Later this year, it will be ten years since I started eating tofu. Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago this May, no soy product ever crossed my lips. I had never even tasted miso, tempeh, edame, and soy milk. However, that all changed when I first read ERFYT. Having Type A blood I began slowly adding soy products to my diet.

Soy, however, has been a very controversial topic for breast cancer survivors. In the early years, I used to get a bit nervous with all the soy bashers around. Dr. D’Adamo had to repeatedly tell me and post on his website answers to those types of questions. My list serve people are always questioning soy, and I end up quoting “Ask D’Adamo.” Perhaps his most important comment on the subject is this: “Thus type A's on a soy based diet can look forward to having lower levels of inflammation, allergy, cancer and infection by virtue of this 'poison' in soy!”

I just trust Dr. D on his recommendations. When I have gone to various cancer conferences, there have been the usual soy bashers. Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration of the basic tenet of ERFYT that “one person’s food is another person’s poison.” Once in a while in a 2002 at a nutritional conference, they had one presenter who studied all the soy studies and breast cancer, and came up with the recommendation that it wouldn’t hurt in moderation.

I must say that I have never gone over the soy deep end, usually keeping my soy intake to once a day plus the soy milk in my morning coffee and the soymilk and small amount of soy in the Type A powder. Of course, I still do not eat “frank n food” soy that is made up to look like fool me foods. I try to stick with the fermented stuff as much as possible with the least amount of additives.

Maybe this time would be good for a confession. I don’t exactly love the stuff. It would not be on my list of favorite foods. It would be on my list of healthy tolerable foods. The cook me type of tempeh leaves me cold with its texture and taste. Sometimes I can find tempeh that maybe has a little seasoning with one additive that is on the avoid list, but one has to make exceptions sometime.

So, I plod along on the tofu trail trying for new and enlightening ways to eat the stuff. Sometimes I hit tofu ruts along the way. That is when I refer to Cook Right For Your Type, or the many recipes on the website I copied through the years. I enjoy Oriental restaurants and their many ways of cooking soy, but cringe at what some of them are putting into the food. Usually they are cooking with the wrong oils and I sometimes forget to say to them omit the MSG. However, these types of restaurants give me ideas of how to cook the tofu meals at home. Hopefully this will make the tofu journey more interesting and palatable.