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Beyond Meat fights for survival

foodinstitute.com

571–580 of 645 posts

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent said "vegetarian meats" so I hope we can assume that's not meant to include tempeh and tofu (but rather things like TVP or mycoprotein products). And while we're on the subject, Mike Israetel from Renaissance Periodization gives soy protein high marks for body builders. Good macros, good price, and highest amino acid profile score after milk/meat/eggs. Having tofu on hand is definitely helpful during a bul…

if only soy and beans didn't rip my digestion to shreds.

Tempeh is easier to digest: the soy (fibers and amino acids) is pre-eaten by the mold.

I can drink milk but feel the same as you do with beans. When it’s fermented cheese I’m totally fine.

Can you eat falafels, tofu or slip peas? If so the hull may be the cause. Also beans trigger gaz on many people because they don’t eat much insoluble fibers, but after a while of regular consumption it comes back to normal. Don’t hurt yourself through, take care.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#572
post #459

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Did you try Tempeh? 20gr of protein / 150cal. It looks like a steak. It's god's food: high prots, fibers, iron, vitamins, unsaturated fats. Low carbs and sodium. Super digestive. Super versatile: from burgers to bolognese to barbecue to everything, even sweety for the courageous. My easy goto is a dip of whatever open sauce I already have and 1 min micro wave heating. A bit more time ? Fried on the pan with soy sauce…

I know tempeh is easily available in Indonesia, but how do you get it in bulk in the US? All I see are tiny overpriced plastic packets.

Overlaps try to find a local producteur/enthousiast and buy it from him? Or make it yourself, it’s super cheap, but you need some time to learn and fin the right setup. Some people use an insulated chief master to produce reliable big batches at home. You can freeze the surplus.

https://www.tempeh.info/

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using the amount of processing - particularly processing that hasn't been studied - as a heuristic for health vs. unhealthy is pretty reasonable. We have lots of examples over the last 70 years of companies claiming a new processed food is better or safe, only for it to be harmful. And a lot of the changes seemed innocuous: - Partially hydrogenated oils (most margarines in the US for a while) were pushed as a healthi…

The problem of course is looking at foods in isolation vs as part of a diet. You can always say something is fine "as part of a healthy diet." Clearly the problem is when people eat too much of their diet from processed foods. Because they are high in calories, low in micronutrients, and designed to stimulate appetite so people overeat. But to say that any processed food (like Beyond Burgers) is automatically bad bec…

Sure, avoiding processing is just a heuristic. I just have trouble faulting people when it send to be a good one for maintaining a healthy diet.

I don't know much about Beyond Meat's specific processes. I wanted to like their burger, but they smelled too much like dog food when coming and tasted worse than cheaper black bean burgers. Aside, from my personal preferences, they could be totally fine.

But, of someone is trying to go through their life eating relatively healthy without having to try to keep up on the latest research, less processing is the way to go. You'll cut out things that are perfectly fine (e.g. there's a small backpack against Xanthum gum that currently makes no sense to me), but you'll also avoid a lot of the cutting edge garbage that gets added and then recalled.

Whole fruits, veggies, nuts, grains, and meat is always a solid choice. I have trouble faulting people for using that as a heuristic

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#574
post #548

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Out of curiosity, how do you get 150g/day of full proteins? For instance, eating lentils, which is one of the most proteinated vegetable, bring 18g of proteins per 100g, along with 40g of carbs. You also have to eat a comparable amount of cereal to get a full protein chain. Given that amount of proteins you mention, this requires eating a very large volume of food (cereals and graminacae swell with water during cooki…

I’ve eaten 124g of protein so far today, no meat no protein powder. I wish I could tell you one food, but it’s not primarily from 1 source. Egg whites, chickpea salad, Greek yogurt - lots of stuff has protein in it. On the flip side, I’ve never understood how meat eaters can hit their protein goals without frequently exceeding 50-100g fat per day.

Ok, so mainly animal products, but not meat. Regarding fat, lean meat cuts are easy to come by.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#575

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,…

The company's products in my and other people's views have caused a significant wane in vegetarian and vegan burger diversity. Gone are the chickpea and black bean burgers on menus—your only choice is Beyond Meat-esque burgers. As someone who doesn't actually really like how Beyond Meat tastes, it's unfortunate that it's the only option sometimes. As someone who likes food variety and practically needs it, eliminatin…

Existing veggie burgers were sort of trapped by trying to present themselves as "close enough to beef". You will be lapped by a more accurate replacement. It makes me think of Boca Burgers-- I used to enjoy one occasionally as a carnivore, but I wonder if they're still around with Beyond Meat and Impossible on the chain menus.

