Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

151–160 of 663 posts

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

#151
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a vegetarian. I love meat. I'd eat meat all the time if I knew it didn't cause horrifying suffering and environmental damage. I've had the impossible burger (and liked it) as well, and on a highly mass produced burger like the whopper I'm willing to bet it's close to the real thing.

Abstinence from meat seems like an extreme step if all you are concerned about is environmental damage. Just eating meat at a "normal" frequency of two or three times a week would be enough to mitigate much of the impact. True organic agriculture is not possible without meat production as a side effect, and this can only be replaced by nonrenewable synthetic fertilizers.

I'm not the person you're responding to, but for me it's much easier to abstain from meat than to moderate it to a certain amount of times per week. It's not difficult for me to eat meat, but it would be if I were to half-abstain.

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

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 observati…

Because when people talk about "chemicals", they are often flirting with the appeal-to-nature fallacy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature).

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

#153

The real change is going to happen when people can't tell a difference in taste and Walmart starts selling synthetic meat at a substantial discount to meat. At that point the consumer won't care just like the consumer doesn't care if their strawberry flavored cereal has real strawberries in it.

you can tell the difference in an impossible burger?

the only difference I can tell is that I don't feel full and then lethargic afterwards which is honestly part of the conditioned expected experience of eating meat, so I feel empty, but I can accept that. maybe we can make people feel the same way after eating a non-meat burger, with a benign chemical.

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

#155
post #90

I'm curious as to how Impossible burger compares on the health impact. I understand that it's plant based, but it seems to be highly processed and perhaps (not sure) loaded with bunch of chemicals and potentially unhealthy ingredients that make it taste like meat. Hopefully that is not the case and it's not just a meat substitute but is also healthy. Can anyone with more details please opine?

Nutrition facts: https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189392... Ingredients: https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189374... Saturated fat numbers don't look great. Also, TONS of salt which isn't great either. sigh oh well, maybe some day.

[deleted]

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

#157
post #90

I'm curious as to how Impossible burger compares on the health impact. I understand that it's plant based, but it seems to be highly processed and perhaps (not sure) loaded with bunch of chemicals and potentially unhealthy ingredients that make it taste like meat. Hopefully that is not the case and it's not just a meat substitute but is also healthy. Can anyone with more details please opine?

It is basically the vegetarian version of an unhealthy burger. If you wouldn’t normally eat a whopper for health reasons, then you have no reason to start eating this.

Burgers aren't really that unhealthy. Skip the fried onions and fried jalapenos and aioli and mayo and it's no big deal. I just had a 1/3lb bison burger last night in a pita, with all kinds of good stuff (feta, sweet hot mustard, ketchup, jalapenos) and it's something like 550 calories. It's quite easy to have a healthy-ish meat burger. Skip the fries and soda.

I make black bean burgers sometimes, and they actually have more calories and less protein than beef or bison.

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

#158
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I too prefer the Beyond Meat burger to the Impossible Burger, but I don't know about a meat eater not noticing. I love meat - especially beef, but lately I've also been trying meat alternatives. Just recently, I ordered an Impossible Burger, and it just left me wanting beef. It's not that it was bad - the burger looked similar to beef, and was juicy and delicious. But it didnt taste like beef. Maybe it's different fo…

Your wish should come true, they announced back in January they plan on selling the Impossible Burger 2.0 in grocery stores.

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

#159
post #7
post #3

> Burger King’s chief marketing officer, Fernando Machado, said that in the company’s testing so far, customers and even employees had not been able to tell the difference between the old meaty Whopper and the new one. Ugh. First: The vegetarians that I know don't like meat. So making a veggie burger that tastes like the thing they don't like is just dumb. Second: When I tasted an Impossible Burger, it was awful. It…

I'm a vegetarian. I love meat. I'd eat meat all the time if I knew it didn't cause horrifying suffering and environmental damage. I've had the impossible burger (and liked it) as well, and on a highly mass produced burger like the whopper I'm willing to bet it's close to the real thing.

Vegan, but I agree.

I've not had the chance to try this burger, but when I get the chance I will do for sure.

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taco bell is a surprisingly good fast food option for vegetarians I've heard. You can make basically all their options meat-less and add options you like and you're good. (note I'm not vegetarian, just going by advice I've heard others mention this)

As a vegetarian, I'll testify to that.

I'm pretty into T-Bell menu hacking but haven't explored veg options much. What are you go-tos?
Post reply on HN