I’m allergic to soy. I didn’t know this until I was 28 or so. Before that, I avoided soy because my Mom had inflammatory breast cancer that could be exacerbated by soy. So soy was monitored in my house. Then I moved to Taiwan. I tried roasted edamame beans, and they were delicious. And made me so sick to my stomach. Vomiting and diarrhea and just feeling terrible. I thought I just got sick (flu, stomach bug, etc.) But it kept happening. Tofu, edamame, soy milk. Didn’t matter, it made me ill. So, I quickly learned the phrase “buyao soya” (I don’t like soy).
I had made friends with a big group of expat English teachers. And several were rabid vegans. I would mention when we went out to eat that I could not have soy as I was allergic. This was of course met with scoffs, because “no one’s allergic to soy!” Fun fact, it’s one of the major food allergens.
One day, a friend’s band was playing at a vegan place, and I was there with some friends. We were doing a group order, and I told them just to not order me anything with soy, but I had to run to the toilet. I came back and the food came. My friends asked me how it was, and I said it was good. The looked smug, and said, we knew you’d like tofu if you just had it right! I was so upset. I had to stop eating everything, and not 30 minutes later, I am back in the toilet sick as anything. My friends couldn’t understand why I was so sick. I finally said,“ Would you feed someone peanuts if they had a peanut allergy?” No, of course not! “Then why,” I asked, “did you think it was ok to trick me into eating soy when it makes me sick?” I told them I couldn’t trust them anymore, and now I was going to miss a friend playing in his band. I apologized to my friend, explained what happened, and said I’d catch their next performance. I was sick for two days.
Oddly enough, there was a vegetarian place that I loved, but I would always say buyao tofu/soya, and they finally said, “You always say buyao soya, do you not like it?” I told them, “No, I like it, but it does not like me!” They laughed, but understood that I had a food allergy, and from then on they would say, “Oh, don’t get that one, it has soya! You can’t have it!”
