambled tofu with it. You can even use silken tofu to make an omelette. I haven't tried it yet since it's a lot of work and I always forget to buy silken tofu. Silken tofu can also be used in smoothies and to make sauces. You can put tofu in stir fry and curry. Marinade it, bake it, bread and fry it. I also make a tofu salad as well like egg salad but with tofu. It's with extra firm tofu and drained as much as possible by putting it on top of towels and pressing down on it. Then you freeze it. Take it out the next day and let it defrost in the fridge for about a day. Then drain it again, cube it up, add veganaise, paprika, garlic powder, mustard and turmeric. It's so good.
 
Thanks for the reply. In my original post, the last word in the 2nd sentence was supposed to be TOFU, not LENTILS. Also the same in the
next sentence...so much negativity on TOFU. I must have had and old Tibetan condition - lentils on the brain.
So I'll have to learn the diff. btw Silken and the other kinds of Tofu. Seems quite a bit of protein!
 
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Pffftt. Makes sense AlleyCat.
Off to the store for some tofu! :innocent:
 
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I love BBQ tofu. You really have to dry it though. Wet tofu is kind of mushy. I actually cut it in layers about 1/2 inch thick and put paper towels under and over it and use a can or two as weight to force the water out. Bake it up covered with your favorite marinade and munch away.
 
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Whoa, sounds good! :yum Thanks for the idea!
 
I find tofu far to bland and it just feels too sloppy but I really like this recipe for tofu vegeburgers:
500g firm tofu
180g TVP
1 heaped tsp marmite
1 tbsp soy sauce
8 chopped garlic cloves
pepper
olive oil
400 ml boiling water
  1. Reconstute TVP with hot water and ½ the soy sauce for 10 minutes.
  2. Combine tofu, tvp, garlic, the other ½ soy sauce, marmite and pepper in food processor or just mash it all together with a fork or blender.
  3. Divide into 8 burgers.
  4. Brush burgers on top side with olive oil and fry in oil for 3 minutes on each side at setting 4.5.
  5. Drain burgers and freeze.
 
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I get my extra firm tofu from a local tofu shop and it's never "sloppy" (sometimes the imported shelf-stable kind is though, I know what you're talking about) ...I love to cube it and just throw it in with rice ramen, soy sauce, kale, lemon juice and togarashi spices.

Chinese people have been eating tofu for thousands of years. If you mostly stick to plain tofu, edamame, miso I don't see why there would be any bad effects. I guess you can eat too much, but you can avoid that by drinking hemp milk or almond milk instead of soy milk if you're eating tofu that day. The amount of soy you have to eat for it to be too much is actually a really ridiculous amount, I saw a study on it once, it would literally be like soy milk with breakfast, and tofu with lunch AND dinner...most people don't eat that much soy.

It's probably best to eat processed soy products in moderation though. As in once or twice week, or less. By that I mean "faux meats" that contain soy protein isolate. Not all faux meats do though, some are made from pea protein and grains instead, or vital wheat gluten, so don't always jump to conclusions without reading labels first.

Seitan is a faux meat you can make from scratch at home, so that you're not always eating tofu, and you have an option besides beans.
 
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Yes, tofu is fine. I personally felt my stomach a little iffy (not much) after the first couple of times I tried it, but maybe it was coincidence or I didn't cook it well. I persisted with it and reduced the quantity per meal, and the next times felt fine.

The tofu I found is very high in calcium, which is useful for a vegan diet which can be low on calcium sometimes without planning.

By the way, protein is not generally a major concern on a vegan diet, but it's good to eat some legumes (soy, lentils etc).
 
@Davy what were the Naga tube things you heard about tofu? It would be good to dispelled the myths one at a time. I know there are a couple that are quite prevalent.

Most of the negativity about it comes from the meat industry. Back in the 70's soy started to take off as a health food, and an alternative to meat. The industry didn't like that much so they reached into their deep pockets and pulled out some "researchers" that came up with the a priori conclusion that it is dangerous. This created a scare that caused a lot of public distrust in soy products and ultimately caused a couple generations to stay away from it. The accusations are pretty much all the same, and there are a lot of articles and videos that disprove the claims. Dr. Michael Gregor MD does a great job of explaining the situation if you want a more detailed explanation. They fall into a couple categories. In the following information I will talk about soy, because that is where they attack, and tofu is just a soy product.

1: Soy gives you man-boobs because it has estrogen.
This is totally rediculous. If we look at the science we see that soy has PHYTOestrogen. Estrogen comes from animals, and can be found in ANIMAL products. That is what screws up hormone levels in both men and women which leads to difficulties with menopause, their cycle, man-boobs, moodiness, etc. If we think about it, what is going to have a lot of estrogen, which is a hormone in females? Lactating cows! They are pumped full of the stuff to make sure they don't stop giving milk. Phytoestrogen found in soy is a plant estrogen that will actually BALANCE our natural estrogen levels. Women that have heat flashes see improvement because it helps clear excess estrogen. Men don't have to worry. It doesn't do the same thing as estrogen.
From an observatory standpoint, just look at the cultures that consume large amounts of soy. Do the Chinese have man-boobs? No! The ones that do are not the ones eating a traditional Chinese diet.

2: Soy is bad for the environment.
This claim hardly needs a response. They say soy is a destructive plant and much of the rainforest is being destroys to plant soy. People eating soy are NOT the cause for that! Soy beans are widely used to feed livestock. This is why we need so much.

3: GMO soy.
GMO soy is not good, but tofu is rarely GMO. They use the junk in things don't think about. Candy bars, livestock feed, etc. Don't worry too much about this one.

