Entertainment Magazine: Health: News


Restaurant food makes me sick. I have RISI.

Have you recently dined out and, shortly afterwards, your stomach starts to growl, maybe some gas or maybe even worse? You might have not paid much attention, except when it happens more often than not.

Recently, I noticed that the chicken parmesan, sirloin, prime rib, hamburgers, tacos, onion rings, fries, breads, soups, even fish prepared at my favorite restaurants started to make me feel ill less than two hours after consuming. The grumbling would start, maybe even a slight headache or uncomfortable feeling, strong stomach cramps, sometimes nausea, and it would end with a quick trip to the bathroom. The next day, I’d feel drained, fatigued and my stomach would feel irritated.

Oddly, it only seemed to happen when I dined out at specific casual restaurant chains. At home, those symptoms would almost never happen. I blamed the restaurant food. Maybe the meat or chicken was old, or the sauces were too rich or spicy. But, the reaction was always the same. I felt ill afterwards. That pattern seemed too obvious this past year.

What has changed in my health or with the foods I am eating when I go out? Is it a food allergy or something worse with my digestion system?

Soylent blah!

The dining out experience has quietly been evolving. Over the past years, restaurants have been switching their oils from those with trans fats to soy. Most people haven’t noticed. But, soy-sensitive stomachs do.

A quick search on the web reveals many more people with similar symptoms. Many suggested that the cooking oils and base for sauces used in many restaurants have recently changed and may cause allergic-type reactions. The suspect– soy. Soy intolerance wasn’t a problem until recently.Spewcifically, Restaurant Induced Soy Intolereance (RISI).

For decades, soy used to be confined to things like tofu and vegetarian burgers. But, a new regulation requires food processors, and restaurants, to change the ingredients they use to cook or process food.

That begins with the oils used to grill, bake and deep fry foods. Trans fats is the culprit found in those heavy oils that help give cookies, crackers, frozen pies, fries, onion rings, snack foods, margarines, coffee creamers and other favorite foods their flavor.

Since June 2015, trans fat– or hydrogenated oils (PHOs)– is no longer considered “generally recognized as safe (GRAS)” by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Trans fat consumption is consistently linked to heart disease. A 2002 report by the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine found a correlation between trans fat intake and increased bad cholesterol levels called LDL. The new regulation basically outlaws trans fat use by 2018. This means that most processed foods that use PHOs have to find another ingredient.

That’s where soy makes its debut– but in disguise. Since January 2006, the FDA required that trans fat is to be listed on the Nutrition Facts found on packaged foods. Some companies responded by changing their food formulations to reduce or eliminate trans fats by not using hydrogenated oils.

Quietly, over the past few years, soy made its introduction to the ingredient lists as a substitute for trans fat. It comes in the form of soy protein isolate, soy lecithin, hydrogenated soy bean oil, etc. Most people haven’t noticed. Some people say some foods taste blander now.

Soy bean oil has been replacing other vegetable oils– like canola, cottonseed, olive, safflower and palm– traditionally used in many restaurants to deep fry and marinate. Fast food restaurants made that change over the past few years. Maybe that’s why I stopped eating fast food– I started getting stomach aches after a hamburger and fries or chicken sandwich.

RISI– Restaurant-Induced Soy Intolerance

It became obvious after a food allergy test for soy and histamine showed extremely positive reactions. For some odd reason, I cannot properly digest soy oils. My body considers soy an invader and sends out histamines and attacks. Accordingly, millions of other people unknowingly have the same problem. Since I don’t consume soy in my home diet, I don’t have exposure to the massive amount of soy that restaurants now use to marinate and cook their foods.

I called many of the restaurants that I dined at over the past year and asked what type of cooking oil they use. Almost all chains say they now use soy oil for frying, grilling and it is an ingredient in the marinates, sauces, breads and soups. Online allergen menus, now being posted by many of these casual and fast food chain restaurants, include menus for soy allergies along with the other traditional gluten, milk, egg, etc.

Now, a salad– without the creamy or oily dressing– is the only safe menu item.

I would have never guessed that this simple food source can cause so much discomfort for me while it transforms the entire food industry. Soy oil is also a cheap substitute for other oils like canola, safflower or olive oil. It is also low in trans fat. The American economy is awash in soy.

The USDA reports that soybean production in 2014 totaled a record 3.97 billion bushels from a record 83.1 million acres. Corn still leads at an estimated record of 14.2 billion bushels from a similar 83.1 million acres (from USDA Crop Production Summary 2014).

Soy is also now found as a regular ingredient in many cereals, baked goods, canned tuna, marinates, and almost every processed food item. It helps adds to the flavor of food when mixed with other spices, and provides more texture– like the sponge chicken that now masquerades as chicken breasts. Packaged foods that contain soy, however, are has much less soy than the amount used in the restaurant industry.

However, the use of soy now drenched in restaurant food just overwhelms my body. I call it restaurant-induced soy intolerance or RISI, for short. The health concern is when a soy food item is marinated in a soy-based oil and then cooked or deep fried in soy cooking oil. Soy overload increases a soy intolerance reaction.

Dining Out with RISI

There is no “cure” to food allergies, or intolerance to food or ingredients, except avoidance. After the allergy test confirmed my suspicion that newly added soy ingredients are the cause of my discomfort, I took a more direct approach to control what I eat when I go out. So far, so good. I now call ahead and speak with someone who is knowledgeable about food allergies.

Every general manager, or owner, was available to answer (although they are most helpful when the restaurant is not busy– usually between 2 and 4pm). If they didn’t know, I waited patiently for several minutes as they checked the ingredient lists or confirmed with the chefs. Since most chain restaurants now use soy for cooking or marinating, it limits the choice of food to order.

Goodbye fries and rings– any deep fried foods. Most sauces, dressings and marinated meats are off the list if the waiter confirms they have soy ingredients. Even the buns, bread sticks and chips.

I found a few restaurants that still use canola and olive oils. Unfortunately, most waiters, general manager, or even cooks will not know if the breads, chips and sauces they have delivered contain soy unless they look at the package ingredients. Since that will often annoy them, especially during a busy shift, I now assume that they do.

Unless a food is prepared from scratch, using an oil other than soy, it probably contains trace amounts. But, another concern is cross-contamination with soy used elsewhere in the kitchen. Many of the fast food and casual chain restaurants post allergen menus that includes soy, along with gluten, milk, etc.

I download them to my phone so I can easily check beforehand instead of calling ahead. The problem has been with the selection of foods that do not contain soy ingredients. At least I know I can still enjoy a salad– without the dressing.

National Institute of Health: The Science of Soy. Do We Really Know? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480510/

FDA report: Trans fat in Processed Foods http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm372915.htm

 


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