All About Soy – I Brought in an Expert for This One (Brenda Davis RD)
By Molly Patrick
Mar 7, 2017,
I’ve had “Soy Fuckery” on my list of things to write about for approximately two years. But it’s a shit show of a topic, so I kept putting it off.
It’s not that the topic of soy is necessarily confusing, it’s that people are extremely divided about it.
I know how I feel about soy.
I know what the science says about soy.
I also know that soy is probably the most controversial plant food out there among meat eaters and plant eaters.
Let’s just say soybeans were super relieved when the gluten police came to town.
So instead of busting out my magnifying glass and writing you an email about soy, I decided to go directly to someone who could effortlessly school us on it like a BOSS.
And you my dear, are in for a schooling.
A few weeks ago, I video chatted with author and Registered Dietitian Brenda Davis, and we dedicated an entire hour to the heated, misunderstood, scrutinized, feared, and often villainized topic of soy.
I absolutely loved talking with her. I learned some new things, and she even gave me a killer plant based tip that I never knew about. Brenda is a lovely Canadian plant based wizard, and our Skype date was like eating dessert for an hour – scrumptious.
You are in good hands with Brenda, and I trust her wholeheartedly when it comes to nutrition.
So watch the video below where Brenda Davis and I talk soy. She answers all of the tricky questions and brings light to the most common reasons why people avoid soy.
Whether you eat soy or not, this interview is well worth the watch.
When you’re done watching, come back here and make today’s recipe. Or make it first and then watch, then talk to me in the comments below.
If you’re interested in eating a more plant-based diet, check out Clean Food Dirty Girl.
Brenda Davis RD Biography
Brenda Davis, registered dietitian, is one of the world’s leading plant-based pioneers and an internationally acclaimed speaker. She is widely regarded as a rock star of plant-based nutrition and VegNews referred to her as “The Godmother” of vegan dietitians.
As a prolific nutrition and health writer, Brenda has authored/co-authored 13 books with nearly a million copies in print in 15 languages. Her most recent works include Plant-Powered Protein (Melina, Davis, and Davis, 2022), Nourish: The Definitive Plant-based Nutrition Guide for Families (Shah and Davis, 2020), Kick Diabetes Essentials (Davis, 2019), The Kick Diabetes Cookbook (Davis and Melina, 2018), Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition (Davis and Melina, 2014) and Becoming Vegan: Express Edition (Davis and Melina, 2013). Nourish won gold in the 2020 Nautilus Book Awards and was also a Canada Book Award winner. Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition won a 2014 REAL Best of 2014 Book Award and Becoming Vegan: Express Edition won the Canada Book Award and was a finalist and received honorable mention in the Foreward Book of the Year Award. Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive and Express Editions have also received a star rating by the American Library Association as the “go-to books” on plant-based nutrition.
Brenda has been a featured speaker at medical, nutrition, and dietetic conferences in over 20 countries on 5 continents. With colleague, Dr. John Kelly (founding president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine), she was the lead dietitian in a diabetes lifestyle medicine trial in the Marshall Islands, and a lifestyle intervention demonstration project for the medical community in Lithuania.
Brenda has co-authored numerous professional and lay articles. She is a past chair of the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association. Brenda has been promoting plant-based diets since making the transition herself in 1989. Her personal and professional life goals are one in the same – to make this world a more sustainable, more health supportive, and kinder place. Brenda’s work focuses on ensuring that everyone who wishes to be plant-based can succeed brilliantly. In 2007, Brenda Davis was inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame, and she was the 2022 recipient of the Plantrician Project’s Luminary Award. Brenda lives in Calgary Alberta with her husband, Paul, and has two grown children and 2 grandchildren.
You can do whatever – just make sure you watch the interview and drink this Green Goddess Golden Milk Smoothie is what I’m saying. Are we good? Okay – carry on, you beautiful soul.
Wishing you a happy week. May it be filled with the best fuel and no fear.
Xo
Molly
11 Comments
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I just wanted to let you know that I found this website/blog by google searching “how the fuck do you cook quinoa” and I think I just found a new favorite site. Thanks for keeping it real with out cheesy, fuzzy, prissy shit. You go, girl!
