Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Has anyone else had issues with soy?
Since becoming vegan I've noticed that there is Soy or soy lecithin in just about everything.
I originally avoided soy and other estrogen mimicking foods due to a bad breast biopsy (not cancer but A-Typical cells) but then read that soy doesn't cause or accelerate breast cancer....so then I started eating a lot of tofu, soybeans and other soy products to curb my hunger and to get more protein to stop losing weight.
3 months after my soy increase and eating tofu about every other day I started to feel extremely tired and had mood swings for no reason. Went to the Dr and found that my Thyroid level was high on my blood work but everything else looked pretty good.
I searched the internet and found that eating alot of soy products can mess with thyroid levels (if you are allergic to soy) so I quit eating soy and within 2 months my thyroid levels started to come back down to the high side of normal. Does this mean that I'm allergic to soy? Is soy bad for you?
Anyone have any suggestions on how I can keep up my protein and still avoid soy?
I'm 5'5-1/2" and am down to 108 lbs and don't want to lose anymore weight but want to start working out to gain some better muscle tone.

It doesn't mean you're allergic. The phytoestrogens in soy are known goitrogens (endocrine disruptors).Make sure you get enough iodine to protect your thyroid if you eat a fair amount of soy. My thyroid number was a little high when I was tested and I went back after taking 200 mg of iodine a day for 3 months and my number was back to normal.

Other great sources of protein are seeds like hemp and pumpkin seeds (which can be used to make your own tofu - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23351&view=previous), chia seeds (expensive though), flax seeds (don't overdo it because of the small amount of cyanide though), and sunflower seeds (though they're a little short on lysine).

Nuts generally aren't ideal sources of protein because they're low in certain amino acids (lysine, methionine and/or cystine usually), but they're good to have for a bit of extra protein. Pistachios are actually a complete protein but they're only 13% protein (about the same as quinoa).

Legumes are of course great sources of protein, particularly lentils, black eyed peas, great northern beans, lupins, chickpeas, white beans, and winged beans. Sprouting them (of course only some beans can be eaten sprouted. Kidney beans can't for instance) will result in slightly fewer carbs and total calories, and a reduction in phytates and protease inhibitors making the protein more accessible. You can even make your own tofu or tempeh with other beans if you have time and patience. Peanut/peanut butter is an easy protein source but it is deficient in several essential amino acids so it's best not to make it your primary protein source.

Grains are inherently lower in protein quantity compared to legumes but they can be a passable protein source. The best ones for protein quality and quantity are quinoa, oats, amaranth and buckwheat.

Then of course there are protein powders. I order from trueprotein.com and custom mix a 70/30 pea/rice protein mix. They also offer hemp protein.

eta, you can also make smart choices with your "non-protein" food choices for better protein intake. Avocados, kiwi fruit, spinach and broccoli are all decent sources of complete protein.

Thank you for your post. I just ordered a liquid iodine supplement from Vitacost.com. I've been using Nitrofusion Vanilla for protein lately but am going to try out the website trueprotein next; it looks like they have a lot of different flavors for a lower cost.
You mentioned that Flax seed has cyanide in it....do the flax supplements have cyanide in them as well? My Dr. recommended that I take a Flax Seed supplement to get omega3 since I refused his order to take Fish oil. It is so hard to find supplements that doesn't have gelatin or soy in them. I plan on doing more research on Vitacost when I have more time.
I'm going to go to the store this weekend and grab some pumpkin & chia seeds and quinoa.
Thanks for the tips.

Any form of flax will probably have them but they're not at all bad for your body unless you're eating large doses (this link seems to say that 5 tablespoons of ground flax a day is fine, I've seen people recommend you eat no more than 2 tablespoons a day though. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ip&dbid=25)

Just two tablespoons would get you plenty of omega 3s for they day though as long as you're not frying everything in corn oil or something.

I should also say that you shouldn't go too crazy with the iodine as too much can harm your thyroid as much as too little can. Jack Norris recommends "75 - 150 mcg every few days."

That's good to know about iodine. I just bought Biotics Research Liquid Iodine and it is 75mcg per drop. I was going to start taking 1 drop per day but after reading your post I'm only going to take it once every 2-3 days.
I don't really like the taste of flax seed....do you have any recommendations on what to eat it with that will kill the taste of the flax?

I typically just add two tablespoons of ground flax to my smoothies but if you buy flax oil (or one of those blends like udo's oil or the spectrum flax oil +dha) you can get a lot of use out of that. Substitute it in place of olive oil in salad dressings, homemade hummus and any other dip that doesn't have to be heated after the oil's added. If you do buy the oil though, keep it in the fridge and use it as quickly as possible because it goes rancid fast.

You can also add flax meal to any baked goods like muffins, homemade breads, etc. Actually there are a lot of commercial breads out there that use flax meal. Because it's extraordinarily high in soluble fiber, flax is a great egg replacer for vegan baking and if you look online or in cookbooks, it's used pretty heavily. You might be thinking that flax would be bad for baking because flax oil gets damaged when heated. Studies have shown that while flax oil is very easily damaged by heat, if you use the whole milled seed, it withstands up to 350 degrees without any negative effects. I also know lots of people add flax meal to their oatmeal.

If you really want to go nuts, you can sprout flax seeds too which would make their vitamins and minerals more bioavailable by destroying much of the phytates. Then you could eat those on their own or make pad thai with it or something. I haven't tried this though and I can't say if they taste great or anything.