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

businessinsider.com

41–50 of 114 posts

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

#41
> Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are continuing to tweak their recipes. The Impossible Burger 2.0, for example, launched earlier this year and was designed to be substantially healthier (and tastier) than the original, with less fat and sodium.

The last sentence cancels the whole purpose of the article. Sodium is the main concern and new recipe use less sodium. Problem solved.

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

#42
post #34
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Going vegan (which I understand as deciding to only eat vegan from now on) is a much larger decision than just giving a plant-based burger a try in order to reduce your meat consumption somewhat.

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

#43

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…

Per the article, most consumers are interested in plant burgers specifically for health concerns. I don't understand why you'd dismiss that as irrelevant. And unless this article is factually incorrect, the reporting is entirely fair. You can't get mad because you don't like it.

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

#44

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...

Wheat is not a sensible method of getting protein. Comparing against wheat on a protein basis is a worst case comparison. Also lots of cheap meat protein is created by feeding things like wheat and soy to animals, rather than grass fed (although maybe most meat in Australia is meat fed, I don't know about it).

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

#45

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 don't know many skinny vegetarians. Eating nothing but carbs and butter is vegetarian and extremely unhealthy.

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

#47
Currently plant-based burgers are not healthier but are nearing taste-equivalency, but surely it is easier to modify a plant-based burger recipe to increase "healthiness" than to modify a beef burger (make a healthier cow...?). [even mentioned at the end of this article]

So if they are health-equivalent, now compare the next variables: impact on climate, impact on animal welfare, etc.

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

#48
post #8
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.

> Plant-based foods use fewer resources per calorie and do not require cruel treatment of animals. They kind of have to at some point, otherwise you're using artificial nitrogen to top up the soil and that's not just bad for the soil but is also depleting a limited resource (The nitrogen comes from what IIRC is, a single mine). I remember reading about some farmers that managed to buck the usual statistics by getting…

It used to be mined, now essentially 100 percent of the ammonium nitrate used in fertilizer and explosives is synthetic. It's made by reacting ammonia with nitric acid.

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

#49

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…

Sure vegan burgers have their target market, but if they were healthy in addition to being vegan they would appeal to a larger market.

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

#50

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…

There is no indication dietary cholesterol impacts blood cholesterol. Watch Dr. Robert Lustig's "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" for more on the subject.
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