Why I Cook
Inspired by this post by Michael Ruhlman:
—I cook because good food is its own reward.
—I cook because I enjoy witnessing the alchemy of transforming raw ingredients into a meal.
—I cook because breaking bread with other people is one of the most basic ways to express love and friendship.
—I cook because my pups deserve more than just kibble from a bag.
—I cook because food you make yourself just tastes better.
—I cook because learning to make a new dish is an achievement to be proud of.
—I cook because I live in a state where fresh, locally grown food is in abundance and it just begs to be used.
—I cook because nobody sells brioche made with equal parts of butter and flour.
—I cook because making food that other people enjoy is also an achievement to be proud of.
—I cook because I am a food snob and cooking is cheaper than eating out every day.
—I cook because eating mashed potatoes made with a stick of butter and a cup of heavy cream is less sinful if you make it yourself.
—I cook because some parts of it are just plain satisfying.
—I cook because soy lecithin, partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, potassium bromate, and diacetyl are too high a price to pay for convenience.
—I cook because I take pleasure in doing something well for its own sake.
—I cook because I started a food blog on impulse and now I have to keep it going.
Full feed
I love your reason why you cook, but I have a question about soy lecithin. Why is it bad for you? And I’m only asking this because I just today received my order from King Arthur Flour and included in that order was a bag of soy lecithin, which I ordered to extend my bread loaf life as well as reduce the amount of fat required in the recipe.
You know, I probably should have been more careful in writing that sentence as lumping soy lecithin in with some of the other additives makes certain implications about its safety that I didn’t originally intend to. Lecithin itself is generally regarded as safe and may even have some health benefits. The issues I meant to address with that line is not so much with soy lecithin in particular, but with food additives as a whole.
A big part of the problem is that soy lecithin and hydrolyzed soy proteins are in everything. They are byproducts of the leftover defatted soy meal waste product after soybean oil production and therefore much cheaper to use than actual food. Now you’ll find it in chocolate, baked goods, candy, gum, peanut butter, cheese, baby formula, coffee creamer, and other sauces and syrups. Soy lecithin keeps cocoa from separating from the fats and with it, candy manufacturers have steadily decreased the amount of (more expensive) cocoa butter in their candy bars. In the last few years Hershey’s has eliminated the use of cocoa butter in some of their candy bars completely, necessitating that they now be called “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate”. Meanwhile soy protein gets added to cereal, drinks, meat, dairy and baked goods, making “chicken breast fillets” out of reconstituted chicken parts.
In addition to the problems with the use of so much phytoestrogen-containing soy in our food, I am fundamentally opposed to the trend of removing the food from our food supply in the name of cheapness. Processed cheese instead of cheese, chocolate candy that can’t be called chocolate, and whipped cream that isn’t made from cream, snack cakes that don’t go bad. Just give me the real thing, please. Let’s eat food that is made from a few good ingredients and gains its flavor from those ingredients, instead of food made from the cheap byproducts of other things and gets its flavor from a factory in New Jersey.
Most of the soybean oil production in the US is done by solvent extraction with hexane and the EPA estimates that 22 million pounds of it was released into the environment by the food industry in 2005. Soy lecithin produced in this manner and made from genetically modified soybeans treated with pesticides can be used in food labeled “organic” due to an exemption from the National Organic Standards Board despite the availability of solvent-free soy lecithin produced using physical extraction methods. The chemical solvent method is cheaper, and now the chocolate that has no cocoa butter and the chicken breasts made from reconstituted chicken is looking even worse.
Long story short, the biggest problem I have with soy lecithin (and soy protein) is not that it’s being used, but how it’s being used. Soy lecithin is one of the myriad of food additives that help turn our food into “food products.”
There’s a world of difference to me between using corn syrup or soy lecithin to achieve a specific result and having it be in almost everything you buy from the grocery store. I’d wager that most people are simply unaware of how much processing goes into the food they buy. That’s the point I was trying to get across with that line.
soy lecithin eats babies.
tl;dr –
The addition of soy lecithin into a multitude of processed foods is a symptom of a system gone bad, not a disease in and of itself.
Using soy lecithin at home is a choice. Having it present in every item available in the store is limiting your options (especially for those with soy allergies).
Yes, what Stacy said.
I was going to tell you there is diacetyl in the Chardonnay you are sipping with your excellent food (as a jibe), but I didn’t have the heart after the lecithin comment. lol!!