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Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

nytimes.com

141–150 of 663 posts

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what would you consider an appropriate food? I personally look for high fat/protein when picking my food, and the there isn't much reason to believe salt is bad for you.

My diet is specifically about reducing inflammation. Low sugar, low salt, mostly plant based. There is much reason to believe salt is bad for you.

That's cool, I mean definitely do what is best for you. I think there is a lot of room for self-discovery of our own optimal diets. The salt debate is one of those things where nutrition science can't seem to settle on it, depending on the survey.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#142
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first complaint about the nutrition of the Morningstar burger is the ratio of carbs to protien. Restaurants are already throwing tons of carbs at me. I really want protein in my burger patty.

Wait, are you really complaining about nutrition at a fast food restaurant ?

It’s not as though some food is automatically bad for you because it came from Burger King, and even if it were, there is a huge range of how bad it is. I could get 500 calories from a burger or 2000 from a burger with a milkshake and fries. It’s not a good idea to make a fast-food restaurant a zone of nutrition nihilism where we just accept that we doom our health by entering and ignore the choice of what to order.

At least they are forced to display nutrition info, so I know what I’m getting, unlike most sit-down restaurants that serve even larger portions with no numbers included.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#143
post #69

White Castle has had Impossible Burgers available for about a year now. Just interesting to see the trend emerging from what I would consider the "bottom-most" market segment. I suppose they had the most to gain from drawing in a meat-averse audience. Whatever your feelings on this particular product, it seems that the perhaps-inevitable decline of the traditional meat industry is going to take place on many fronts (…

I had the White Castle version, and my estimation is how it's cooked will be the biggest determining factor in its taste. Sadly, all the big fast food joints can't cook a burger worth a crap, so this plant burger probably won't sell much under their brands.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#144
These are simply highly-processed patties.

  Here’s the full ingredient list for the new recipe:
  Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower 
  Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Potato Protein, 
  Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food 
  Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Soy Protein 
  Isolate, Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Zinc Gluconate, 
  Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Sodium Ascorbate 
  (Vitamin C), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin 
  B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12. Contains: 
  Soy [0]
The vegetarian aspect is coincidence.

Bernays-level marketing though.

[0] - https://impossiblefoods.com/newrecipe/

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think "processed" and "chemicals" are bad for you?

Everything is a chemical.

Right. But there's a difference between drinking a glass of water and glass of bleach. You are claiming they are equivalent.

There's something called "context" in reading comprehension, it is when words take on the meaning relevant to the discussion. In this case, "chemicals" is shorthand for "bad chemicals." I don't understand why so many people fail to understand this and have to make this inane, childish observation that in fact, everything is a chemical. We know already.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#146
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first complaint about the nutrition of the Morningstar burger is the ratio of carbs to protien. Restaurants are already throwing tons of carbs at me. I really want protein in my burger patty.

Wait, are you really complaining about nutrition at a fast food restaurant ?

Sometimes, you need something fast, cheap, and easy, so it's nice to have some fast food items in mind that have reasonable calories and macros. A great example is when I'm driving long distance, I'll swing by CFA if possible.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#147
post #97

People should be aware that Burger King has had (MorningStar) veggie burgers for a very long time that they just don't broadcast. This announcement is not about introducing a vegetarian patty but rather about introducing a _specific_ vegetarian patty.

Indeed and I do enjoy the MorningStar patty with all the toppings BK puts on it. Big difference is MorningStar is one of those "not really trying to be meat" veggie burgers, whereas the Impossible Burger is trying to be a one-to-one facsimile of meat. So I think they are similar but different.

Another big difference is the Impossible Burger is vegan and the MorningStar burger is not (IIRC).

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#148

I'm an angel investor in both plant based meat and clean meat and I'm actually more optimistic for plant based meat becoming better than animal meat in the short term. The rate of innovation has been really impressive and momentum is picking up steam.. once prices get under animal meat huge amounts of people will switch

Hopefully carbon taxes and such would kick in at some point and would include the real environmental cost of beef, so the switching to plant based beef would be even more swift.

Beef only is responsible for 3% of greenhouse gasses in America. I'm not sure an "emission" tax would really affect the price all that much. In addition, you have to account for and tax the emissions produced in plant production (fertilizer, agricultural soil, transportation, etc...). Agriculture is a total of 9%, whereas livestock only accounts for 3% of that.

I work for agriculture companies, and a lot of animal feed comes from by-products of other agricultural products. For example, beet pulp pellets, raffinate, betaine, molasses are all by products of sugar production and are used for animal feed extensively. They are cheap and very shelf stable.

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emis...

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#149
post #70
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carl's also has the beyond burger, which I personally think is superior. My wife disagrees, and prefers your standard veggie burgers (we are vegans of 15 years).

I haven't been able to compare the Impossible Burger. I had a Beyond Burger, and it was very good. If somebody were to hand it to a meat eater at a cookout, without calling attention to it, they'd eat it without noticing the switch. Pile on a few toppings (which people usually do because of the flavorless nature of most fast-food and grocery-store beef), and most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference in…

You are correct on all points, in my experience.

That said, those of us that DO miss some level of meat simulacra (great phrase!) will appreciate this. I lost the taste for actual red meat over 20 years ago, but the texture is still something that has few parallels. Between the hardcore beef aficionados wanting nothing to do with "fake meat" and the hardcore vegetarians/vegans happy to consume veggies I find bland or noxious (As a vegetarian that strongly dislikes bell peppers, I can say the struggle is real) I've had limited options no matter where I turn.

Both Impossible and Beyond burgers have been teasing me for years, but have offered nothing for home. This doesn't get us there, but the more fast food places that carry them, the closer it becomes to being a part of normal.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#150

Frankly, I'm a little tired of the meat-substitute products, as they don't taste as good nor are they likely to be as healthy as a proper, whole-food plant veggie burger. Impossible Burger 1.0 was vital wheat gluten based, and Impossible Burger 2.0 will be soy based. I'd probably rather have the 2nd over the first, but a lot of these announcements aren't specific about which formulation is being sold. I have tried th…

I would say Burger King isn't about healthy or good tasting, but rather fast, cheap and convenient.
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