Where did all the soy go?
December 7, 2024 11:04 AM   Subscribe

Where have all the soy foods gone?
posted by Mirth to Food & Drink (13 answers total)
 
Mod note: Hi there Mirth. MetaFilter moderator here. Your question has been flagged and I think a few people are unclear on what you're asking. If you could explain why you think soy foods are gone or how you came to notice that they're gone, that would probably help people answer your question.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 11:14 AM on December 7, 2024 [1 favorite]


Based on the tags, I'm interpreting the question as something like, "Hey soy used to be the only dairy substitute and the primary meat substitute, but now its become just a fraction of those markets, why?"

There's a fair bit of science pointing to soy as causing estrogen-like effects. That's led to a public perception (at least in some circles) of soy-eating people as soft and weak. Meanwhile, people who are into healthy eating and nutrition have moved away from ultraprocessed foods like soy and toward more whole grains, raw foods, etc, and food scientists have found other ways of mimicing dairy and meat using a variety of other products.
posted by rikschell at 11:47 AM on December 7, 2024


"more than 90% of U.S. soybeans produced are used as a high-quality protein source for animal feed" [soygrowers.com]

matching the soy futures market [g], one chart shows a decrease after maximum production in 2021 [statista: "Asia is the largest regional market in the world"]
posted by HearHere at 11:48 AM on December 7, 2024


Long time passing?
posted by aws17576 at 11:50 AM on December 7, 2024 [7 favorites]


Best answer: I have been hanging out in the natural foods space for about 40 years. Back in the day, there were three main vegetarian protein options: tofu, tempeh, and wheat meat (gluten). (I'm setting aside things like beans and eggs, which have lots of protein but aren't so much used as meat substitutes.)

These options were pretty good for a lot of meat-avoidant people, but a lot of people didn't like them. So there has been a constant effort to find better forms of alternative protein.

That work has accelerated in the last few years, as environmentalists and venture capitalists have realized that we have to reduce our reliance on beef and dairy. They use too many resources and emit much too much carbon. Here's a World Economic Forum article from 2021 describing the potential for hundreds of billions of dollars in sales of alternative proteins.

Established food companies and startups have begun offering high tech alternative proteins made from mycelium, from pea protein, and from all sorts of things. These products have begun crowding out the older soy proteins. Many people like them better, and they present a better opportunity for profit than the old fashioned stuff.

There are also people who are allergic to soy, so there's that as well.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:53 AM on December 7, 2024 [4 favorites]


Just as a single data point, I used to use soy milk on cereal. It tended to get lumpy and gross pretty quickly (probably not toxic, just ... unpleasant). Almond milk doesn't do that, so I've switched. I suspect there are a lot of situations like that where there are better products available now, as Winnie the Proust describes so well.

There's still soy milk on the shelves, though.
posted by kristi at 12:46 PM on December 7, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: rikschell, you say there's science linking soy to estrogen-like effects, but the article you linked says,
Results of recent population studies suggest that soy has either a beneficial or neutral effect on various health conditions. (Source: https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/soy/)]
and
studies that observe people consuming soy foods over time show either a protective or neutral effect. Women from Asian countries appear to receive greater protective benefit from breast cancer with high soy intakes than American and European women, but this may simply be a difference in the amount of soy consumed. (Source: https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/soy/)

You know what causes issues with estrogen? Cow milk, which contains mammalian estrogen like our own. In fact, there have been soy studies that were ultimately determined to have come from the dairy industry, in order to paint one of its primary competitors as dangerous.

In answer to the OP, I've mostly switched to oat milk. I do think a lot of people have misconceptions about soy products, and that plus the emergence of so many plant milks has decreased the shelf space for soy products.
posted by Glinn at 1:14 PM on December 7, 2024 [14 favorites]


I’ve definitely seen a decrease in shelf space given to soy milk and a lot more to almond and oat milk! I much prefer plain unflavored soy milk (only as an ingredient or drink component, I don’t drink it straight) and it’s been disappointing watching soy get displaced. This is especially true in coffee shops, where it’s almost all oat or almond.

The oat milks are fine so I’ve made my peace with that. I’ll still be heartbroken when some day I can’t get my soybeans-and-water aseptic paks at Trader Joe’s.

One type of milk that’s all but disappeared is rice milk. I’m sure somebody out there misses it too! I have a twinge of nostalgia for it as a big thing in the 90s.
posted by Brassica oleracea at 3:09 PM on December 7, 2024 [7 favorites]


I think I still see rice milk in the shelf stable section (Illinois). Including at Trader Joe's? I keep meaning to try it.
posted by Glinn at 3:18 PM on December 7, 2024


Yeah, rice milk tends to be in the shelf-stable areas, but it's still there (CA, IL and WA).
posted by aramaic at 10:32 PM on December 7, 2024


Best answer: If your question is, why is soy milk less popular at coffee shops and why does soy milk seem to be losing out to other alternative milks in the grocery store, it might be because soy milk doesn’t heat up very well in my opinion. It gets clumpy and texturally unpleasant when you add it to very hot drinks or want to drink it hot.
posted by LittleLadybug at 11:16 PM on December 7, 2024 [1 favorite]


I've been a vegetarian for almost 30 years, and have noticed a lot of GMO Free labels creeping onto packets at the same rate soy based meat substitutes have started to vanish. The twin myths of Soy Breaks Your Hormones and GMOs will Alter Your DNA make it hard to market soy based foods these days. When you add the gluten free trend (and I mean that in addition to catering to celiacs) you wind up with a lot of third option stuff coming to development.
posted by Jilder at 12:15 AM on December 8, 2024 [3 favorites]


Learning that soy can mimic estrogen has made many people cut down on their consumption due to concern that it could interfere with female hormonal cycles, or cause feminizing effects on men & boys.

Also, "soy boy" has become an insult for a man who's not considered "masculine enough", which is bad PR for soy.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:34 AM on December 9, 2024


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