Whenever I try to pronounce the word "lecithin" I am always reminded of a childhood tongue twister that I never did quite conquer. It goes: "There were six thick sticks and six thin sticks in the thicket." Combining c's and th's in close proximity seems to be one of language's slip ups. It makes speaking very difficult.
With soy lecithin, however, the more pertinent question is - does it make life more difficult for the soy allergic person?
When I first discovered that I had both an allergy and an intolerance of soy, I was appalled at the amount of the stuff that was sneaked into all kinds of foods. Did you know for example, that tuna "in water" is not (for the most part) in water? It is in fact, in vegetable broth. Check the ingredients and you will see. And what is vegetable broth? Well, almost always it is made from soy. After all soybeans are a vegetable aren't they? So it qualifies. Just quite how it qualifies as water, I am not sure, nor do I know how the manufacturers get away with stating that their product is floating in something it isn't. There is available canned tuna that is truly in water but you'll have to search for it, read many labels and pay more for the privilege of pouring away water rather than vegetable broth after you open the can. (By the way, my cat doesn't seem to know the difference. He comes running as soon as he hears the can opener whether it is broth or water that gets poured into his bowl!)
I determined that I ought to stay away from soy sauce (which also contains gluten - a double whammy for me), edamame beans, soy milk and other products obviously containing soy but I was left with the question of soy lecithin. What was it? What did it do? Was I allergic to it?
I decided to cut it out until I had done some research.
Seems that soy lecithin is a useful product. Not only does it act as a binder and emulsifier enabling food ingredients to stick and blend together, but it is also high in choline which is good for the brain. This was interesting to me as I already take choline as a supplement because I discovered that people who have anxiety (a condition I have tackled all my life) also have low levels of choline in the brain.
Still, there is that question of allergy and intolerance. So for the past almost a year I have avoided products with soy lecithin in them - no mean feat as it is in practically everything that has more than two ingredients. Careful label reading however, has turned up things that are lecithin free including sorbets and even some chocolate chips (I haven't yet found a chocolate bar that is lecithin free however - and trust me, I've tried!).
Most discussion of soy lecithin points out that allergic reactions tend to be because of the proteins in soy and that the process of producing lecithin eliminates these. Therefore, most people ought to be able to consume them without a problem.
A fact sheet from the United Soybean Board states:
"The allergens in soybeans reside in the protein fraction of the bean. The allergenic
potential of specific soyfoods and/or ingredients is largely based on processing
techniques and the amount of protein or protein residue remaining in the final product.
The majority of soy lecithin used in food applications is derived from refined soybean oil
that has been processed using the hot-solvent extraction technique, which eliminates
most, if not all, allergenic proteins."
But then, I think they might be just a tad biased maybe......?
I still don't have an answer for this question. I may tentatively experiment with some food that include soy lecithin just to see. I really do not like to have to use myself as a guinea pig but then, often that is the way with food allergies. There are no hard and fast rules, no set-in-stone guidelines and one has to figure out the deal for each individual.
I'd love to hear if you are avoiding soy lecithin or if you can tolerate it. In the meantime, I'll keep you posted. There are an awful lot of chocolate things out there calling softly to me.........
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