Hello friends 🌟
Long story short; I developed a histamine intolerance and part of the restricton is, that I can’t eat any soyproducts, no – not even a little.
As you can imagine I feel very overwhelmed and wanted to know if any of you have the same problem? What foods beside natural vegetables and fruits are 100% soyfree?
Greetings,
A sad Hamchan
27 comments
> Soyfree in Japan
I don’t think you’re going to make many friends on this website with titles like this, friend.
Rice is the only thing that comes to mind.
I checked the pasta I have in my kitchen and it says the factory it came from handles soy products.
I wonder if I got the same, I use to be fine with products with some soy in it but, recently I am getting stomach aches if I eat soymilk cakes. Sadly I cant really help you since its currently not so bad to the point where I need to avoid 100% of soy products
No soy at all? How about in oil? or amino acids? lecithin?
Processed foods are required to show which of certain allergens they contain: it’s called an アレルギー表示. Soy is one of these allergens. You need to look out for 大豆 on the label.
If you do a Google image search for アレルギー表示 you can see some examples
EDIT: apparently soy isn’t one of the mandated allergens
Meat. Go on a carnivore diet and it’s easy.
Meat is soy free.
I don’t think people here are dieticians, see a professional.
OK, I am in the same position. It sucks. Not going to sugar coat it.
Watch out for anything with 大豆 on the label. You will find yourself cooking for yourself a lot. Restaurants will be an issue, but many now have allergen information. Yaki niku and Yaki tori are usually a safe bet.
I am allergic to Soy, gluten and dairy. No idea why, it suddenly happened 2 years ago and I had to radically change my lifestyle. I am fitter for it, but it can be really boring. Especially not being able to eat with friends.
Good luck.
You’re gonna have a hard time here…
Kids stuff. Go to the kids food section of the grocery store l and kid stores Akachan Honpo, Nishimatsuya, etc. they will have more allergy free option foods.
There was a guy at my old job who had a severe soy allergy. He ended up leaving Japan less than 6 months after coming because of it. He had to cook for himself all the time and it really hampered his social life not being able to eat out, or going out but not eating. He lost of ton of weight and was looking really unhealthy then finally just moved back to his home country.
Don’t want to scare you, but if you aren’t prepared to cook for yourself all the time and are bothered by not being able to eat out you may want to consider whether you want to stay here.
Go on the famichiki and strong zero diet
Soy sauce is everywhere, so you just have to cook everything yourself. Maybe upscale french/Italian restaurants where you inform the kitchen when you book are safe
Pretty sure your best bet is to start your own restaurant all soy free… that way your friends have to come over and hang out with you to eat. That shopping fresh vegetables and meats Cook your own food. YakiNiku or yakitori might be reasonably safe bets… But sometimes the sauces they use could screw you up.
Best of luck to you, watch out how you phrase the stuff online, you’ll end up on some sort of rabid twitter mob after you, claiming you are some sort of mixed breed creation of Satan and Hitler because you can’t eat soy. You might look into some of the keto cooking cookbooks, I think most of those stay away from Soy as an ingredient, could get some fun recipe ideas.
I’ve also got histamine intolerance; I basically eat a paleo diet (meat, veggies, fruit, with rice for extra calories).
I order coconut aminos off IHerb. It tastes like soy sauce but I actually prefer the taste of coconut aminos (it doesn’t taste like coconut at all). Mostly I just season things with that, olive oil, salt, or vinegar.
There’s lots of stuff that’s soy free here if you know where to look. Just make sure 大豆 isn’t on the allergen list on the back of the package.
I’ve had to go through some restricted diets since Ive been here before. I did autoimmune paleo, you can look up recipes online. Ate a lot of meat veggie stirfry and scrambles with rice. Basically you’ll have to avoid eating out, and most processed foods. It’s tough but focus on the list of foods you can eat not what you can’t.
I became intolerant to egg, milk, onion and garlic, so I feel your pain. In fact, want to trade? Some tips:
Good advice here but I’ll mention for the socially aspect – For restaurants check websites, a lot have an online allergy menu excel sheet. If you can’t find it online give them a call they probably have printed ones in the place and they can talk about it. If you’re not so comfortable with Japanese then maybe you can go in advance and take some snaps of the menu.
