# Concerns about Impossible Burgers, Beyond Meat, and Others **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 7, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072 "2020-01-07T15:57:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/42 "2020-01-08T15:35:21Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Let’s be clear - I think that these are mostly gimmick foods. But these critiques still seems off the mark. > > 1. These are not foods being marketed as healthier for you than their meat alternative and few I think are buying an Impossible Whopper and thinking they are buying anything other than junk food. > > 2. They ARE being bought by people who DO want the form factor and flavor of the meat product and not someone looking for a lentil burger that tastes like veggies. That is what quite a few people want. > > 3. There is no question that the carbon footprint of say a Beyond Beef Burger is [a fraction of a meat one.](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/climate/plant-based-meat.html?searchResultPosition=9) > > IF someone has made an ethical decision to reduce or eliminate their meat consumption and they hav a hankering for the taste of a burger anyway, these things apparently do the trick for some people. If their ethical reason is mainly climate change motivated then they are inflicting much less environmental impact eating it than eating the same amount of beef. If major portions of the world population switched to significant degrees from meat to vegetable alternatives, be they these highly processed ones or less highly processed more real food choices, the planet would be healthier. If they chose more of the latter than the former they would be healthier too. > > 1. Those with serious food allergies always need to be careful. It is hard for them to order a burger out in any case because of the possibility of hidden ingredients. The ingredient list of these fake meat products though are at least available. > > There are many foods our op cannot eat including some, maybe most, meat alternatives. She is therefore not part of their consumer base. I’m not for other reasons. The product is not the right choice for everyone but it is apparently finding those for whom it is. Yes to all this. I think folks that are vegetarian or vegan completely miss that meat eaters REALLY like the taste of meat. Therefore something that can replicate that taste even a little bit is a good stepping stone - and something that can help suffice when someone has a meat craving. The taste of meat is the one thing that can’t be replicated by ‘whole foods’ - no, mushrooms just don’t come close. So these type of things can help reduce environmental damage at the same time satisfying the craving for the meat taste. ---
**Author:** ![fedman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@fedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/43 "2020-01-08T17:44:54Z")
> [@tricoteuse](#): > > 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. someone already sued Burger King about cross-contamination ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/44 "2020-01-08T17:55:06Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Let’s be clear - I think that these are mostly gimmick foods. But these critiques still seems off the mark. > > 1. These are not foods being marketed as healthier for you than their meat alternative and few I think are buying an Impossible Whopper and thinking they are buying anything other than junk food. > > 2. They ARE being bought by people who DO want the form factor and flavor of the meat product and not someone looking for a lentil burger that tastes like veggies. That is what quite a few people want. > > 3. There is no question that the carbon footprint of say a Beyond Beef Burger is [a fraction of a meat one.](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/climate/plant-based-meat.html?searchResultPosition=9) > > IF someone has made an ethical decision to reduce or eliminate their meat consumption and they hav a hankering for the taste of a burger anyway, these things apparently do the trick for some people. Yep, those reasons are why I (and some of my friends) will occasionally get an Impossible burger instead of a real meat one. We’re not under any impression that they are a healthier choice or anything like that. We’re just interested – for our own reasons – in reducing the meat intake in our diet. I’m actually really impressed with how well a _properly_ cooked Impossible burger mimics a real hamburger. It’s a nice product for people who love the taste and mouthfeel of meat but, for whatever reasons, want to transition away from it. I personally don’t think it’s a gimmick or a fad – I think these will continue to sell well. This is the first “fake meat” product that I’ve bought somewhat regularly, and I’m not the only one like this that I know. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/45 "2020-01-08T22:06:10Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > 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. Who is suggesting this? They sound like a crank. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/46 "2020-01-08T22:15:20Z")
