Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

If It's Soy, It Must Be Good

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

That quote has nothing to do with what I encountered today on my one trip to Starbucks. Saffron (I think KathyHowe met her ... honest.) is a vegetarian or vegan or alien ... one of those ... and she suggested that I try soy milk in my mocha instead of skim milk. I decided against such a rash course of action without doing some research.

As you can guess, about the only thing pasteurized cow's skim milk and soy milk have in common is that Vitamin A Palmitate and Vitamin D2 are added to each. And, of course, the latter is named "milk."

Soy milk is actually titled "soymilk," by the way, in a kind of industry practice, I guess, not wanting to run afoul of the Milk Council. Anyway, soymilk is not fat free, whereas, skim milk is fat free.

Soymilk has as its first ingredient stuff called "Filtered Water." This is the same thing that is in Coke and Pepsi products; so, I have to think that it is okay. That the words are capitalized causes me some concern because it might be a certain brand of water.

The next ingredient is "Whole Organic Soybeans." I did not open this particular carton of plain organic Silk Soymilk, but I find it very hard to believe that when the stuff is poured, it is lumpy with whole soybeans. Or maybe it is ... whatever. That totally turns me off.

Next in the hit parade of ingredients is "Naturally Milled Organic Evaporated Cane Juice." Cane juice is extracted from sugar cane. In the Amazon, tribal peoples ferment sugar cane juice to make aguardiente, which is a type of rum. What bothers me is this "naturally milled" thing. Like here in Ohio, we have these things called cider mills that are machines that grind and press apples to make apple cider. So, I'm assuming that they get this juice by naturally milling sugar cane, but I could be wrong because it might be the juice that is exaporated, which leaves cane sugar, and then this stuff is milled. What the fuck does "naturally milled" really mean. No artificial machines are used? A bunch of monkeys masticate the sugar and spit it out? What is the real story here?

Then the Silk people, a company called White Wave, Inc., claim that the next thing that is added is "Calcium Carbonate." Calcium carbonate is CaCO3, chemically speaking, and is used "in cements and mortars, production of lime, limestone is used in the steel industry; glass industry, ornamental stone, chemical and optical uses and as mineral specimens." Now, I doubt that the dudes at White Wave, Inc., really know why CaCO3 is in soymilk, since White Wave, Inc., is only a distributor, according to what is printed on the carton, not the manufacturer.

"Sea Salt" is an ingredient. That seems pretty clear -- but at Curezone.com, we are warned that something labeled "sea salt" may have "been harvested mechanically from dirt or concrete basins with bulldozers and piped through metal conduits", among other things. That seems pretty clear to me.

"Natural Flavors" are the next ingredient. Uhhh, like cow milk flavor is added ... or something like that? I'm not real clear on that like I was on the "Sea Salt."

And then there is the omnipresent ingredient in most foods: "Carrageenan." It's a thickener ... made from seaweed. Uhhh, yeah, seaweed. I guess "Whole Organic Soybeans" need a little help.

The last two ingredients are the vitamins, just as in good, ol' skim milk ... cow's milk.

And just to allay those fears that I know many of you have ... no Soylent Green on the list, unless that is considered one of the "Natural Flavors."

I think I'll pass on Saffron's suggestion.

Posted by Bill at September 28, 2004 10:24 PM