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Beyond Meat fights for survival

foodinstitute.com

161–170 of 645 posts

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you believe it's not healthy? Because of the processes food hysteria stuff?

It's not hysteria. Beyond Meat uses way too much processing in their food. They literally have patented processes to alter protein structures.

What I mean is that clearly processed foods aren't harmful because they are processed. All the correlations go away when you control for basic things like sugar and vegetable consumption. The whole idea that processed foods are bad for health is a hysteria.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#162
post #90
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero sodium also kills you because you need electrolytes to live. Like almost literally every complex system, there is a zone of moderation/goodness/health.

It actually nearly killed my wife’s grandmother. Until some doctor realized she avoided salt like the plague, gave her some and she made a miraculous discovery.

*recovery.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#163

The problem with Beyond Meat is that it is insanely expensive. I could buy a free range, organic and grass fed beef burger for the price of their ultra processed burger. Don’t get me wrong, as a vegetarian, I think they taste nice. They are just too damn expensive and not particularly healthy which goes against why I am a vegetarian. In Europe we have so many alternatives that are insanely cheaper and, as an Indian,…

Is this really a problem with Beyond Meat or a problem with our policies not correctly pricing meat due to not caring about the environment or animal welfare?

[flagged]

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#164
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is sustainable.

It is. Just not at the rate we consume it.

Everything comes down to world population, which has quadrupled in a century, making the previously-sustainable now unsustainable.

But even many of the climate catastrophists can't get away from the mentality of 'we still need growth at any cost'. And 'growth' is most easily obtained by creating more consumers and more workers.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#165

The hidden message of the title: Plant based alternatives may not succeed. I don’t believe that. I rather see more and more friends and people avoid eating meat or reduce their consumption drastically. Many buy plant based alternatives to milk as well. Twenty years ago only a few people would ask for oat/soy milk when ordering a coffee. But these days many do. I have been eating plant based meat alternatives for four…

As a meat eater trying to casually reduce my meat consumption, I find myself buying more tofu, lentils and beans, rather than processed meat-like substitutes. I think that is the issue. People who want to eat meat will just eat actual meat, and people who don't want to eat meat will not feel compelled to eat a meat lookalike.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#166

The hidden message of the title: Plant based alternatives may not succeed. I don’t believe that. I rather see more and more friends and people avoid eating meat or reduce their consumption drastically. Many buy plant based alternatives to milk as well. Twenty years ago only a few people would ask for oat/soy milk when ordering a coffee. But these days many do. I have been eating plant based meat alternatives for four…

Beyond Meat is industrial plant-based protein. The wealthy and upper middle class can afford real plants. That means their market is is poor and lower middle-class folks—hence the distribution through fast food and mid-grade grocery channels. They’re not buying plant-based proteins. (The conscientious are already eating plants.) Beyond Meat is broken as a mass-market brand. It should be restructured as a niche play.…

> The wealthy and upper middle class can afford real plants.

I don’t understand this take on what (is / should be) a premium brand.

The whole dismissal doesn’t make sense to me. It’s marketed at well-off former meat eaters.

The poor will live on rice and tofu or pinto beans just like they have for the last hundred plus years.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hysteria. Beyond Meat uses way too much processing in their food. They literally have patented processes to alter protein structures.

What I mean is that clearly processed foods aren't harmful because they are processed. All the correlations go away when you control for basic things like sugar and vegetable consumption. The whole idea that processed foods are bad for health is a hysteria.

Treating food with chemicals usually it's not good. Also you simply don't know what exactly are they doing.

Like ultra processed american bread is not so good comparing with european wholegrain sourdough bread.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#168
post #150
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond meat burgers taste like flavored plastic grounds, so until these plant based alternatives can close the taste gap its not going to go anywhere. And they have had years to make it taste better, so I suspect theres something fundamental that makes it very difficult. It is just too much to ask the public to buy worse tasting food at a higher price, all to feel morally better about yourself.

That says a lot about the public

Food is one of the joys in life that people can enjoy no matter where they are on the socioeconomic spectrum.

In the modern age, if you're poor, or just time poor, you can enjoy a tasty meal thanks to cheap food coming out of the modern food industry.

Why would you pay more for a less enjoyable experience when tasty food might be one of the only joys in an otherwise mundane or hard-up existence?

This is exactly why McDonalds is popular. It tastes relatively good, it's comforting, and it's cheap.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this really a problem with Beyond Meat or a problem with our policies not correctly pricing meat due to not caring about the environment or animal welfare?

[flagged]

Have you never enjoyed a burger and a beer with your friends? Or is that you fail to see the social component of eating?

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#170

The problem with Beyond Meat is that it is insanely expensive. I could buy a free range, organic and grass fed beef burger for the price of their ultra processed burger. Don’t get me wrong, as a vegetarian, I think they taste nice. They are just too damn expensive and not particularly healthy which goes against why I am a vegetarian. In Europe we have so many alternatives that are insanely cheaper and, as an Indian,…

> before wrapping in some cling film and pressing it into a patty Why do you wrap it? Couldn't you also form the burger patty without the cling film?

It allows you to add some pressure to the patty while providing it a restricted space in which it can expand. By doing so the ingredients seem to form a much stronger bond (from my experience). I used to do the same with beef when I ate it.

Also, rolling it into a ball and then wrapping before flattening gives a much better shape to the resulting patty

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