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Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

businessinsider.com

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Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#31

Post by gwd »

psychometry wrote: post #12

There's more to "healthy" than calories and cholesterol. What a trash article.

Yeah, I was quite disappointed. Dietary cholesterol doesn't cause arterial cholesterol. "Fat" is a necessary nutrient, and there are different kinds -- polyunsaturated vegetable fats are different than saturated fat (found in beef); and even though saturated fat is considered "unhealthy", the actual scientific evidence for that designation is pretty shaky.

And then, what about fiber? What about the mix of proteins and amino acids? Vitamins and minerals -- in particular B vitamins, which are difficult to get from non-animal sources?

So much potential just to say, "It's got fat and salt, so it's just as bad."

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#32

Post by sametmax »

hallihax wrote: post #30

Speaking as somebody who does enjoy a vegan boiger - 'health' and 'nutrition' are not things I'm looking at when I want a burger. This whole debate is one big straw-man. I'm a vegan. I don't need burgers. I might want burgers, but they don't form a part of a standard diet just in the same way any kind of burger probably shouldn't form part of anybody's regular diet. If you're eating processed food - there's a conside…

Precisely.

And if you have enough veggies and vegans around you, you know that they can eat as much junk food as everyone else.

Sugar is vegan, after all.

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#33

Post by hallihax »

sametmax wrote: post #32
hallihax wrote: post #30

Speaking as somebody who does enjoy a vegan boiger - 'health' and 'nutrition' are not things I'm looking at when I want a burger. This whole debate is one big straw-man. I'm a vegan. I don't need burgers. I might want burgers, but they don't form a part of a standard diet just in the same way any kind of burger probably shouldn't form part of anybody's regular diet. If you're eating processed food - there's a conside…

Precisely. And if you have enough veggies and vegans around you, you know that they can eat as much junk food as everyone else. Sugar is vegan, after all.

I'm guilty myself - my city has exploded with vegan stuff over the last couple of years and my waistline has expanded in-line with it :P

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#34

Post by lprubin »

gpvos wrote: post #28
eof wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think saying “a major reason” is fair and accurate, but I agree that the it seems people are, in general, much more concerned about the ethics of industrial farming as it relates to animal cruelty, as well as beef being such a large contributor to co2.

While I think that's true for many people, I would like to have actual data about whether the wide public is more swayed by environmental/ethical or health concerns. Many companies are marketing this from a health angle, and they may know more than you and me. (Another possibility, which I'm not discounting, is that they think everyone is as cynical as they are.)

According to this survey, 68.1% of people's main reason for going vegan was "for the animals" while "health" was only 17.4%.

https://vomadlife.com/blogs/news/why-people-go-vegan-2019-gl...

That being said, the question was "What is the main reason" so people who said "for the animals" might also care a lot about health.

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#35

Post by davidy123 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #27
CJefferson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegans aren't stupid -- but the difference in animal suffering from a meat heavy diet and a meat free diet is massive. Just because something can't be done 100% today, doesn't mean it isn't worth achieving 95% success.

Published figures suggest that, in Australia, producing wheat and other grains results in: at least 25 times more sentient animals being killed per kilogram of useable protein more environmental damage, and a great deal more animal cruelty than does farming red meat. http://theconversation.com/ordering-the-vegetarian-meal-ther...

But you can mitigate that over time, for example with "smart" farming systems and managed use of land as usage stabilizes. You can't mitigate it in the meat industry.

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#36

Post by notacoward »

Whether intentionally or no, Kate Taylor is doing the meat industry's work for them. Pretty much nobody seems to think that plant-based burgers are interesting primarily because they're healthier. See any other top-level comment for examples. Who benefits from a story putting plant-based burgers in a bad light by "refuting" a claim nobody made or cared about? There are many answers, but "the public in general" is not one. Even if the effect is not deliberate, this kind of click-bait seems a bit irresponsible.

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#37

Post by bane »

And they're really great with swiss and mushrooms with a side of garlic fries.

Speaking as somebody who isn't even the slightest bit vegetarian, at near enough the same price as a regular low-end-to-average burger, I'll order it instead because they taste better and have slightly better mouth feel to me.

It doesn't beat a really high-end burger yet, but those are usually more expensive than even an IF or BM choice.

To be honest though, I support them because I want to support the general concept of high-end science being applied to food. After all, if we ever get off this rock and up into the stars, this is likely to become the direction our food comes from.

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#38

Post by lozenge »

captainredbeard wrote: post #24
nextstep wrote: post #5

Veganism is not a health choice for most vegans, it’s an ethical one. Plant-based foods use fewer resources per calorie and do not require cruel treatment of animals.

If you let ruminant livestock graze in a carefully managed pattern instead of feeding them grain (grown and transported from miles away), it improves the land and reduces the amount of pollution: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI Cattle are not very efficient at converting grain to protein. It’s about 7:1. Pork is 2:1, in comparison. Poultry is close to 1:1.

If all livestock were raised in this way there would be nowhere near enough of them to feed current demand for meat (not saying that's a bad thing).

Allan Savory holds a very fringe view not supported by scientists in this field, which you wouldn't know from his TED talk.

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#39

Post by doitLP »

perfunctory wrote: post #21
mark_l_watson wrote: post #18

My wife and I really enjoy both IF and BM burgers - just be sure to not overlook them! They do contain a lot of fat from vegetable oil but they are very low in cholesterol. I will trade more sodium for the advantages for me of reducing cholesterol. They really taste good. We like them on good rolls, purple onion, tomato, lettuce, and whatever sauce we feel like. Fantastic tasting burgers. There is also the advantages…

I didn't do any history research on the subject but my own conspiracy theory suggests that the whole "humans have soul, animals don't" thing was invented to justify the natural world destruction.

Human-centric worldview and “only humans have souls” goes back to the dawn of recorded history. We often lived in closer confines with animals, often sleeping together for warmth, protection and to watch for predators.

However killing animals for food was the way humans stayed alive when food was scarce as we pushed further into habitats that weren’t temperate.

If anything I guess that the “only humans have souls” story arose as a necessary psychological protection mechanism for people who raised and got to know their animals and then had to slaughter and eat them. Same way people also try to dehumanize the enemy in war in order to not be crushed by the knowledge of killing another human being.

Then once we stopped spending so much time with animals it was easy to continue the narrative since we don’t spend time observing them close up anymore and getting to know them personally.

Re: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers aren't healthier

#40

Post by seandougall »

sametmax wrote: post #32
hallihax wrote: post #30

Speaking as somebody who does enjoy a vegan boiger - 'health' and 'nutrition' are not things I'm looking at when I want a burger. This whole debate is one big straw-man. I'm a vegan. I don't need burgers. I might want burgers, but they don't form a part of a standard diet just in the same way any kind of burger probably shouldn't form part of anybody's regular diet. If you're eating processed food - there's a conside…

Precisely. And if you have enough veggies and vegans around you, you know that they can eat as much junk food as everyone else. Sugar is vegan, after all.

Some sugar is vegan. Most isn’t, though most vegans I know conveniently ignore that: [1]

[1] https://www.peta.org/living/food/is-sugar-vegan/

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