If you're not going to emulate beef exactly, own that and sell a different experience. I'd love to see something more like "stuffing fritters"-- strongly seasoned meatless patties with different tastes and textures. Nobody would be fooled they're burgers, but nobody is claiming they are either.

I could even see expanding the market beyond vegetarians by presenting them as a supplement for conventional burgers and chicken-patty sandwiches as a topping to add more flavour.

That was always another problem with meatless products-- they didn't get a great anchor with the mass market (who wasn't looking for explicitly vegetarian) so they remained expensive, narrow-distribution specialty products. If the regular burger is $5.50 and the Beyond Meat is $7.50, it's an even harder sell to the mainstream consumer outside of buying one as a novelty once.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if only soy and beans didn't rip my digestion to shreds.

Tempeh is easier to digest: the soy (fibers and amino acids) is pre-eaten by the mold. I can drink milk but feel the same as you do with beans. When it’s fermented cheese I’m totally fine. Can you eat falafels, tofu or slip peas? If so the hull may be the cause. Also beans trigger gaz on many people because they don’t eat much insoluble fibers, but after a while of regular consumption it comes back to normal. Don’t h…

I can eat maybe one serving every few days regardless of the source. I can eat a lot of various fruits without issue(high fiber too). tofu is mostly ok. I have tried about once a year for 15-20 years.

I can eat a block of cheese a day and feel great. same with extremely lean chicken. When I try plants only without the problem foods, my energy and recover drops. I get depressed and I have huge protein cravings. If I try to squash that hunger with fats or carbs, I get fat. Just never been able to find a sustainable solution for my body

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#577
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s very successful vegan lifters and athletes, though. It’s absolutely possible to thrive without meat and dairy products.

if you can digest it, maybe. Thrive is somewhat open to debate. Some can handle it naturally. There is a huge amount of survivor bias in self reported vegans. They never get interviews with everyone who tried it and dropped it to uncover why.

Whether people dropped being vegan doesn’t have anything to do with the absolutely validated fact that a vegan diet can sustain muscle growth. Professional athletes might want to put some additional work in calculating nutrient intake, but that’s the same for any kind of diet.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#578
post #449
post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just want to end animal cruelty, but you miss the taste of meat Does that actually describe a commercially relevant segment of the population? Intuitively, having known a lot of vegetarians, I'd expect the people whose primary concern is animal cruelty to be specifically turned off by realistic fake meat.

Beyond Meat isn't designed to appeal to vegetarians. It's designed to appeal to people who would be vegetarians but aren't because they like meat.

That’s inaccurate (source: vegatarian)

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#579

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That’s not really how the world works. Most governments already massively subsidises their agricultural sectors to create some desired eating habits in their population. The market just adjusts prices around those subsidies. If all subsidies were removed - in order to avoid the influence of moralising politicians - people would eat a lot more potatoes, and a lot less beef.

> That’s not really how the world works. Most governments already massively subsidises their agricultural sectors to create some desired eating habits in their population. The market just adjusts prices around those subsidies. By global average, under 15% of farm revenue is derived from government subsidies. USA is below that, at about 10%. Not sure if I'd call that massive, but that's semantics so it's a little hard…

Given that most farms globally have profit margins below 10%, a 10-15% subsidy is what I'd consider "massive". Definitely enough to influence growing decisions.

If your farm is the recipient of a 15% subsidy, and your margin is only 10%, then the subsidy disappearing means you cannot continue producing the same stock going forward, as you'll be making a 5% loss.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#580

So the biggest problem here is that Beyond Meat has a huge debt due in just 2 years: That’s a problem given that $1 billion in convertible bonds come due in March 2027. Beyond Meat has no way to repay that debt, and the credit markets know it: The bonds currently trade at about 17 cents on the dollar. To put the "$1B" number into the context, Beyond Meat sold $300M worth of plant-based meats last year, and made a net…

> If they could magically become profitable at 10% profit margin, it would take 20+ years to repay the debt. It's hopeless. Why is that hopeless? Maybe I'm too green or optimistic but that just requires long-term planning. Also inflation will make it a bit easier. One thing I find tough for them personally is that I like the Impossible burger a lot more. I find Beyond meat not tasting like meat, not enough. Since tha…

As they just said. They sold $300M, and made a loss of $150M
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