Concerns about Impossible Burgers, Beyond Meat, and Others

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Don’t get me wrong - I have zero problems with vegetarians or vegans. Eat the way you want to eat. I think more options are great for everyone. I’ve had meatless days in my own household for years.

However, as someone with multiple severe food allergies I have some deep concerns about the recent promotion and pushing of “meat substitutes”.

Actually, it looks like Impossible Burgers are OK for me… as long as the tomato and ketchup are kept off them.

But –

Can’t eat Beyond Meat (allergic to peas)

I don’t know if I can safely eat Boca Burgers - I’m told they’re “mainly” soy and wheat which I can eat, but “mainly” isn’t totally and I haven’t been able to get information on what else is in them.

I can not eat Gardein products (pea allergy again)

Another gripe is that people don’t seem to distinguish well between Beyond Meat and Impossible Meat (I’ve heard the dreaded phrase “what difference does it make?” In my case - the difference between going on with life without incident and bystanders maybe having to call 911 to keep me from dying.)

I getting tired of having to call/e-mail companies to ask if their products are safe - some are very cool about it, some are downright nasty about it.

I get it, I get it - reducing meat consumption is healthier for humans, healthier for the planet, etc. But too much of what people are promoting these day as a “solution” would either make me seriously ill or maybe actually kill me. I’m not willing to die when there is food I actually can eat out there.

And it’s too damn bad when there are perfectly tasty plant-based foods out there that can take on the role that meat has often played in the western diet. I’ve got a block of tofu in my refrigerator right now that’s going to be part of lunch. I love hummus. I could definitely survive as an ovo-lacto vegetarian if I absolutely had to do so.

I’d prefer to NOT have “meat substitutes” and just find yummy plant-based items to eat. It’s worked out well for me so far. But it’s push-push-push on the “meat substitutes”. I want to shout at some of the folks I see buying cartons of expensive, preservative-laden, highly processed and altered “breakfast sausage” and the like to try some oatmeal (old fashioned - not instant) and nuts for breakfast, try tofu in a variety of ways, try seitan (unless, of course, you have a wheat allergy or celiac, in which case don’t). Don’t eat just soy protein, there are a lot of other legumes (even if I can’t eat half of them you probably can). Try lentils - I LOVED lentils… until my immune system decided they were The Enemy and tried to kill me last time I had some. But they really are tasty and so many different ways to cook them.

But no - it’s fake burgers and fake sausage and fake turkey.

And no, I’d prefer NOT to give up meat and animal products entirely - because getting sufficient protein would be difficult for me on a truly plant-only diet. And no, substituting chicken multiple times a day for beef or pork is NOT “giving up meat”. It is substituting one type of animal flesh for another.

OK, that turned into a bit of a mini-rant. I didn’t feel Pit-level amounts of ire, but I did want to get that off my chest.

In a nutshell:

  • promotion of “meat substitutes” instead of healthy, whole foods that are tasty in their own right.

  • food allergies suck.

2

First result for “Boca Burger ingredients”:
https://www.kraftheinz-foodservice.com/product/00759283600369/BOCA-Original-Vegan-Burger-5-oz-Patty-Pack-of-48?categoryid=0000070263

3

As “someone with multiple severe food allergies” it seems to me it would behoove you to avoid processed foods in general, and these products are nothing if not extremely processed foods.

4

OK, so they are not for you. Great. I have to stay away from cranberries - Thanksgiving is a minefield. I deal.

But today’s meat substitutes are about addressing two major threats to society - heart disease and climate change. There is also the threat to our collective souls that is factory farming. Eating less meat means fewer animals suffering, less CO2 entering the air, and fewer fatally ill people.

So do you really think skipping down to the next item on the menu is too much for you to manage?

5

It probably won’t last- as someone who’s been vegetarian for over a decade, and watched lots of friends become vegetarian/vegan over that time, there seems to be a phenomenon that people who just quit meat eat loads of fake meat, but their diet gradually gets more and more focused on whole foods as time goes on.

If I visit friends not used to vegetarian cooking, that’s what I’ll almost always be fed; veggie burgers, veggie sausages, fake chicken roast… Barbecues are the worst; people don’t even bother reading the box, so you get veggie burgers like charred cardboard- and then half the time they look at the mess they made and go ‘Urgh, I can’t believe you want to eat stuff like that!’, but they’re all happy because they catered for you and even used a different grill for your special weird person food, so you don’t want to say anything but ‘thanks!’ and just quietly fill up on the salads.

cough

Fake meats are obvious and convenient and it’s really easy to just replace what you used to eat with them. It takes most people a while to realise that, well, why eat a not-quite-as-tasty version of what you used to eat, when a little more creativity and effort will get you something far better and more interesting? Pretty much the only fake meat I eat now is when I’m being a lazy ass or visiting someone else, but I ate a ton of the stuff in the first few years of being veggie.

6

I think the problem is people get the message of “You have to be 100% Vegetarian/Vegan!” and they go “Well, I can’t do that because I love burgers too much.”

The message needs to be “Try to have a few non-meat meals a week. You don’t need a fake meat substitute because you can have meat those other meals. And maybe once in a while, get an Impossible/Beyond/Amazing/Stupendous burger instead of a regular burger.”

7

I think you ought to go read the OP again. You have totally missed her point, it seems to me.

8

I’m not sure I get who the OP is directed at. The people buying fake meat? Or the people selling it. I’m not going to Burger King expecting to find a healthy vegetarian meal.

9

I concur.

10

I’m not sure who is pushing these lab-grown burgers onto the OP. I mean, I see ads for them. But it sounds like she is experiencing people who are literally trying to make her eat certain types of burgers that she may or may not be allergic to… I’m just not clear who “they” are.