I haven’t heard the allergies thing, but soy estrogens are suspected of causing IIRC breast cancer rates to go up. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/47 "2020-01-08T23:42:40Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I haven’t heard the allergies thing, but soy estrogens are suspected of causing IIRC breast cancer rates to go up. Supposedly, that’s been proven wrong or at least inconclusive. However, since my body no longer has the means to produce estrogen, I figured that I could start doing some good cooking experimentation with tofu, which I love. Nope. That idea fizzled fast as my estrogen receptors said “Look, it’s almost a perfect match!” and sucked those little isoflavones in resulting in zits, cramps, and gas just like PMS. So tofu remains a rare treat for me. ([link to 2009 Scientific American article](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soybean-fertility-hormone-isoflavones-genistein/)) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/48 "2020-01-08T23:53:20Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > 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. What amount of soy in the “Vegetarian diet”? You say that as if vegetarians all eat the same thing. They don’t and plenty of them don’t particularly eat soy. Meanwhile, millions of meat-eating Asians consume all kinds of soy. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/49 "2020-01-09T00:38:19Z")
A diet high in soy protein is associated with DECREASED cancer risks, lower heart disease risks, is completely safe for young boys, and does not make one susceptible to allergies later on. From [one](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5793271/) of MANY academic reviews: > [@](#): > > … A recent rigorous meta-analysis confirmed the increase of high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol with the reduction of total and LDL-cholesterol in adults with normal or high plasma cholesterol … > > … a modest effect in lowering blood pressure by soy proteins … > > … In a recent meta-analysis of observational studies on consumption of soy and risk of CVD, a significant negative association was shown … > > … The beneficial effect of soy food in the diet of Asian and Western women has been highlighted, even for those with breast cancer diagnosis [318,319]. In a Chinese cohort of 73,223 women with high breast cancer risk, a strongly statistically significance has been showed in a prospective study between soy food intake and reduced risk of premenopausal cancer risk but without any association with post-menopausal breast cancer … > > … soy use significantly reduced prostate cancer diagnosis … > > … reduction of the risk of endometrial cancer … There are always negative things that people _suggest_ … like vaccines cause autism … but a diet relatively high in soy consumption is just fine. As always dietary moderation and variety is good sense for those without allergies that prevent such. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveroptic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiveroptic/32/8257_2.png) [@Fiveroptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveroptic)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/50 "2020-01-09T20:43:31Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > There are always negative things that people _suggest_ … like vaccines cause autism … but a diet relatively high in soy consumption is just fine. As always dietary moderation and variety is good sense for those without allergies that prevent such. Thank you for being a voice of reason. I was going to post something very similar to this but probably with way less finesse. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/51 "2020-01-09T21:33:20Z")
I sometimes think there are people who mistake their own personal problems with a particular food for a general population problem. Yes, if you have celiac anything with gluten is a problem. If you don’t have celiac it’s not. If you are lactose intolerant dairy is a bad thing. If you’re a mutant who keeps producing lactase into adulthood (as many people are) it’s a fine food category. But I seem to see books promoting this or that food or food category as Satan’s entree or something. I’m sure some of it is just people attempting to cash in on a fad, but some of it seems to be “I have this problem therefore everyone must have this problem”. Um… no, they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/52 "2020-01-09T22:25:02Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There is a certain type of person out there You’ve put my walls of text to shame. But I never once got the vibe that plant-based meat substitutes are significantly _healthier_ than actual meat, with the notable exception of cholesterol content. When friends tell you to switch just tell them you’re allergic. No need to take on the whole concept of fake meat - tell the truth, you don’t eat it because of your allergies. