How Do You Know If You're Intolerant To Soy?

[RachelisFacebook]

I hear a lot about becoming intolerant to soy with celiac. How do you know if that's your case or not?

[mushroom]

For me it was a case of doing something I later found out is not recommended - replacing gluten foods with gluten-free processed foods. While I had formerly mostly avoided soy whenever the opportunity arose, I was so busy looking for gluten I overlooked soy which is subtituted in lots of gluten free foods.. It was only when I broke out in a bright red rash on my chest that was not otherwise explainable that the goods folks here suggested it might be soy. They were right!! It is really just a process of elimination. Take it out of your diet and stabilize, then reintroduce - bingo, if you react you have your answer (verify it, of course).

[Juliebove]

My daughter used to have an IgG allergy to it and when she ate it, she would get stomach pains. She also got weird rashes from it.

[ravenwoodglass]

I started eating a lot more of it after I went gluten free. Gluten and soy for me are different reactions, gluten gives me D but soy gives me C along with joint and severe stomach pain. When I first went gluten free I thought I was being CC'd and it took me a long time to figure out I wasn't. I finally did an Enterolab panel that pinpointed it.

[captaincrab55]

I finally did an Enterolab panel that pinpointed it.

Will insurance pay for the Enterolab Panel??

[ravenwoodglass]

Will insurance pay for the Enterolab Panel??

Not that I know of. You could contact Enterolab and find out what the cost would be for just the soy part. I already knew I was celiac so I opted out of the gluten test but did get the tests for soy, casien and yeast along with the gene panel and it was around $300 but I think a lot of the cost was the gene panel.

You could also just eliminate soy for at least a couple weeks to a month and then challenge it by eating soy at least 3 times a day for a full week to see if you react.

[captaincrab55]

Not that I know of. You could contact Enterolab and find out what the cost would be for just the soy part. I already knew I was celiac so I opted out of the gluten test but did get the tests for soy, casien and yeast along with the gene panel and it was around $300 but I think a lot of the cost was the gene panel.

You could also just eliminate soy for at least a couple weeks to a month and then challenge it by eating soy at least 3 times a day for a full week to see if you react.

Just went to the Enterolab siteand like what the bottom line below reads... I'll check it out further....

Open Original Shared Link

Advantages of EnteroLab Testing

[FooGirlsMom]

I don't know if we're all "allergic" to soy or just that our bodies cannot tolerate it early into the diet. Some are allergic (ie. rashes etc) but I've never been allergic in the past. As I went Gluten Free for the first time in almost 4 years (longest stint not being gluten free in 15 years) I discovered an intolerance to soy. I got the big D and was bloated & gassy. Cut it out and improved things by a great deal. Then noticed I was reacting to something else??? Figured out it might be corn & cut that out. Bloating & gassiness gone by 80% now. I think the other 20% (which has no rhyme or reason) is just the usual occasional intolerances that happen until the intestines heal.

Hope that helps with the other posts.

FooGirlsMom

[T.H.]

I think the easiest thing would be to do the following:

1. Cut soy out of your diet completely for 2-4 weeks.

2. Keep a food journal for those 2-4 weeks (record foods -every ingredient- you eat, and reactions). If you've been wondering about a 'reaction' you've had, now'll be the time to notice if it's gone.

3. Try a soy challenge after the 2-4 weeks and introduce soy back into your diet. First, try just a little, then record any reactions over the next 2-4 days. If that goes well, have a lovely soy pigout for a day, and see how you feel after that for the next 2-4 days again.

4. If there is no change at all when you drop the soy, you'll know it's unlikely you're intolerant. If there is no change when you reintroduce just a little, you'll know that you're at least not very sensitive to the soy. If there is no change when you reintroduce a lot, you're probably good.

That said, a few caveats

- If the reaction is the same as when you get gluten, then it's likely contamination of the soy (not uncommon), rather than the soy itself

- When you are trying a challenge, it wouldn't hurt to do the challenge a couple times, with some different versions of soy beans. Shelled, unshelled, soy flour, different companies. That way, it can help eliminate the uncertainty that can come from any chemicals/pesticides/soaps/etc... that a particular company might use, you know?

Good luck.