If you pick/know the place in advance it’s not too bad to deal with nights out and socialising at restaurants.
Granted smaller places and izakaya are less likely to have these menus you’ll have to rely on asking the chefs. Perhaps creating an allergy card in advance could be useful if you’re not again comfortable speaking. This will be passed to the chefs.
Also Im not fluent by any means but if you don’t know and are after some useful phrases and stuff for food/allergies just give me a message
I also have a soy allergy (anaphylactic level) that I developed out of nowhere in 2019 and I’ve been dealing with this shit since then.
You will find soy in tons of stuff here. Even things that you wouldn’t expect to have soy in them at all. Everything has to be checked.
Here are my tips:
* No soy sauce, of course. Also no dashi and mentsuyu. NO RAMEN, FML!! God help us. But you can find alternatives to soy sauce, dashi, and mentsuyu. I personally have been living off of an alternative made from green peas – https://www.kikkoman.co.jp/products/product/K055005/index.html . You can also find soy-free dashi and mentsuyu at the baby food stores. They are really life savers here.
* Most bread here has soy in it for some reason. I’ve only found two brands without it, Pasco and one other in a clear/red bag. Your only other options are to try to find bread shops that actually list 28品 allergens, or make bread yourself. I made bread myself for months, but it gets tiring af. Maybe a bread machine will help you. I always just go for Pasco now.
* You can no longer eat most snacks/sweets in stores/conbinis. Everything from chips, to chocolate, to cookies, biscuits, onigiri (except plain rice or salmon (さけ)), breads, bento, pastas, soups, chicken, niku-man, hot dogs, takoyaki, yaki-soba, sandwiches (because bread has soy in it), katsu (fried in soy oil), etc.
* Most chocolate sweets here have something called soy lecithin in it. This includes things like candy bars from foreign brands – Snickers, M&Ms, Kit-Kats, etc. You now have to make 99% of sweets yourself, or just cut them out completely.
* Chocolate – if you really need some, you can find allergen free chocolate online at like Amazon, in baby food stores (my go-to), or in some baking goods stores like Tomiz (but only the bitter/dark stuff).
* Chips – no more Pringles, Cheetos, Doritos, and even plain corn chips. But you can find certain flavors of certain brands like Koikeya, like plain nori-salt chips, that don’t have soy.
* Cookies/biscuits – I have yet to find any soy free ones in a normal supermarket/conbini – EXCEPT for 7-11 which sells soy free macadamia nut cookies and they’re great. Anyway, I make most of them myself now. Co-op also sells some soy free ones.
* Fast food – No more fast food. Usually the only thing on the menu without soy is ketchup and the drinks. But McDonald’s nuggets and some flavors of shaka-chiki are soy free!
* Drinks – watch out for some drinks like Calpis. It has soy in it.
* Ice cream – yukimi daifuku is good and doesn’t have soy. 7-11 brand or Haagen-Dazs matcha ice cream is my go-to. Coolish currently has a great belgian chocolate flavor in stores now that is soy free! But watch out because most other stuff has soy.
* Pretty much no eating out, unless you can confirm ahead of time that there’s no soy in something, or you know you can avoid sauces/seasonings. Watch out for those sauces and seasonings. Yakiniku sauce usually has soy in it. Yakitori sauce too. Learn to make your own sauce from the other soy-free ingredients I recommended above, and take it with you if possible.
* Mentioning it again here – how to read allergen labels: There are two types of displaying allergen info. Look for “特定原材料”. If it says this, it just means the 7 main allergens. Soy isn’t one of them. It sucks. You will have to look at each ingredient, or search for one that says “(一部大豆含む)”, or ask the store. But if it says 28品目, then you’re in luck and it will display soy (大豆).
* When asking a restaurant/chef/waiter if something has soy in it, be prepared for them to give you a dumbfounded look and have no clue. They may bring you the allergen menu. If you’re lucky it will be 28品目 instead of 特定原材料. Don’t risk it. Also, menus change regularly at some places, so be careful of getting the same thing you had before and expecting it to not have soy.
