Soy has helped a lot of women with hot flashes, and it helped me for a while. I found that eating 1/8 – 1/4 cup of soy nuts a day greatly diminished my hot flashes. I continued this for five months or so until….I started breaking out in hives. I’m not talking about a few hives in one small area. I’m talking about hives in several areas, some small areas and some large areas. I had them on my arms, my elbows, my hips, my thighs, my waist. I was miserable and the itching would be intense at times, so much so that it would wake me up during the night.

I never had a food allergy before, but I learned that the best thing to do is keep a food diary. So that’s what I did. There were several foods (soy, wheat, barley, especially) that I had reactions to, and the hives would itch more after eating them. These were foods I’ve eaten my whole life and never had a problem.

I found the common denominator between them was phytic acid, and soy has the highest content of phytic acid of all. I decided, for a while anyway, to eliminate all the foods that made me itch. After a couple of months, the hives went away.

When the time for my appointment with an allergist finally came around, the hives were gone. I told her I thought it was the soy. She didn’t think so. After two different allergy tests, she said that she thought it was the soy. So after paying all the out-of-pocket medical expenses (our insurance isn’t very good), I didn’t know anymore than I did before I went to the allergist. I have continued to stay away from soy nuts ever since, but I was able to start eating everything else without any problem.

I had told a friend of mine about the soy nuts when I first started eating them, and she started eating them to help her hot flashes. When I realized it was the soy nuts that were causing my hives, I told her about it. She said that she had been itching some since she started eating the nuts. Well, after she heard about my experience, she quit eating soy nuts immediately and the itching went away.

Everyone is different, but if you are eating soy nuts on a regular basis, watch for any signs of an allergy…especially itching or hives! I’ve read that there are quite a few people who are allergic to large amounts of soy.