Tuesday, March 18, 2014

TAMOXIFEN - Life Without Soy - is Starbucks stepping up to the plate?

Monday:
Starbucks has sent me another no-fault reply.  They advised me not to eat anything there that didn't offer the product/nutrition information I need.

Formatting concerns kept me from posting that exact boilerplate reply.

After meeting with my tutoring client, I went to HEB market.  I asked one of the seafood counter persons about my favorite crab cake's contents.  He told me that the crab mix comes with a flour binder from Japan.  So I have no way of knowing if their binder contains soy.  (I've read in one of the soy-free product websites that some flour does have soy.)  The counter man waved his hand over all their crab cakes and advised me not to eat them.  I politely thanked him and went home a little grumpy.  But of course, I haven't given up on our market.

Tuesday:
Then last night I discovered that someone at Starbucks has taken my not particularly loving and patient suggestions. (Actually I had sort of threatened by email to call Panera about possible soy-free offerings.)

She wrote that she advised the "appropriate" teams, or words to that effect, about the request for something soy free.  We'll see what happens.  I suspect it will take a long time for this request to go through corporate board meetings and then slowly filter down to the guy who buys the flour, then slowly wind its way thru the test kitchens to the communications department so the web designer can slowly change all the printed info about what's in the food.  Or do they outsource all their baking?  I've never peaked into the kitchen.

Oh, did I forget to mention the endless palaver with corporate legal, who will be so sure I'll get sick and sue them even if the new product has no soy?

I have not given up Starbucks.  Many of us sit there with homework and some decaf.  I try to leave a good enough tip to make up for it.

Even if Starbucks finds that they already have something that can be labeled Soy Free, the whole process will probably take just as long before they assure me that I can safely eat the Banana/pumpkin Fluffy Scone or whatever.

This is what using my patient voice is for.  And don't you think it takes more time than it should?  I still don't have any figures on how many women take Tamoxifen.  But you can bet many, perhaps more than half of us, had been having a snack at Starbucks.  Until we took that first pill.

Your comments on what you do with your patient voice are always welcome here.

Be well.




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