I have been a label checker at the grocery store for a long time, and I can confirm that very recently become nearly impossible to avoid soy in most processed food. Try finding any bread or crackers that don't contain soy. Most other processed foods have it added. It's even sprayed on fresh vegetables to give it the pleasing shine.
Nearly impossible to avoid it at the grocery. And that is a recent development.
My wife and I noticed this trend years ago and have weaned ourselves off the Tit of Convenience.. Everything we make at home comes from whole ingredients. We're very selective when sourcing and buying ingredients - it can be a hassle at times. The payoff is that we're in total control of our food. On average, 90% of what we eat is bought outside of a grocery store, even more now though since our garden started producing.
We buy organic whole grains and legumes in bulk, 25-50lb bags. There is quite a high upfront cost this way, but in the long run it's the least expensive way next to growing your own wheat, oats, etc. It takes some sleuthing to find places with free/cheap shipping for high weight orders, but they do exist.
One of our sources is a somewhat local to me nonprofit that delivers for free, in a box truck, with orders over $400.. Consider that for a moment, $400 seems like a lot, I know. But take a 50lb bag of wheat, that I've seen some varieties go for $48.50 (less than a dollar/lb), using a hand-operated mill and creating a dry sourdough starter, you could easily get more than 50 loaves of bread using the classic, and historically accurate, recipe of flour, water, salt. 50 loaves. Go into any store that will sell it and look at the prices for organic bread, sourdough or otherwise, maybe the avg price will be around $8. That's $400 alone for 50 loaves, and I can guarantee that the ingredients listed will be more than flour, water, salt. You can also make cakes, pancakes, biscuits, whatever, anything that requires flour, for much cheaper than you can even buy the pre-mix garbage. The same goes for beans, rice, lentils, oats, rye, etc.
Also, certain varieties of wheat like durum, are multi-purpose.. Durum can make pasta with just flour, water, salt.. While others require eggs instead of water. One benefit being that in the case eggs become unattainable, you can still make noodles.
Keep in mind, that you'll need the incidentals, that will usually be a one-time buy. You'll need some kind of mill, that could be expensive, or maybe you find a used one at some donation place. You will need a method of storage - We use gallon glass jars. Again, one of those things you have to scour the web to find reasonably priced - a lot of gouging bastards out there.. We buy from Fillmore, they seem to have the best price I can find.
We experimented with growing rye in our yard over the winter. It sort of worked, I mean for what I did anyway. I just cut the grass down and sowed winter rye, then didn't have to mow there. It didn't come up as cleanly as we would have liked, but I also didn't put in a lot of effort. This year I'll do it differently.
I guess it caught me by surprise. Over the years I have gotten used to the products to avoid, because i have a bit of a soy allergy. It started acting up recently and I had to search for the cause. It turned out to be bread and saltine crackers.
The surprise to me was that it was in almost every brand.
I searched the bread aisle until i almost gave up. Finally got to a bread I had never heard of - Dave's killer 21 grain bread, and that's the only one I could find in the store that didn't list soy. All saltine crackers had soy as an ingredient, with the exception of one selection in Premium saltines, and it was only one style. All the others now list soy.
I suppose if those go away, I'll have to go into home baking.
I have been a label checker at the grocery store for a long time, and I can confirm that very recently become nearly impossible to avoid soy in most processed food. Try finding any bread or crackers that don't contain soy. Most other processed foods have it added. It's even sprayed on fresh vegetables to give it the pleasing shine.
Nearly impossible to avoid it at the grocery. And that is a recent development.
My wife and I noticed this trend years ago and have weaned ourselves off the Tit of Convenience.. Everything we make at home comes from whole ingredients. We're very selective when sourcing and buying ingredients - it can be a hassle at times. The payoff is that we're in total control of our food. On average, 90% of what we eat is bought outside of a grocery store, even more now though since our garden started producing.
Good for you. Looks like I'm going to have to follow your lead on that.
We buy organic whole grains and legumes in bulk, 25-50lb bags. There is quite a high upfront cost this way, but in the long run it's the least expensive way next to growing your own wheat, oats, etc. It takes some sleuthing to find places with free/cheap shipping for high weight orders, but they do exist.
One of our sources is a somewhat local to me nonprofit that delivers for free, in a box truck, with orders over $400.. Consider that for a moment, $400 seems like a lot, I know. But take a 50lb bag of wheat, that I've seen some varieties go for $48.50 (less than a dollar/lb), using a hand-operated mill and creating a dry sourdough starter, you could easily get more than 50 loaves of bread using the classic, and historically accurate, recipe of flour, water, salt. 50 loaves. Go into any store that will sell it and look at the prices for organic bread, sourdough or otherwise, maybe the avg price will be around $8. That's $400 alone for 50 loaves, and I can guarantee that the ingredients listed will be more than flour, water, salt. You can also make cakes, pancakes, biscuits, whatever, anything that requires flour, for much cheaper than you can even buy the pre-mix garbage. The same goes for beans, rice, lentils, oats, rye, etc.
Also, certain varieties of wheat like durum, are multi-purpose.. Durum can make pasta with just flour, water, salt.. While others require eggs instead of water. One benefit being that in the case eggs become unattainable, you can still make noodles.
Keep in mind, that you'll need the incidentals, that will usually be a one-time buy. You'll need some kind of mill, that could be expensive, or maybe you find a used one at some donation place. You will need a method of storage - We use gallon glass jars. Again, one of those things you have to scour the web to find reasonably priced - a lot of gouging bastards out there.. We buy from Fillmore, they seem to have the best price I can find.
We experimented with growing rye in our yard over the winter. It sort of worked, I mean for what I did anyway. I just cut the grass down and sowed winter rye, then didn't have to mow there. It didn't come up as cleanly as we would have liked, but I also didn't put in a lot of effort. This year I'll do it differently.
Thanks for the informed tips.
I haven't gone to those lengths so far, but bread might be the thing that pushes me over the line.
Doesn't seem that recent. Soy has been in almost every processed or partially processed product I've looked at for the last 10-15 years.
I guess it caught me by surprise. Over the years I have gotten used to the products to avoid, because i have a bit of a soy allergy. It started acting up recently and I had to search for the cause. It turned out to be bread and saltine crackers.
The surprise to me was that it was in almost every brand.
I searched the bread aisle until i almost gave up. Finally got to a bread I had never heard of - Dave's killer 21 grain bread, and that's the only one I could find in the store that didn't list soy. All saltine crackers had soy as an ingredient, with the exception of one selection in Premium saltines, and it was only one style. All the others now list soy.
I suppose if those go away, I'll have to go into home baking.