A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals • Hacker News Board

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#141

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:41 PM UTC

bfdm wrote: post #39

TeMPOraL wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sure that would be flagged to death as low content snark. Also, it's possibly stupid saying anything at all because people who eat stuff like burgers and hot dogs will get all mad when you give your honest opinion that it isn't exactly gourmet health food. Tastes differ between people. I eat burgers and hotdogs because they're tasty, and their tastiness for me is inversely proportional to the amount of vegetabl…

I also used to feel largely this way, but it turns out my parents just weren't good at cooking tasty vegetables. I encourage you to seek out an adventure by trying a vegetarian restaurant where the chefs know how to cook veggies. Truly breathtaking the difference in experience.

Thank you. I'll try. FWIW, my wife recently started experimenting with vegetarian recipes and so far, results are much tastier than I expected.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#142

Post by tom_mellior » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:43 PM UTC

throwaway66920 wrote: post #21

4ad wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a menu switches from 80% meat to 20% meat, I (as a meat eater) would find somewhere else to eat. On the other hand vegetarians might start to come to this place. This place might sell more vegetarian food, yet nobody will have to convert to vegetarianism. Similarly, this is about cafeterias. Sometimes food runs out. Hell, the meat option always runs out on airplanes until food gets to me. If they reduce the meat e…

That’s a good point. It would be neat to look at credit card data and infer how much of the customer base is new

> It would be neat to look at credit card data and infer how much of the customer base is new

The study did track people over time: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/24/1907207116

"Linking sales data to participants’ previous meal purchases revealed that the largest effects were found in the quartile of diners with the lowest prior levels of vegetarian meal selection."

So the heaviest meat eaters as a group not only did not stop going to these cafeterias, they willingly ate the vegetarian stuff.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#143

Post by stronglikedan » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:44 PM UTC

bootlooped wrote: post #123

jedimastert wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

POV: Omnivore with a (previously) vegetarian spouse. We generally ate veg @ home One of my biggest issues with modern veg diets is all of the veg food trying to masquerade as other food. Soy bacon does not taste like, or taste as good as, real bacon. Tofu and Boca burgers do not taste like actual meat. But tofu and the like can taste amazing on its own merit . It's an ingredient with it's own flavors and textures, so…

Mock meat foods are a great way for restaurants to easily serve vegetarian or vegan plates with a simple substitution. They also make a massive number of recipes accessible to vegetarians or vegans. They also lower the barrier to entry for meat eaters to convert to eating less meat. I think they're really great in many ways. Downsides: they are highly processed, currently expensive, and of questionable nutritional va…

Another downside it that they have the potential to turn people away, because they don't even resemble what someone is expecting. For example, calling fried jackfruit "fried chicken". Fried jackfruit is delicious on it's own merit, but it doesn't even come close to a fried chicken substitute. And if I order vegan fried chicken, anything can be the chicken substitute, but I bet it won't be as good as fried jackfruit if it's not fried jackfruit. I'd rather they just call it what it really is, and if it's tasty, it will be memorable.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#144

Post by seanwilson » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:44 PM UTC

whenchamenia wrote: post #133

seanwilson wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of my biggest issues with modern veg diets is all of the veg food trying to masquerade as other food. Look at them as a way to help people slowly transition their taste buds to a new diet and to help people easily cook meals that both vegans and non-vegans would eat.

But its always worse than what it emulates. If you want to promote veggies, maybe start with a good dish? I understand familiarity is a thing, but so is taste.

> But its always worse than what it emulates. If you want to promote veggies, maybe start with a good dish? I understand familiarity is a thing, but so is taste.

I don't think that's true at all.

You can make great dishes with tofu, seitan and tempeh, where some cultures have been cooking with these for a long time (tofu goes back 2000 years).

Also, look at what people are saying about modern plant based burgers at fast food places.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#145

Post by jraph » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #60

chousuke wrote: post #7

I am not vegetarian, but I still sometimes choose the vegetarian option because it tastes good . I'm not very surprised by more people finding tasty vegetarian options when more are made available.

> I'm not very surprised by more people finding tasty vegetarian options when more are made available. This is a bit off-topic, but this always bothers me. Just because we're discussing a topic doesn't mean we're surprised by it. Some data being new and worth discussing doesn't mean it broke from expectations. You can see the same thing in this other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21146856 No one is clu…

You might be right, but I would understand "I'm not surprised" as a way to introduce an opinion or an analysis, rather than as something like "It would be dumb to be surprised".

Though to be fair, I had a similar reaction when I saw the title as the commenter of your link (more like, "Well, no shit!").

