Soybeans Offer Food For Thought

July 23, 1999

News Service
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901-6915 618.453.2276
Sue Davis, Director
suedavis@siu.edu

Soybeans offer food for thought
By K.C. Jaehnig

CARBONDALE, Ill. -The 40 or so farmers who toured Southern Illinois University Carbondale's soybean research facilities July 14 tend to see soybeans as a meal ticket, not as a meal.

"I like to eat things that eat soybeans," said Eric Coulter of Joy.

Nonetheless, this game bunch went through the buffet line set up in SIUC's College of Agriculture, filling their plates with an assortment of soy-fortified food. They helped themselves to Greek salad (three grams of soy protein) pizza burgers (22 grams), tacos (nine to 13 grams), and lasagna (one gram), piling on apricot cream pie (three grams) for dessert.

Their buffet choices, prepared by SIUC's department of animal science, food and nutrition under the watchful eye of Associate Professor Hea-Ran Ashraf, came from recipes developed by SIUC students and by some Carbondale residents who last year won a soy recipe contest co-sponsored by the University. The point of the meal, as well as the tour: To show farmers what the money they pay to the Illinois Soybean Checkoff Board buys for them.

"Over the years, I've received a number of internal grants made with discretionary money the board allocates to the College of Agriculture," Ashraf said later.

"These grants allowed me to hire graduate students, many of whom have worked with soy products for their theses. We're now at the point of focusing more on community outreach to advocate the use of soy foods through activities like the recipe contest," Bryan Heiser, a farmer from Minier who chairs the checkoff board's research committee, had been treated to a similar buffet the last time the board sponsored a visit to SIUC.

"I know some of us were scared four years ago, but I wasn't at all scared to come and eat this stuff this year," he said, laughing.

"It was very good," said Charles Ford, a Louisville man, as he cleaned his plate. "Of course, anything that's made of soybeans has to be good," he added loyally.

Coulter, who liked the tacos and the Greek salad best, ate only half his pizza burger.

"But I'm a finicky eater," he said tactfully, as he posed with the leftovers for an SIUC photographer.

Mary Meinhart of Montrose stuck up for the soy-based burger.

"It's good," she said. "It's not quite like a porkburger, but it will do."

Judy Flake of Toledo, who loved the Greek salad, made a point of picking up one of the recipe booklets Ashraf was handing out.

"I have tofu in my refrigerator," she said. "I'm going to go home and try that recipe."

Flake thinks everyone should eat more soy products. She said everything was so good, no one would know they were eating soy-based foods.

"You could fool a child-you could even fool a husband, and that's what counts," she said.

"It doesn't matter what the experts like. But if you can fool your husband or your child, that meal will be popular."