Two soy free product raves.

Being newly soy free has taken a little getting used to. But it has had it's benefits. I have been struggling to get back down to "fighting weight" since Kitten was born. I eliminated soy and the weight seems to be rolling off. Imagine that. The most difficult challenge has been finding chocolate without soy. I am a chocoholic of the purest sense. My day doesn't feel complete without a little taste. But alas, most chocolate has soy lecithin in it as an emulsifier rather than cocoa butter because cocoa butter is expensive. Even so called organic chocolate has soy in it. Surprised? I was too. But I found two products that have changed all that.

The first is Theo chocolate bars. I found them at Whole Foods, but you can also buy in bulk from Amazon or their own website. They're a really cool company according to their website. And they are the only chocolate bar on the market (that I've found anyway) that uses cocoa butter. And you can taste the difference, in a good way.

The second discovery was Enjoy Life chocolate chips. I do a lot of home baking because of our gluten allergies and make banana chip muffins weekly as a quick breakfast. But all chocolate chips have soy. Except for Enjoy Life. These are actually gluten, dairy, soy, nut free. And still taste great because there are no fillers. I also found these at Whole Foods, but you can also get them in bulk from Amazon.

I'm thinking about doing more shopping for our allergen free products from Amazon for a little bit of savings and convenience, but right now we don't have the storage for it all. Maybe in our new house.

More?! Or less as the case may be.

I went back to the allergist after a two year hiatus and found that I'm now also allergic to: soy, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, and tomatoes. At first I was optimistic. After all, I've been down this road before. My suspicion over the nut allergy is what triggered the visit in the first place. But soy? I had recently switched to soy milk because of some dairy intolerance, and I liked it. Soy is in everything! And so are tomatoes!

I've done some research and discovered that the tomato thing is probably related to oral allergy syndrome and that I can probably tolerate them cooked. I will hold off on testing that theory until my symptoms clear up. I also went to Whole Foods and got some soy free chocolate. I have a chocolate problem. But at least now I don't have a chocolate has soy problem.