I still find the conversation and the points of view of everyone here interesting, I would not be here otherwise. I would be particularly interested by someone who would indeed be surprised and offer an analysis I could not see.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#146

Post by keiferski » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:46 PM UTC

moate wrote: post #125

keiferski wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is “Europe”? London? Athens? Budapest? Kyiv? The availability of vegetarian-friendly food varies drastically from city to city. Half of the cities in this list of “Top Vegan Cities” are in Europe: London, Berlin, Warsaw, Paris, and Prague. https://www.happycow.net/vegtopics/travel/top-vegan-friendly...

I agree with your "Where is Europe" sentiment, but lists like this aren't super helpful. The fact that western site somehow doesn't have a single Asian city, despite veganism tracing it's roots to India, in their top 10 feels less like an objective analysis and more of a list of places the editors have visited.

I don’t think it’s fair to expect an English-language, western-focused website to cover India. I doubt the average Westerner could name more than a city or two in India to begin with.

Even then, I am skeptical as to the claim that contemporary western veganism, as a cultural phenomenon, is traceable to India. I would attribute it more to developments in western ethics and growing awareness of the realities of the meat production economy, combined with left-wing culture and politics in general.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#147

Post by giferjoger » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:47 PM UTC

merpnderp wrote: post #97

elektor wrote: post #13

Speaking from personal experience, I've been eating a lot more plant-based meals now that Beyond and Impossible Beef are available in grocery stores. I wouldn't say I'm completely vegetarian but I'm 60% there.

I was so excited about the Impossible Burger at Burger King. But I made the mistake of ordering it and a regular Whopper for comparison. I tried the Impossible Burger and thought wow, this is amazingly delicious. Then I took a bite of a Whopper and realized that the Impossible Burger will never be able to replace this. You could make the world's best vegetarian burger and some discount meat from the local dollar stor…

Thts the thing I just can't compare vegetarian food with meat food they are two different things. Sometimes I will eat the meat burger sometimes a veggie pattie just depends on what I am in the mood for.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#148

Post by ssijak » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:47 PM UTC

geggam wrote: post #35

Would someone who is a vegan answer this question I have and I mean no offense by it. Why do you want to eat vegetables that are fake meat or made to taste like meat ? It seems silly to me.

I am vegan for half a year. Before that I ate 500+ gr of meat on most day (classic bodybuilding chicken breasts, whey, eggs, vegetables, oats, rice, etc. "clean diet"...). When I started on the vegan diet I was afraid that it would not be tasteful and will be bland and boring. But 6 months on and I am still amazed by how with very little imagination in the kitchen I come out with very very tasteful recepies and dishes which are healthy and are 95% whole food based with minimal processing by myself. Now, regarding processed vege-meat things like beyond burger.. I bought it to use it only for big barbeques when there are alot of people. Not to avoid vegan talk, if anybody is interested I am open to talk about it, but it is just so much easier for barbeques. I do prepare homemade vege burgers at home, but they need greater care in handling (can crumble more easily) so I use beyond for only this purpose.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#149

Post by damq » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:49 PM UTC

reportgunner wrote: post #62

This research is pretty laughable. Made by one university, 3 locations - ages/demographics are not represented properly at all, the cultural environment is the same (one university). The ratio of veg doubled (0.25 to 0.5) while the ratio of meat fell 33 % (0.75 to 0.5). Also it doesnt at all mention the in volume of the eaters: What if the people who predominantly eat meat simply stopped going to the cafeterias as of…

Almost all studies about vegetarianism are born of an agenda to promote vegetarianism.

To a meat eater, studying the effects of eating an all vegetable diet is the same as studying the effects of walking backwards everywhere you go: it's not something we'd ever consider doing so we see no value in studying the effects of doing it. Furthermore, meat eaters do not care if other people don't want to eat meat. As such, most of the people conducting studies about vegetarianism are people who think eating meat is immoral. Their motivation to conduct the study is to stop other people from eating meat.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#150

Post by geggam » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:49 PM UTC

seanwilson wrote: post #114

geggam wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that you haven't ever really spent much time in nature. Example : Wolves and coyotes thrive on killing babies, nature is much more harsh than any farm I have seen.

Wolves and coyotes don't have supermarkets. We have a choice to not act like wild animals. Animals also murder their own kind, can be cannibalistic and worse. Is it okay to do those things too because they happen in nature? We shouldn't (and don't) based our morals and behaviours on wild animals.

Where do you think supermarkets get food ?

This is the disconnect so many people have.