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/53 "2020-01-09T22:44:03Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I sometimes think there are people who mistake their own personal problems with a particular food for a general population problem. > > Yes, if you have celiac anything with gluten is a problem. If you don’t have celiac it’s not. > > If you are lactose intolerant dairy is a bad thing. If you’re a mutant who keeps producing lactase into adulthood (as many people are) it’s a fine food category. > > But I seem to see books promoting this or that food or food category as Satan’s entree or something. I’m sure some of it is just people attempting to cash in on a fad, but some of it seems to be “I have this problem therefore everyone must have this problem”. Um… no, they don’t. I do know that is my situation, though I haven’t written a book about it. But I do caution other people because it is possible (not probable, but possible) they may have the same problem I do (or the problem any of you do). And I pay attention to the study results. But I’m not stupid enough to think that if most people don’t have a problem with soy, that means my problem is all in my head. If I took the approach that it was all in my head, I’d still have ovaries, and likely cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/54 "2020-01-09T23:10:33Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > 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. I’m not a vegetarian, far from it and no intention to ever be one. But what you say makes sense to me. I also don’t get why there’s so much focus on fake meat when lots of non-meat dishes are appealing to meat eaters like me. Only perhaps if there was a really good reason everybody _had_ to be strictly vegetarian, right away (not just want to be vegetarian, it’s 100% fine with me if other people want to). Maybe it’s appealing to cut down on meat\* with fake meat to some people, so again let people decide and the market provide what they like. But it has little appeal to me. Also I notice so far in the fast foods places the fake meat alternatives are significantly more expensive, a head shaking non starter for me. My policy wrt to those places is just not to go to them often. I’m not going to stop entirely, nor eat fake meat there for a higher price. \*particularly beef where the issue of feed to meat conversion inefficiency is far bigger than with chicken and also greater than with pork. And the feed conversion issue is a 100% objective fact (how sustainable current meat production is, more a matter of opinion). But I mean in contrast to negative health issues with meat which assuming moderate consumption is significantly less than a 100% clear fact AFAIK. Although OTOH my favorite meal, burger and fries, has sodium and cooking oil health issues, and tends to go with soda, again issues. Which is why I make it a once in a while treat. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/55 "2020-01-10T03:35:28Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Let me explain the dimensions of the problem to you: > > I can no longer use most all-purpose flour because it contains malted barley flour, and I am allergic to barley. So that nice, healthy bag of non-processed flour is off limits to me. > > On the other hand, chicken McNuggets are still safe, even if highly processed. > > It’s not about processed/non-processed, it’s about what’s in the food. Raw organic tomatoes are completely unprocessed yet they could kill me. > > I’d _prefer_ to eat “real food”, that is, with minimal processing, but if the only safe food allergy wise is the highly processed stuff (which just so happens to not contain what I’m allergic to) then that’s what I eat. Cause I really hate trips to the ER. But highly processed stuff has the upside over random stuff assembled by a neighbor because the highly processing factory actually list ingredients on the label (even if sometimes imperfectly) whereas who knows what the random neighbor is doing? I was almost killed once by an idiot who didn’t understand that “no tomato” means no ketchup either (Halloween Night, 1995, Rockford, Illinois). > > The pitfall with the highly processed stuff is usually how many ingredients it contains, and that they’re permitted to say “colored with vegetable juice” without specify WHICH vegetable. Beets? That’s OK. Tomatoes? Deadly poison to me. > > This is why when I travel I’ll live on chicken chunks and fries from fast-food places - it’s not health food but the consistency of such franchises is such that at least I know what I’m eating and no one is improvising in the kitchen. > > So yes, this is in part yet another bitch about the allergies. If the diabetics can bitch about their problems I can bitch about mine. Isn’t most of this information available on their websites? I think they’re supposed to list the ingredients of their products nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/56 "2020-01-10T03:41:08Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > I’m not a vegetarian, far from it and no intention to ever be one. But what you say makes sense to me. I also don’t get why there’s so much focus on fake meat when lots of non-meat dishes are appealing to meat eaters like me. I am a vegetarian and the reason for the focus is simple: there are many, I’d wager a majority of Americans, who will tell you they refuse to eat food that does not contain meat. IF asked, they will proudly tell you “food = meat and meat = food” and to them it’s a closed system. For instance: make vegetable lasagna for a potluck dinner and see if all the meat dishes aren’t gone while there’s still 75% of the lasagna untouched; I have seen this more times than I can count. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/57 "2020-01-10T03:49:52Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I’d wager a majority of Americans, who will tell you they refuse to eat food that does not contain meat. I wouldn’t go that far, but I do think that a meal without meat is a poor excuse for a meal. