The biggest problem with plant based meat is that it gets compared to real meat. This isn’t just limited to the consumer. Companies try to hard to make plant based meat like real meat. It’s not meat. If everyone just stopped with the comparisons, I think plant based meat could work. It’s not real meat, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.
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Impossible whoppers are good
Well yes, I have not eaten meat since I was 12 so 10 years ago. I now have forgotten how it tastes and I find vegan meat amazing. We also have a lot of choices in my country (UK).
My partner who eats meat, as well as a few friends, do find some vegan meat very good too actually.
I think some people will not even want to try or admit that it can be good just out of principle.
You can not be vegetarian and still have some very nice vegetarian meals. You don’t need to have meat at every single meal!
It should be labeled fake meat.
When it’s not ultra processed garbage then sure
I’m a little biased as I was vegan for 3 years. Still, Beyond Meat burger remains my favourite burger in terms of flavour.
It tastes really good when you don’t compare it to what it’s meant to taste like.
Yeah it’s fine. Had it many times. Two things. 1) It’s not healthier than real meat and 2) it’s more expensive.
I think it depends on how you’re defining ‘good’, taste-wise or good for you? There are some really nice tasting fake meats that I actually prefer to normal meat (and I’m a big meat lover), but those ones are highly processed and definitely not healthy
I mean this is the thing
You can have great vegetarian/vegan food
But there seems to be an entire product category of substitute foods which are essentially pretending to be something they’re not.
I guess the idea is to be like a “drop in” replacement where you don’t need to change the kinds of meals you make/eat, just have a vegan version of it
But I can’t help but feel like the result is that people look down on vegan diets because from their point of view a lot of it is trying to be meat, and failing.
There’s definitely good fake meat out there, but there’s no point trying to convince someone who isn’t vegetarian or vegan if they insist they don’t like it.
The concept of plant based meat is stupid. If I want meat I get meat. Jackfruit, Seitan, Tofu, Corn, Bulgur, etc have delicious recipes that stand on their own, without being substitutes.
I agree. If you just want something to make a burger/sandwich out of, don’t assume it’s going to taste like meat and it’s all good. If you want meat, eat meat.
Yup, that’s what I always tell people. I’m not sure why meat generates more psychological bias (people don’t usually look at you like you asked them to eat Soylent Green when you ask if they want “sugar substitute”, for example), but it is what it is.
Good luck going against the Impossible and Beyond Meat marketing machine, though. 99% of people you talk to have already turned their brains off about it.
Lab-grown meat is finally getting a toehold in the US, though, and that’s what I’m really looking forward to.
My problem with plant based meat is that they’re trying to sell it as a healthier alternative to meat, but has a bunch of processed ingredients. So why is an Impossible burger healthy but a portion of Oreo’s not?
Possibly stop calling it ‘plant based meat’ and a ‘meat alternative’ if you don’t want it to be compared to meat?
“Plant based meat” isn’t meat.
It’s like saying “animal based vegetables”.
You mean “meat substitutes”.
Also, there’s literally no need for them.
Your focus as someone who is vegetarian or vegan should be replacing the *nutrition* you’re missing out on by not eating meat.
That does not require replicating the appearance, texture, or flavor of meat, and doing so is often nutritionally counterproductive.
(Source: I’m a nutritional scientist.)
I also think it’s how you go into it.
I made a green curry for some friends where I used Fry’s chicken in place of normal and fed it to them without thinking and they absolutely did not notice (and these people would tell me if my food was off, they are honest to a fault occasionally)
They did get weirdly upset with me after they found out but these people also know that I go through bouts of vegetarianism so it’s not like I intentionally deceived them as a gotcha, was just interesting to me.
If it’s all blended with the flavours the only thing that’s really telling is texture imo.
Fry’s sausage rolls are basically indeterminable from the real thing too.
Then… don’t call it plant based meat? I mean, it’s made to be a substitute, the comparisons are not only invited, it’s built on them.