Allergic to soy milk but not miso? Are you allergic to tempeh, etc.?

August 5, 2014 8:07 PM

I am allergic to soy milk. As confirmed in my doctor's office today, I am not allergic to miso (we used straight miso paste to eliminate any doubts. It has been claimed that the fermentation process changes the protein enough that it doesn't trigger an allergy. I have considered doing the same test for tempeh but first wanted to see if there were people out there allergic to soy milk but not tempeh, as the prep for the test is quite uncomfortable and I would prefer not to do it if the likelihood of a good outcome is vanishingly small. So, soy allergic MeFites, can you eat tempeh?
posted by rednikki to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

Best answer: Soy milk and edamame make me very itchy and give me a bit of a stomach ache. I believe it's related to oral allergy syndrome, which I have. I don't get any sort of allergic reaction to tofu, tempeh or miso--which I eat lots of. I am not sure how severe your soy milk allergy is (mine, in the grand scheme of allergies, is pretty mild) but it might be worth seeing if you can eat tempeh.

Good luck!
posted by inertia at 8:18 PM on August 5, 2014

Best answer: I'm allergic to soy milk, but tempeh is fine. My mouth gets itchy when I drink soy milk but I never drink enough to have a stomach ache and I think it's related to oral allergy syndrome as well. I'm allergic to fresh tofu that's uncooked, and I do fine with cooked tofu, tempeh, and miso.
posted by loulou718 at 8:38 PM on August 5, 2014

I get very sick when I eat an egg fried, scrambled, or boiled but I don't get sick when I eat something baked with eggs, like brownies. Basically, your histamine reactors aren't that clever. You can fool them by changing things up a bit.
posted by myselfasme at 9:08 PM on August 5, 2014