Hi Molly,
I just wanted to thank you for the talk you had with Brenda Davis, not only a very interesting and educational talk which answered some of the concerns or questions I’ve had regarding soy, but I also learned a few things I probably wouldn’t have picked up researching this on my own. (Plus I hadn’t heard of Brenda before your talk, and now I’ve discovered a new another source for all things vegan)
I’m been eating more or less plant-based, whole-food for a number of years now especially after having eliminated all the processed and crap food from my diet , but during that time still ate and consumed meat, mostly free-range, organically fed animals from my daughter and son-law’s farm in Northern Michigan. For the past 4-6 months now have switched over to mostly vegetarian diet, with the exception of fish (I love grilled salmon) and the occasional egg. (Oh and cheese, other people have a sweet tooth, I have a fucking “Cheese Tooth”, and enjoy nothing more than a plate of fruit and some Gouda, or Goooda!)
However. I’ve been off the cheese for about 2 weeks now, and am still only having fish mixed in with my salads and veggies a couple times a week. Otherwise I’ve been starting to introduce tofu and tempeh (Organic only of course) into my diet, but I was concerned if I should be eating daily or not, and maybe limit my in-take at all so your talk with Brenda has reinforced my decision to continue to enjoy the benefits of soy in my diet.
While I’m at it I would like to add that I’ve been sober just over three years now, and I attribute much of my continued sobriety to my nutritional choices of a mainly plant-based diet (At rehab other patients referred to me as the healthy addict, and this is my first time sober)
Besides eating well I also practice yoga three times a week, and work out on regular basis.
Excellent nutrition, and a healthy lifestyle have allowed me to not only get and remain sober, but I actually am feeling better now than I did years ago.
Anyway I really enjoy your blogs (I follow you on both Instagram and Twitter), and look forward to your emails each week, you been very inspirational to me, and wanted to thank you.
Thank you Molly.
Also like you I like to say and utilize the word “Fuck” a lot, which surprises some folks, however. Not sure where I picked this line or quote from, but when someone tells me I swear a lot I like to respond, “Yeah I know, it’s like verbal salt. I enjoy sprinkling that shit on everything.”
Thanks again!
P.s The Green Goddess Golden Milk Smoothie was fucking delicious.
Molly, what a great interview! Thank you so much. I love that Brenda Davis always comes from a scientific place, and always, always, mentions the animals who are suffering and dying for absolutely no good reason.
Thanks Mychael, we couldn’t agree more! 🙂
xo
Meghann
Team Dirty Girl
You asked, but she didn’t really respond to your question about the Winstin Price organization an where they make their money. I’m wondering what their motivation might be to promote meat over non-meat diets.
Hi Leslie, Thank you for stopping by and checking this post out! The Weston A. Price Foundation publishes their tax returns on their site so you can view and search the individual donors and the rest of their operating costs come from members, many of which are likely farmers that would like to see more small farms replace big agricultural farms. ~Karen
Thank you so much. It’s great to get these scientific perspectives in interviews and great to have a resource to direct people to when they bring up a lot of the issues dealt with here, particularly the issue of cancer, and …. man-boobs!
Hey Merryn,
So glad you’re finding them helpful!
xo
Molly
Thank you so much for this article! I was scrolling through your posts looking for a quick dinner recipe and found this gem. I have never heard of Brenda and I love her passion!
Recently, my mother-in-law asked me about my newly increased soy intake while mentioning how I MUST know about all the risks it was associated with. (I find that being an RN, I am assumed to have a strictly Western approach in everything I do which is annoying and definitely false). Anyway, I honestly didn’t have a good answer at the time and said I’ve heard mixed things–but mostly good especially about organic soy–and left it at that. I feel I now have the resources and science to back me up for our next nutrition discussion! Thank you again!
Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly why I did this post.
I wanted people to have a good resource to go back to since so many people fear that little bean!
MUAH
Molly
Thank you for all you do! I really really appreciate it! I love Brenda Davis and her husband! ❤?