ETA: and these lab-grown burgers are not any healthier than regular beef hamburgers. Better for the environment? Yes. Are they not meat? Yes. But “not meat” does not equal “healthy.” These burgers generally have a higher fat content, more carbs, less protein, more sodium, and slightly more calories. So, yeah.

11

Gotta say I don’t understand the op’s point either. Care to rephrase it for those of us who don’t get it?

Food allergies suck. Got it.

Real foods rule. Agree.

That it?

12

I think it’s both. Companies shouldn’t be pushing fake meat, they should push other options, and people shouldn’t buy fake meat either. Why that should be true isn’t clear - the OP is allergic to pea protein and doesn’t want to email the companies to see if there is pea protein in their products. How you get from that to “Burger King should be pushing oatmeal and soy” is kind of hard to follow.

Well, good for you. Certainly nobody should be trying to get you to eat Impossible Burgers if you don’t want to.

Do you see any conflict between “I don’t want to eat this” and “I don’t want you to eat this”?

How do you know that those people don’t have life-threatening allergies to oatmeal?

Regards,
Shodan

13

Yeah I was just in the store the other day and looking over the selection of various recent offerings in the “plant-based meat” genre. What I noticed is that a lot of them have astronomical levels of saturated fat. I was looking at one small packet of ground “meat” - can’t remember if it was Beyond Meat brand or one of the numerous competitors, but the packet was something like 10 ounces, and the nutrition information informed me that one serving contained 30% of the recommended daily saturated fat. And one packet contained like FIVE servings.

Being vegetarian for ethical reasons is one thing; but if you’re eyeing this “plant-based meat” because it seems like a healthier alternative to ground meat, just forget it. You’re better off with a pound of lean ground beef, or bison (which is sold at most supermarkets now).

14

I don’t think she’s complaining that people are forcing her to eat fake meat. I think she’s complaining that people want to eat less meat aren’t eating vegetarian dishes but instead are just eating processed knockoffs of the same old meat dishes. And food companies are pushing “fake meat made from PLANTS!” instead of encouraging people to eat more wholesome things.

Plus I would think there’s a risk of cross contamination unless the regular burgers and the “plant” burgers are cooked on different equipment and if you don’t know what’s in the “plants” that would be scary for me.

15

And that’s playing kind of dirty because if you don’t read the nutrition labels a lot of people will assume that “plants” = “healthy” and there are times when it just isn’t true.

I saw a commercial the other day for something called “plant butter” and my reaction was pretty much this: :smack:.

16

Then I don’t understand this – “Another gripe is that people don’t seem to distinguish well between Beyond Meat and Impossible Meat (I’ve heard the dreaded phrase “what difference does it make?” In my case - the difference between going on with life without incident and bystanders maybe having to call 911 to keep me from dying.)”

The only thing I can come up with is that someone is serving a lab burger and she asks what brand it is, and “people” are saying “Who cares just eat it” at the risk of her life. Nobody said people are “forcing” her to eat it, but they do seem to be “pushing” it.

17

I think the OP is unhappy with the marketing of the fakes, which are being touted “just as good as, or even better.”

I was Vegan/Vegetarian for eight years, so I get it.

Some studies have suggested that the carbon footprint of fake meats is greater than the real thing, because of all the processing, and the transportation of all the ingredients to the processing plant.

And the fakes are horrendously high in sodium.

Another concern is the amount of soy in the Vegetarian diet. Soy has estrogen precursors, and there have been suggestions that young boys could be negatively influenced by a soy-heavy diet. Too much soy ingestion in childhood might make a kid more susceptible to allergies later on. Contributing to a heavy soy intake are all the non-fake-meat sources in the everyday diet. Mixes, packaged foods, and seasonings all contain varying amounts of soy products.

My complaint is that people may think eating Impossible burgers may be the solution to a healthier diet.
~VOW

18

I actually think it, in conjunction with Filbert’s post addresses the point fairly well.

Generally speaking people don’t go from meat heavy diets to a bunch of whole foods in an instant. Impossible & Beyond Burgers are a way to bridge the gap. And allow a bit of better ‘backsliding’. To go after those people and say why don’t you just go to whole foods is just a recipe (no pun intended) to have those people not make the step from meat at all.

19

I was thinking about this the other day as I sampled KFC’s ‘no chicken’ burger (which is made from Quorn mycoprotein) - this product was flying off the shelf - they couldn’t make them fast enough to keep up with demand - and the clientelle trying them were a complete cross-section of the public - including quite a lot of younger males who I would not normally place in the ‘vegan/vegetarian’ category.

I am not a vegan or vegetarian, but I know I have been eating meat in a way that is neither sustainable, nor good for my own health - I want to reduce my meat consumption, and I know exactly how to do that - I am a good enough cook that I can easily whip up a delicious meat-free meal that isn’t even trying to pretend it is meat…

But… a rising tide lifts all boats - it’s good that these products exist, because they give people options and they are making people think; for many diehard carnivores, there’s no way they would ever order a bean burrito when meat is also on the menu - but these product break the ice - they open people’s minds to the idea of meals without meat - and once that discussion is started, it can go all sorts of places.

I mean, I am also fascinated by the technology of producing fake meats - in the same way as I am interested in learning how skilled bakers can make cakes that look like a bowl of fruit, or make mock caviar out of melon juice.

20

So don’t eat it? :confused:

I really don’t understand this OP. Can the people who are saying “read it again” please explain what her point actually is? Because all I am seeing is “this new fad food has ingredients that may kill me, therefore I wish no one would eat it.”