Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

css.umich.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 794 posts

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#181

Post by wyager »

sdenton4 wrote: post #158
inter_netuser wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unfortunate part is that there is a non-significant number of people who are allergic to contents of these faux-meats. ..but nobody is allergic to meat. There is a theory that benefits mostly ascribed to keto, are actually due to reduced inflammatory load in the diet.

Meat allergies certainly exist. Meet Alpha-Gal syndrome: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syn...

Alpha-gal is extremely rare and introduced exogenously (via a tick bite). Natural (i.e. not caused by an identifiable medical condition) meat allergies in humans are exceedingly rare, whereas natural plant allergies are exceedingly common.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#182

Post by prawn »

whimsicalism wrote: post #124
prawn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't know they did sausages. That could be a decent market to tackle. We don't typically make burgers at home, but we do often buy simple sausages as a quick meal for the kids. Usually the supermarket choice is premium sausages with more exotic combos (that I like but the kids don't), or basic plain ones which always seem a bit miserable. If we're buying plain sausages, might as well get something like this instead…

I'm curious - what's an example of such an exotic combo?

From some local fine foods places: chicken/sage/onion, chicken/spinach/pinenuts, duck/veal, lamb/feta, pork/capsicum, pork/fennel, lamb/beef/garlic/rosemary, beef/shiraz, pork/lemongrass/coriander, lamb/sundried-tomato, duck/orange/pistachio. Had some with pinot noir grapes in them once at a grape picking brunch event.

Some of these like pork/fennel or lamb/rosemary, spiced Italian, etc are pretty commonly found for adults at a BBQ in Australia (at least amongst my friends). I grew up eating cevapcici and bratwurst.

But it doesn't take much in the way for herbs/spices for many kids to turn up their noses and the bulk sausages people typically buy for children look and taste very ordinary.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#183

Post by nikolay »

How a frankenfood can be even considered?! If you want to be vegan or vegetarian, stick with traditional products for your dietary style. The analogy is a recovering cannibal making babies out of carrots and eating them with "clear" consciousness. The company should rebrand to "Beyond Junk"!

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#184

Post by ipaddr »

sweetheart wrote: post #132
ipaddr wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why would you want to replicate the outcome of a slaughter if that part of the process upsets you? Why make an apple taste like the death of a cow? For me eating things in their most natural forms seems more appealing. I don't know what is in beyond meat but avoiding processed anything seems like a more healthy strategy.

I like how burgers taste, so I want to eat them. But I don't want an animal to experience horrific treatment and slaughter just for the taste, so I seek it out in plants. That makes sense, no? I can like the salty, fat taste but opt-out of the subjugation and slaughter of another being.

You like the taste of a dead animal but don't want horrific treatment?

Why not buy your meat from a smaller farm. It sounds like you don't like factory farming. Not all meat is made that way.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#185

Post by rickspencer3 »

sweetheart wrote: post #36

While it is not my experience at all, I understand that some folks have certain negative opinions of Beyond Burgers, and other fake meat/imitation burgers: - The texture is off - Maybe they cook strangely - Potentially less taste But the most important thing about them, and the reason I urge everyone to at least _try_ Beyond Burgers, is they require no violence against animals. This is not an argument that fairs well…

For my part, I enjoy fast food burgers (think Wendy's, Burger King, etc...). These burger patties are not exactly rare Kobe beef. Once you put that thing on a bun, add cheese, slather it in sauce, etc... I don't find the difference in the patties very noticeable. I notice how fresh the lettuce is more than the patty.

I eat plenty of meat, so I don't have an anti-meat agenda. But, for me, for fast food burgers, I may as well choose a less environmentally damaging, and yes, more animal friendly, alternative, because it hardly makes a difference.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#186

Post by wyager »

Spooky23 wrote: post #125
raidicy wrote: post #32

Genuinely curious; is eating something processed like this better than eating regular unprocessed ground meat?

No, and that’s why the fake meat companies are very careful from not mentioning anything about health benefits, and instead stress carbon nonsense and naturalness of ingredients. Impossible is legume flour and coconut oil. Legume flour is rough on the gut, and coconut oil is 90% saturated fat, way more than butter. Beyond is soy and coconut. If you have a moral or other objection to meat, go vegetarian or start eatin…

> Fake meat has all of the health downsides of lousy meat

Even cheap meat still has a great nutritional profile compared to vegetables. In fact, meat consumption is quite (economically) progressive because expensive cuts subsidize nutritionally similar cheap cuts.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#187

Post by the_benno »

mikepurvis wrote: post #20
narrator wrote: post #8

A bag of rice is probably a lot better than a Beyond Burger.

I think you're being facetious, but I kind of agree— I've found more joy in homemade black bean patties, shallow-fried falafel-based sandwiches, etc. Basically I enjoy it more when it's something clearly different that is filling that role, rather than something pretending to be something else.

100% agree. Beyond & Impossible are alright, but there's an uncanny valley quality to them that can be kind of off-putting (to me).

I've been proselytizing these black bean burgers to anyone who'll listen for a while now -- they nail what you're describing.

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-the-best-black-bean...

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#188

Post by sweetheart »

pmorici wrote: post #172
sweetheart wrote: post #36

While it is not my experience at all, I understand that some folks have certain negative opinions of Beyond Burgers, and other fake meat/imitation burgers: - The texture is off - Maybe they cook strangely - Potentially less taste But the most important thing about them, and the reason I urge everyone to at least _try_ Beyond Burgers, is they require no violence against animals. This is not an argument that fairs well…

What is your view on lions, tigers, bears and other meat eating species?

If they ever have the option to live full, healthy lives without eating other animals, I'll hold them to the same standard.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#189

Post by agogdog »

King-Aaron wrote: post #166
fastball wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My interpretation was more: nature doesn't have morality, animals don't have morality, other animals aren't worried about killing each other, the only reason we are worried about it is because we are projecting the horror of death that comes from being a cognizant being onto animals that are unlikely to even have a concept of "death", so it's not a moral conundrum for an animal that has evolved to eat meat (humans) t…

This is kind of it. I also find it a frustrating American-centric/urban-centric point of view that 'killing animals is bad', when I (among others) have grown up in areas where it's a basic part of life to farm/hunt meat for survival.

Are you saying that it's privileged to be able to avoid killing animals while others must do it to avoid starvation?

I think you could be a vegetarian while recognizing that you'd 100% kill an animal if you would starve otherwise. I haven't met anyone who thinks people should die at the expense of an animal.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#190

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

rickspencer3 wrote: post #185
sweetheart wrote: post #36

While it is not my experience at all, I understand that some folks have certain negative opinions of Beyond Burgers, and other fake meat/imitation burgers: - The texture is off - Maybe they cook strangely - Potentially less taste But the most important thing about them, and the reason I urge everyone to at least _try_ Beyond Burgers, is they require no violence against animals. This is not an argument that fairs well…

For my part, I enjoy fast food burgers (think Wendy's, Burger King, etc...). These burger patties are not exactly rare Kobe beef. Once you put that thing on a bun, add cheese, slather it in sauce, etc... I don't find the difference in the patties very noticeable. I notice how fresh the lettuce is more than the patty. I eat plenty of meat, so I don't have an anti-meat agenda. But, for me, for fast food burgers, I may…

This is something I don't understand either.

People saying things like "the texture and mouthfeel is not like real meat", and yet ground beef burgers vary wildly and are also not like real meat.

Post reply on HN