Soy allergy affects about 0.4% of children which is half the rate of peanut allergy. Soy is one of the top 8 most common food allergens that accounts for 90% of all food allergies. Thankfully 25% of children outgrow soy allergy by age 4 and almost 70% by age 10. The reason I wanted to bring up soy allergy is that the food labeling laws require foods that contain soy lecithin to list soy on the food allergy label. Soy lecithin is used as an emulsifier in many foods and almost all forms of chocolate but it does not contain any soy protein. Patients with soy allergy do not need to avoid soy lecithin or highly refined soybean oil. This is the same situation as peanut allergic patients being safe to consume foods at Chick-fil-A
that are fried in highly refined peanut oil because it doesn’t contain the protein. People who have soy intolerances may still have symptoms if they consume soy lecithin as the biochemical trigger for food intolerances is not well understood.