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/58 "2020-01-10T10:03:54Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Isn’t most of this information available on their websites? I think they’re supposed to list the ingredients of their products nowadays. Yes, but it’s not as straightforward as most assume. For example - if “soy sauce” is listed as an ingredient most people are not going to realize that that means the item contains gluten. Because most people are unaware that soy sauce is traditionally brewed from soybeans _and wheat_. There is gluten-free soy sauce but it’s not real common. Some companies will say “made with soy sauce (contains soy, wheat)” but they are not required to do that. Another example - a local coffee shop has a “wildberry smoothie” that the company say is colored with “natural vegetable juice”. That’s nice - WHICH vegetable? If it’s beets I’m fine. If it’s tomato I’m screwed. They aren’t required to list which vegetable they used, just that it’s “vegetable juice” which is sort of useless if you’re allergic to a vegetable (or a few of them, as I am). Another example - sometimes you see “may contain Oil X, Oil Y, or Oil Z” That’s so when they’re making the stuff they can use whichever is cheaper that week but OK, _which_ oil is in the serving you’re looking at? One of them? Two of them? All of them? That’s where someone like me can run into trouble. And quite a few companies really don’t want to tell you what, exactly, is in their “natural vegetable juices”. I have found that contacting them and saying something like “I have an allergy to tomatoes. Very important - do your “natural vegetable juices” you use for coloring agents contain tomatoes in any form or quantity?”, which they can answer “yes” or “no” to without revealing their particular formula, tends to work best. But not always. I do occasionally get a hostile response. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/59 "2020-01-10T15:44:33Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I am a vegetarian and the reason for the focus is simple: there are many, I’d wager a majority of Americans, who will tell you they refuse to eat food that does not contain meat. IF asked, they will proudly tell you “food = meat and meat = food” and to them it’s a closed system. For instance: make vegetable lasagna for a potluck dinner and see if all the meat dishes aren’t gone while there’s still 75% of the lasagna untouched; I have seen this more times than I can count. OK but you’re just saying lots of people don’t want to be vegetarians. Yeah obviously, including me. 🙂 My puzzlement is why there’s so much focus on fake meat as a way to get people to be (more) vegetarian. I mean 99% of the time the consumer knows it’s not actually meat, so if they really insist ‘food=meat’ they wouldn’t eat fake meat _or_ any other non-meat dishes. My point, and what I took the earlier point to say, was that lots of non-meat dishes which aren’t fake meat can be appealing to meat eaters (things I have gradually eaten more of to somewhat reduce, I’ve no intention to stop, my meat consumption\*) so puzzling to me why there’s so much emphasis on fake meat. Really puzzling when they try to sell it to me for _more money_ than meat. Big no thanks to that, whereas I don’t reject non-meat dishes generally. Sure if there were burgers and vegetable lasagna at a get together I’d also be leaving the lasagna alone (unless maybe I saw you looking and didn’t want to hurt your feelings 🙂 , actually I don’t like meat lasagna either), but there’s plenty of non meat dishes, and whole meals, I eat. \*I’m operating on a health oriented but not particularly vegetarian (not the same thing IMO) outlook of moderating beef consumption in particular, not as much trying to reduce chicken or fish consumption. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/60 "2020-01-10T16:55:13Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Yes, but it’s not as straightforward as most assume. > > For example - if “soy sauce” is listed as an ingredient most people are not going to realize that that means the item contains gluten. Those individuals who are gluten sensitive would, or at least should, know. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072/61 "2020-01-10T20:46:22Z")
SBo, I’ll eat your lasagna! I’ve cut back on meat to the point of 2-4 days a week without meat in them. Why? Well, because I only want to eat organically raised meat and that’s expensive. It probably helps a lot that I love most veg and pulses too. For a while, I was on a very limited diet so we could figure out my food sensitivities, during which time I switched to organic food where possible, and quit using chemicals on the lawn and to clean the house. I learned a lot about flavor at the time and seriously broadened my intake with the discovering of Indian and Peruvian cooking in order to make up for the lack of wheat, gluten, dairy, and fungi/yeast foods in my diet. But because of the cooking I learned, I’ve never felt the urge to buy fake meat, with the exception of black bean burgers and I eat those because they are convenient and tasty, not because I was looking for a substitute hamburger. I know for others, it might be a way to get them to try eating meals without meet or in the case of a family I know, it means they can all go out to dinner together because there’s something on the menu for the vegans in the family as well as the meat eaters. It’s just not for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerns-about-impossible-burgers-beyond-meat-and-others/846072.md?page=4)