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

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

#451
post #418
post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " " Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

How could I better ask the question? I'm genuinely confused since they poster talks about not eating "meat" but eats fish, which culturally for me (Buddhist and Hindu) are non-veg

I don't think the poster ever actually said that fish isn't meat, and I guess a lot of people are interpreting your question as a hostile challenge of the idea of pescatarianism (along the lines of "Why don't you think that cheeseburgers are murder?").

If you are struggling to understand pescatarianism as an idea, my perspective is that flexitarianism, pescatarianism, vegetarianism, and flexiveganism are all compromise diets that get some but not all environmental and ethical benefits of veganism. Different people have different levels of commitment and make different tradeoffs in their life choices. Whether that's "the only meat I eat is fish" or "I eat fish but not meat" is just a matter of definitions.

In terms of the English word "meat", there is certainly some ambiguity. At least as I know the term, it feels like a stretch (but maybe technically correct) to count fish as meat. I've had people suggest sushi when I say that I'm vegetarian, unaware that vegetarians don't eat fish. If you google for the Food Pyramid, most diagrams call out meat and fish as different things. "Vegetarian" almost always doesn't allow fish, but "meat" just isn't a very precise word.

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

#452
As someone allergic to legumes, increasingly so each year, It really sucks when I get whammied, more from protein sources than the oils, but all the same. I don't have a problem with things like this as long as it's clearly labelled as such. I sometimes think that fast food is the devil (Jack in the box and Taco Bell in particular).

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

#453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that the morning star patty is vegetarian, but not vegan. Also it is microwaved and not prepared on the grill.

No way they could prepare it on the grill, unless they had a dedicated grill for it. Sharing the grill with real burgers would mean tons of meat grease contaminating the veggie burgers. They're probably unwilling to dedicate the kitchen space for a vegetarian grill, so the microwave is the obvious choice. Microwaves won't cross-contaminate like a greasy grill will, and are already in the kitchen so the financial risk…

Many vegetarians/vegans don't mind cross .termination.

Also, many fastfood places do have dedicated grills for vegan/vegetarian burgers, like for example McDonalds in the UK.

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

#454

I've had an impossible burger, and cooked very well it almost made me pull my waiter aside and verify I wasn't eating meat. Also ate meat for decades, so I also am very familiar with it.

Weird, I tried it and wanted to like it simply because it was higher in fat and lower carb than your traditional veggie burger - but it was very obvious I was eating fake meat. It was ok, I'd eat it again. But I would not replace real beef with it any time soon. But I am keto. So I am not eating it with a bun and tons of sugary sauces to cover up the meat flavor. You can really tell the quality of a burger (meat or n…

I had the v2 impossible burger a few weeks ago. It felt close to regular meat, had a similar mouth feel, but the flavor was a bit off so I only ate two bites. I'm looking forward to trying their next version.

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

#455
post #260
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you think that fish is meat?

This question could be posed better, but it does deserve an answer. "Meat" does not have a precise biological meaning; its meaning is largely cultural. Some people distinguish "red meat" and "white meat"; others understand meat as separate from poultry, and seafood (is fish seafood? same story). In fact, in some languages the word for "meat" is more specific to mammal meat - e.g. french, "viande" vs "volaille" - in o…

Aha, thank you for the etymological details!

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

#456
post #187

The most interesting thing about this particular announcement is that it may normalize plant-derived meat-substitutes among the typical fast-food-burger eating population, and not just the mostly-vegetarian folks (like myself) who will spend $10 on an Impossible Burger at a fancy sports bar. Within a decade this might just be normalized, and nobody will make much of it.

It's already snuck in with a lot of fast food taco meats. Soy and Legume allergies aren't that uncommon... I don't mind as long as its' clearly labelled... I have a problem when it's labelled as "beef" or left to ambiguity.

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

#457
post #187

The most interesting thing about this particular announcement is that it may normalize plant-derived meat-substitutes among the typical fast-food-burger eating population, and not just the mostly-vegetarian folks (like myself) who will spend $10 on an Impossible Burger at a fancy sports bar. Within a decade this might just be normalized, and nobody will make much of it.

Yep. I'm not at all a vegetarian, but I will definitely try it, and if it's as good as they say, I see no reason to not prefer it. There's a small subset of the population for whom meat consumption is some kind of cultural statement, but most really only just care about taste, I think. If the same taste can be had in a healthier package and without killing anything, it's a win-win.

"Healthier" is speculative at best. Often there's less fat than would occur in natural highly available protein sources. And added fats definitely have a different nutritional profile. The amino/protein profile is also going to skew, and there are other issues as well.

Soy and legumes are pretty common allergens for people, and the effects mild enough early in life that some may not realize it's actually legumes (mostly soy) that is the problem. I got used to the side effects and was only at 42 when it started to get bad enough that I found out via elimination diet.

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

#458
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No cholesterol is a pretty big difference, even if they have similar fat content.

I drink 32oz of whole milk a day, bacon with grits and butter for breakfast, steak at lunch, then my dinner varies. I have normal levels of cholesterol. I believe genetics play a bigger impact.

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

#459
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do not eat beef and dairy together. At least she does not. It doesn't matter if the dairy is kosher or not, the two are not mixed.

This religious rule comes from a well known scientific observation: meat blocks calcium absorption.

You mean calcium blocks iron absorption. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1600930

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

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd prefer just more humane animal farming vs. fake meat. It may be more expensive - but if we incentivized humane farming of animals as much as we subsidized corn and/or wheat it might not be that bad (or just got rid of subsidies altogether). I also think the environmental cost of plant farming is vastly underrated.

But you do realize that the environmental cost of animal farming is guaranteed to be >10x the cost of plant farming, correct? Each step up the food chain wastes roughly 90% of the energy, meaning that you need to grow more than 10 kcal of plants to raise 1 kcal of animal. So feeding animals is 10x as expensive as growing plants, in addition to the costs incurred by actually raising the livestock.

That's not exactly true. I do a lot of work for agricultural companies. One such company is a huge supplier of animal feed. Their products are the by-products of sugar production. Raffinate, Betaine, Molasses, Beet Pulp Pellets, etc... These products are very shelf stable and cheap. But they are not the main crop. Sugar Beets are not grown for these by-products.

In addition, grazing animals require no such feed. Grass fed beef is a thing, and it's price is on par or even quite a bit cheaper than fake meat.

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