Soy is an amazing g food, and can be consumed basically without restriction. It is tough to get to a point where you are eating too much soy. Just eat a balanced vegan diet and don't worry. I hope this helps.
 
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This is a very useful and informative link regarding soya. Part of it is posted above, but only post. Have a good read and become better informed about the situation. It is not just restricted to tofu because tempeh is also from soya beans, then there's soya milk, soya cream, obviously various tofu versions (silken, medium, firm tofu to name a few), edmame beans and TVP or soya chunks/mince to name a few of the top of my head at 5 am in the morning.

https://freefromharm.org/health-nutrition/vegan-doctor-addresses-soy-myths-and-misinformation/

And recently a new use for the left overs after making soya (anything soya) had been re-invented, soya yarn (for knitting, weaving etc) making it more environmentally friendly than previously. I'll see if I can find a link.

http://www.imrsheep.com/bamboo.html#SoySilk
 
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There is a lot of negative press about soy, soymilk, and tofu.
When I first became vegetarian I became very worried because I saw soybeans, soy milk, and tofu as really good sources of protein in my new plant-based diet. So I hit the Internets with my best research skills, a serving of critical thinking, and a healthy dose of skepticism.

I think my very first conclusion was that almost all of the bad press was due to sloppy reporting with a healthy measure of sensationalism. For instance, the man boob story was reported over and over again as evidence that too much soy was bad for you.

It didn't take me too long to find out that the man boob story was true. But it had only happened once. And the guy was not only obese but emotionally or mentally unstable. He was drinking quarts of soymilk every day. So here was a good example of both sloppy and sensational reporting.

As I continued my research the next thing I found was that if you followed the citations references and citations just a little bit they all seemed to lead to the Wesson A. Price foundation. Dr. Price was a dentist, and as far as I can tell a pretty smart guy. But his foundation appears to have been suborned. Maybe by dairy industries. Not only do most anti-soy stories seem to have grown from WAP reporting - but many major scientific and medical have labeled his conclusions at least "questionable" and some have gone and labeled his conclusions dangerous propaganda.

One last myth I wanted to find out about. Over and over you hear the soy causes thyroid cancer and soy milk is not suitable for infant formula. I eventually gave up because some of the articles were over my head. but I did find one connection. Back in the '50s, in India, they did a small study on infant soymilk formulas. And one of the infants developed a thyroid issue. (not cancer!) It seems to me that this myth is so un-based in facts that I can't believe it still has legs. So there may be something else I couldn't figure out or discover. But just to further blow my mind, but the effects on infants' thyroids have never been replicated.

Just to touch a little of Luke's response. GMO soy is bad for the environment. They use tons of roundup to kill the weeds. The GMO soy is immune to Roundup. Then the round up washes down and into rivers, lakes, and oceans. Plus Monsanto who both makes the GMO Soy and roundup is just terribly unfair giant corp.

Then in the Amazon, they clear-cut forests to plant soy. The soy farms are unsustainable. Plus the harm to the environment and wildlife. But these soybeans are mostly exported to the USA as animal feed. KFC is the biggest importer.

Try as hard as you can to buy organic Non-GMO soy. And now the Trump administration's Tariff war is coming down on American Soy Farmers. (they export a lot of soy). So not only try to buy organic, non-GMO soy but try to buy North American grown soy.

One of the major soy milk makers, Silk, got bought up by a Big Four Food company. And I have my doubts about their soybeans. I've been avoiding them until I get some better reassurances.

References
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=111
http://zenhabits.net/soy/
https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/does-soy-really-cause-man-boobs
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/sbm-weston-prices-appalling-legacy/
 
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Never heard of that before. I guess their are a lot of lies about cow pus milk and meat being 'good' and soya being 'bad'. It's not even as if their are many of us about.
 
One of the major soy milk makers, Silk, got bought up by a Big Four Food company. And I have my doubts about their soybeans. I've been avoiding them until I get some better reassurances.


What's a Big Four food company? (Sorry, I hadn't heard that term before.)

Edited to add: I usually get Silk, so I want to know if it's something I should replace with another brand.
 
In the documentary, Food, Inc. the big four food companies are discussed. Just now I googled it cause I thought I would go ahead and name them. However, I discover that I misremembered or perhaps the documentary exaggerated. There are 10 big food companies, not four. However, something like 80% of the meat consumed in America is produced by just 4 big companies. So maybe that is what I remembered.

If you get a chance, watch Food, Inc. Its ten years old now but still very relevant. If you like to read, check out the book Fast Food Nation (but skip the movie).

Silk, which is also a big company, was part of a corp called WhiteWave which seemed to be a pretty ethical company. about two years ago it got bought up by Dean Foods, which is owned by Danone, which is one of the Big Ten. Anyway, several controversies are presently swirling around Silk. One of them is that the soybeans they are using are no longer USDA certified organic. Also, some of their soy milks no longer use whole soybeans but are made from hexane extracted soy flour.

I no longer buy Silk soymilk. Mostly I get Trader Joe's brand. or WildWood.
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/why-oca-calling-boycott-silk-soymilk


http://www.businessinsider.com/10-companies-control-the-food-industry-2016-9

https://www.hcn.org/issues/43.5/cat...-economic-squeezes/the-big-four-meatpackers-1

https://www.whitewave.com/why

http://fortune.com/2016/07/07/danone-whitewave-acquisition/
 
Way late for the OP, but maybe someone stumbles upon this.

Soybeans (and therefore tofu), have one of the best amino acid profiles of any bean. They have a ton of all of the essential amino acids, other than methionine, which all legumes lack.
 
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