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America doesn't know tofu

asteriskmag.com

141–150 of 153 posts

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The soyboy insult came about particularly to criticize frail tech nerds (who are white in all the memes) who eat meal replacement diets, particularly soylent. No, it has been around for longer than that. Soylent is a tertiary at best aspect to this.

Earliest archived use of the term on 4chan was from 2017, several years after soylent meal replacement shakes hit the market. Soy was also being used in various other vegan and/or processed foods at the time, but soylent was particularly conspicuous due to it having soy right in the name. Regardless of which particularly product prompted this, the point is the meme is new but westerners not eating soy is not new and…

Yikes, 4chan as culture? I expect there is much truth in what you are saying, but I remember quite clearly an incident in 2014 where a fellow fitness enthusiast and bodybuilder chastised me for offering him food with tofu in it because of the estrogen content of soy. He was already injecting testosterone, so ingesting soy would be, as he put it, "going the wrong way".

In my experience hardcore competitive bodybuilding culture in particular does not cross over with 4chan very much. The users of 4chan tend to be too young to have entered to competitive bodybuilding scene so the generations are different, plus there are other cultural issues. Putting time into 4chan and time into the gym are not obviously exclusive of each other but in practice end up being so.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#142
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Current scientific evidence does not support the idea that soy is harmful to males. Instead, it suggests that moderate soy consumption can be a healthy part of a balanced diet.

>Current scientific evidence does not support the idea that soy is harmful to males. Not true: "Feminizing effect of phytoestrogens and soy products may be subtle, detectable only statistically in large populations; it can be of particular importance for children and adolescents." [0] Jury is still out on soy. If you've had to deal with the latest league of junior devs, it makes sense why they're called "soydevs." [0…

Maybe your company should stop hiring children and adolescents.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#143
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Current scientific evidence does not support the idea that soy is harmful to males. Not true: "Feminizing effect of phytoestrogens and soy products may be subtle, detectable only statistically in large populations; it can be of particular importance for children and adolescents." [0] Jury is still out on soy. If you've had to deal with the latest league of junior devs, it makes sense why they're called "soydevs." [0…

Maybe your company should stop hiring children and adolescents.

[dead]

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earliest archived use of the term on 4chan was from 2017, several years after soylent meal replacement shakes hit the market. Soy was also being used in various other vegan and/or processed foods at the time, but soylent was particularly conspicuous due to it having soy right in the name. Regardless of which particularly product prompted this, the point is the meme is new but westerners not eating soy is not new and…

Yikes, 4chan as culture? I expect there is much truth in what you are saying, but I remember quite clearly an incident in 2014 where a fellow fitness enthusiast and bodybuilder chastised me for offering him food with tofu in it because of the estrogen content of soy. He was already injecting testosterone, so ingesting soy would be, as he put it, "going the wrong way". In my experience hardcore competitive bodybuildin…

There was an infamous 2008 case study of a man who developed gynecomastia while consuming three quarts of soy milk a day[1]. I actually remember rumors about this so I wouldn’t be surprised if those same rumors spread around the bodybuilding community.

It certainly seems that the soy-estrogen theory became widely accepted “bro science” somehow; I just don’t know of any evidence that it was in any way related to anti-Asian racism.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18558591/

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#145
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Current scientific evidence does not support the idea that soy is harmful to males. Not true: "Feminizing effect of phytoestrogens and soy products may be subtle, detectable only statistically in large populations; it can be of particular importance for children and adolescents." [0] Jury is still out on soy. If you've had to deal with the latest league of junior devs, it makes sense why they're called "soydevs." [0…

Maybe your company should stop hiring children and adolescents.

[flagged]

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#146

This is a nice article, but it does have some parts that seem off base. First you can walk into any chinese grocery store (in america) and get 20 kinds of tofu, thats really not an issue, and chinese restaurants (in chinatown) will sell many kinds of tofu. The other is that the author makes the mistake of over emphasizing the vegetarianism aspect (which i think some comments here also are). Many chinese dishes with t…

I would like to add that, yes, tofu is added to meat dish as a complimentary, not exactly to flavor it with meat. When you say flavor it with meat, I would assume meat is the ingredient to flavor tofu, mostly it is not true, meat is the main dish, and tofu, eggs can be used as additional to the dish.

Many times when we say fish-flavored dish, for Chinese it means we cook it the same way as fish, use the spices we use to cook fish. The same goes with tofu. Chinese dishes are strong in spices, the flavor mostly comes from spices, and those flavor connects to your brain, that's how you can make a vegetarian dish taste like a meat dish, with the correct texture and flavor.

Although vegetarian is not a big thing in China, we do eat a lot vegetables, it is a must to have vegetables for every meal.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#147
post #99
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is not wrong, the picture in the article has 11 kinds of tofu, if I visit all 3 Chinese grocery stores in the Seattle area (Asian Food Center in Seattle, Ranch 99 in Shoreline, Jing Jing in Factoria), I could probably get 6 or 7 in total out of 11. T&T Supermarket in BC has a slightly better inventory, but I doubt they will have all 11 in stock. If you are not on the east/west coast, the selection will be even sma…

> They make Tofu taste like meat and looks like meat, it is definitely a big thing and you could search for photos on how close these food look like real meat/fish and the popularity . That is not tofu, though, that is mock-meat, mock-fish, mock-chicken etc made entirely out of gluten and is highly processed. Mock-whatever does, indeed, have the texture of and is flavoured according to what it «mocks». Tofu, on the o…

The reason Chinese people would say it taste like meat is not because it "taste" like meat. it taste like what the meat dish is supposed to be. Our brain connects flavor with memory, and Chinese people would immediately connect the sensation with the meat dish they had before, that's why we say it tastes like meat. Gluten, Tofu, Mushrooms, there are many ingredients in Chinese cooking to replicate texture of meat.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#148
Oh good another "quirky" white American discovers China article. So many things I can pick on but mostly how some one from LA never went to the bare minimum effort of walking through a CHAIN Asian grocery store and just looking at the tofu section.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#149
post #127

My biggest concern is the push towards attempting to legally restrict animal consumption. I can't handle legumes and have intolerances to a very broad spectrum of foods. Ruminant meats and pasture raised eggs are about the only things I can consistently eat without issue.

Who is pushing whom towards legally restricting animal consumption? Not sure what country you’re in. Would you mind linking an article or two about it? Doesn’t matter what language it’s in. I’m interested in learning more.

Haven't seen legislation on consumption. But efforts to restrict farming. I think it was the Netherlands that pushed this in the last year or so.

The result is roughly the same.

There have also been efforts to tax "bad for you foods" particularly sugar. Where meat consumption has been villified and is absolutely a target.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#150
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegans don't need to worry about the protein content of vegan cheese. Protein is widely available in vegan food and you don't need to eat a pile of beans to get it.

What vegans foods are they widely available? And at what price levels?

Tofu. Lentils. Peanuts and peas. Legumes in general, although all would be a "pile of beans" by definition. All are fairly cheap.

Maize, rice, potatoes, and wheat have more than you might expect given they're more famous as carbs. Wheat can be processed to extract the gluten, which is a protein, which you may also know by the name "seitan".

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