Richard Lewis, 17, whose father raises beef cattle in South Dakota, tried soy burgers for the first time recently and thought "they tasted like the real thing."

Nathan Harford, 16, doesn't like the taste of plain tofu because it's "blah," but he thinks soy nuts and shakes made with soymilk are pretty good.

Sara Rernleitner, 19, says of the soy recipes she has tasted: "It surprised me that something like a soybean could actually have that kind of taste."


These students at Tulare (S.D.) High School, in the heart of beef country, cooked with tofu and other soy foods in their occupational food services class this spring. The goal: Learn about soy so they could talk about the foods to school cafeteria personnel and owners of a local restaurant, the Buffalo Cafe.

More than 300 foods and beverages made with soy were introduced last year (USA TODAY).

This is just one of the signs of the fascination with soy that's sweeping the country. Once used mostly in Asian cuisine and by vegetarians, soy products are now going mainstream, being incorporated into family meals and traditional family recipes.

Doctors are recommending soy foods to their patients as part of a heart-healthy diet. Registered dietitians are suggesting them to clients. Parents are trying to figure ways to get their kids to eat more soy. And that's not difficult to do anymore with the new foods flooding the market.

More than 300 food and beverage products made with soy were introduced in 1999, according to Products can Online/Lempert Report. Not bad for a lowly legume.

And the trend shows no sign of abating. About 37 million bushels of U.S. soybeans are used to make soy foods. That is expected to jump to 66 million bushels a year by 2005, according to a study funded by the United Soybean Board. But can Americans weaned on McDonald's French fries and whole milk really stomach the taste of soy? Andare people willing to fool with cooking with these foods?

"There are some really fabulous soy products, and there are some really stupid ones," says supermarket guru Phil Lempert, who has tried hundreds of them. He monitors supermarket trends and products in his newsletter, TheLempert Report, and on his Web site, www.supermarketguru.com.

Lempert predicts All Natural Soy Nuts could be the next snack craze, but some products that don't taste great won't make it.

Taste and texture matter to Americans, and many of them turn up their noses at these foods. Robert Garofalo, a New York City firefighter who has lost 35 pounds since mid-January by more closely minding his diet, says he won't go near tofu. "I told the nutritionist, 'Pizza is one thing I'm not giving up, and tofu is one thing I won't eat.' It has no food like qualities."

Soy is a taste you have to get used to, says Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity for the American Cancer Society.

Tofu absorbs the flavors of the foods it's cooked with. Some people find that they have to get used to the taste, butthere are lots of ways to incorporate soy without sacrificing good flavor, she says. "I've had some better desserts than I have main dishes. I've had a great chocolate mousse and great cheesecake" made from soy.

The six students in occupational foods class in Tulare taste-tested and cooked about a half-dozen products, including soy nuts; muffins made with soy flour; soy burgers; a caramel dip made with tofu; and milkshakes made with soymilk, soy yogurt and tofu.

Overall, they gave the products and recipes good reviews, although they said the brand of soy burgers called Harvest Burgers would have been dry if they hadn't added barbecue sauce, and the best soy nuts were those with a barbecue flavor. Soy shakes tasted like regular milkshakes, they said.

Still, none of the students has rushed out recently to make more soy dishes, partly because they live in a small town and don't have easy access to many of these products at the grocery store. "I have to go 40 or 50 miles to purchase a lot of the products," says their teacher, Vivian Rearick.

Rearick was selective about what she offered the students. She says there are some soy burgers she doesn't like at all. "And some of the soy nuts are gross."

Edith Howard Hogan, a registered dietitian in Washington, D.C., who has tried many different soy recipes, says tofu has a different mouth feel than most people in this country are used to. "Tofu is not what I call a stand-alone product," she says. "You have to make an effort to use it. I've had luck with tofu in lasagna and stir-fry. I do a chiliwhere I use a mixture of soybeans and regular kidney beans."

Along with the successes, Hogan has had flops. She says she tried some soy hot dogs and bacon that were "awful."

Even vocal soy advocates say all soy foods aren't created equal. Consumers have to experiment with soy foods. Some of them taste terrible, says Andrew Weil, who pushes soy in his best-selling book Eating Well for Optimum Health.

He suggests trying to consume mostly whole-soy foods and steer clear of the more highly processed ones because they may not contain as many of the healthy isoflavones, fiber and vegetable oil.

He loves edamame, green soybeans in the pod. You boil the whole beans in salted water for about five minutes, then pop the beans out of the pod into your mouth. Eat them hot or cold. He also recommends soymilk, tofu, tempeh (fermented soybean patty) and dry-roasted soy nuts.

Weil says consumers may have to try several soymilks to find one that suits their palate. He has talked to people who like the Silk brand.

He also recommends trying New Menu Tofu Mate, a seasoning mix for tofu. There's one that makes a taco and another that makes an eggless egg salad that he likes.

He says kids like Tofutti Cuties, a kind of frozen ice cream sandwich, and he likes Boca Burgers.

The problem with cooking with too much soy flour is it makes people flatulent, Weil says. (Remember, it's made from beans.)

Says Doyle: "The bottom line with all this is soy can be really good for you. But there are a lot of other good things that taste good, too. Load up on fruits and vegetables and whole grains. If you like soy, eat it, too. If you don't, well,then don't."

All this talk about soy and the explosion of products come after numerous reports about soy's potential health benefits. It has been linked to helping prevent everything from heart disease to cancer and to reducing hot flashes during menopause.

Last fall, the Food and Drug Administration announced that some foods containing soy protein can carry labels that say these products, when included in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, might reduce the risk of heart disease.

The FDA said scientific studies show that, for significant cholesterol-lowering effects, the daily diet should contain 25 grams of soy protein.

An 8-ounce cup of soymilk has about 4 to 9 grams of soy protein; a soy burger has 9 to 18 grams; soy cheese has 2 to 4 grams a slice; and soy nuts have 11grams an ounce, according to the Soyfoods Association of North America.

"The evidence that whole-soy foods in the diet are extremely beneficial is very compelling, " says Andrew Weil, a doctor and best-selling author of several nutrition-related books. "The oil is heart-protective. The phytoestrogens are extremely protective against breast and prostate cancer."

But Colleen Doyle of the American Cancer Society says soy isn't a magic bullet for cancer or chronic diseases, "so don't beat yourself up if you aren't including soy in your diet."

Instead, she says, eat a wide variety that includes mostly plant foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other grain products) and then limit sources of high-fat meats and high-fat dairy products.

"These are important and valuable ways to reduce the risk of cancer," Doyle says.