* Lots of packaged/process meats here have soy in them too. Hams, sausages, etc. You have to go for fresh meats instead.
* Find soy free stuff on iHerb.com
* Peanut butter in stores here all has soy. Look on iHerb.com instead
* Most cereals have soy in them. Furugura (フルグラ) is soy free and pretty good, though.
* You’re gonna have to learn to cook for yourself. Especially if you are married or dating.
* Make sure everyone close to you knows about it. Make sure they know. Even then, they will offer you stuff with soy in it. You have to check everything. Don’t trust anyone. My father in law frequently tries to give me stuff with soy even after 3 years of this shit.
* If you’re into working out – all protein powders here use soy. Look on iHerb.com for the few brands that don’t use soy.
* Ramen – you can’t eat out, but you can still make your own and enjoy it. My wife makes a mean tan-tan men using that green pea soy sauce and this soy-free, rice miso paste: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B000V2FE62
* If you’re into tacos, watch out for the shells. Many of them have soy. You can make your own soft shells pretty easily though.
* Costco also has some soy-free stuff, like big packs of Canadian ham, taco seasoning, and sometimes even their breads. Like their danish assortment is soy free.
* Curry (Japanese) – CocoIchi’s curry is all soy, but they do have a low-allergen curry, and a “kids” allergy free curry you can buy in packs. 7-11 has a line of microwavable beef curry that is also soy free: https://www.sej.co.jp/products/a/item/341538/ I haven’t found anything else in supermarkets without soy, but I think one of the big curry makers here has an allergy free one – I just haven’t seen it in a store yet.
* Most margarines/spreads have soy in them. I found one called “Spreatable” that doesn’t have soy and it’s pretty good.
Soy is touted as a healthy alternative for many foods and becoming more and more popular, but in my experience, switching to a soy free diet has been the most healthy (forced) decision of my life. Just look at all the junk food you can’t eat any more!
Be prepared to deal with this for the rest of your life. If you develop an allergy as an adult, it usually doesn’t go away.
Finally, I just want to say, don’t give up. You will eventually learn what you can and can’t have. You will get into a groove. If not, then Japan may not be good for you any more.
I might add some more tips later if I remember. Check back again some time.
I have a plethora of food restrictions myself. You’ll need to cook for yourself most days, which isn’t bad because it’s much healthier. You can still go out to eat too. Sure, you’ll need to avoid ramen and what not, but plenty of restaurants have options of whole foods. Just communicate to people your dietary restrictions due to health reasons and they’ll be understanding from my experience.
>What foods beside natural vegetables and fruits are 100% soyfree?
Pretty much any meat or fresh fish that hasn’t been marinated. All nuts that haven’t been *kaki-no-tani-*ed. All beans other than soybeans. All dairy.
My son is allergic to soy. So, basically, he is eating Italian and Indian food everyday.
My wife was no soy and no flour diet in Japan (medical reasons). Boy was it tough… she survived off of white rice and eggs
Meat, fish, seafood, pasta,dry ramen, udo , soba, rice, yogurts, jelly…. but yeah better to check and a lot of manufactured products have soy.
You have to cook everything by yourself, and the old fashioned way.
Do you own dashi, some soja sauce are made from wheat but don’t remember the name.
This would be *game over* for me.
I’m already dairy and wheat intolerant meaning that I utterly depend on soy products for so many things. Soy cheese, soy for coffee, soy instead of milk for breakfast cereals etc etc.
One thing I’ve learnt as a person with food restrictions is MOVE to a rural area or somewhere you can grow some of your own food. Grow stuff you need. It’s win/win for your health, your wallet and avoiding stuff you can’t or shouldn’t be eating. You’ll also have more space (in the widest meaning) to manage your eating arrangements.
If you don’t eat out a lot, food is one thing that is way easier to manage if you live in inaka IMO. Other stuff is hard though!
Almond and Oat milk in your Starbucks latte. Or cow juice.
Coconut aminos are a soy sauce replacement.