On the opposite spectrum, my daughter was allergic to Milk based formula and had to be put on Soy for a short time when she was a baby. Also, in grade school, we used to be fed Soy burgers at lunch time in the cafeteria (I actually think they still serve Soy burgers..but not positive). Other than that, I had never really been introduced or familiar with Soy. After I started Atkins, Soy has become a player. For example: soy noodles, soy flour, soy in my low carb tortillas, Soy in my low carb bread. I don't ever recall coming into contact with so much Soy before....unless I am just NOW finally paying attention to what is in the actual ingredients
So, is soy a major player in Low Carb, or does soy play a large part in other foods too? I really wish I knew more about it.
BTW Nancy, this post isn't actually directed at YOU , I just quoted you because you said people are allergic to soy...and It reminded me of how my daughter had to be put on it.

It's used a lot these days. This was highlighted in Europe because of the backlash against GM foods - soy here cannot be guaranteed non GM - so people who wanted to avoid GM soy just had to avoid it altogether, and it seemed to be in *everything*

from a factsheet by the British Institute of Food Research http://www.ifr.ac.uk/public/FoodInfoSheets/soya.html

"About two-thirds of all manufactured food products contain derivatives or ingredients made from soya. ...

In its pure form as a vegetable oil, [soya] is often used in salad dressings and mayonnaise; as a vegetable fat it is used for baking and frying. Soya lecithin acts as an emulsifier in some chocolate, breakfast cereals, ice cream, sweets and margarine. Soya oil is also used in a wide variety of non-food products eg soap, biological detergents, plastics, and CFC-free cooling agents; the derivative glycerine is used in the manufacture of emulsifiers for skin cream and softeners for gelatin capsules.

Soya flours were developed in the 1940s by grinding and screening defatted flakes; these are used to increase the shelf-life of many products and improve the colour of pastry crusts; the flour is free of gluten, so cannot replace all the wheat or rye flour in bread-making but can be used at about 15% to give a dense bread with a nutty flavour and moist quality. Texturised soy protein (TSP or TVP) is made from soya flour that is compressed until the fibres change in structure. It is available to home cooks as a dried, granular product and in chunk-sized pieces for rehydrating and use as a meat-replacer.

Following the development of methods to produce isolated soya proteins in the 1950s, it is also processed for use as soya protein in biscuits, sweets, diet drinks, pasta and frozen foods; it also improves the consistency of meat products. It is added to many foods including pizzas, noodles, bread, foods for special dietary needs, for instance soya drinks, which serve as a substitute for cows milk. Various cheese and other milk and meat substitute products, such as miso, tofu and tempeh, can be made by fermenting soya protein. In addition, naturally-brewed soya sauce uses a starter culture called koji, a member of the Aspergillus family, with a mixture of soya beans and wheat."

HTH

It's used in a lot of low-carb stuff because it's the only complete, non-animal protein. Vegatarian low-carbers have to really depend on it, and I just plain like a lot of the soy products on the market.

Also, Carb Countdown milk is not available to me since I have no car to drive the long distance to the nearest store, so I have to use unsweetened soy milk on my cereal.

My son is a vegetarian and eats two or three Boca Veggie burgers a day. I'm a bit worried about the soy effects on a young man who has hormone problems to begin with.

Are they thyriod problems he has, or other hormones?

Others. Low testosterone levels.

Soy can be a benefit to low testosterone levels. Shippen's The Testosterone Syndrome says soy is a much weaker type of estrogen. But it can attach to estrogen sites, preventing real estrogen for attaching. Low levels of testosterone are sometimes caused by too my aromatase. This is an enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen. So by suppressing aromatase, testosterone levels can rise. To block aromatase, Shippen recommends soy, broccoli, cauliflower and zinc. Losing weight helps, as does cutting back on alcohol consumption. The book goes into a lot of detail of what can increase testosterone while decreasing estrogen.

Curiously, I was put on soy milk in the 1950's because cow's milk gave me colic, and I ate a lot of it when I was a vegetarian for 25 years, but now I am allergic to it (hives, breathing problems & stuffed up head) so I avoid it.