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Beyond Meat fights for survival

foodinstitute.com

631–640 of 645 posts

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I made a good fortune betting against the post-IPO rally. How did you decide when the rally was over?

May 2019 is when they launched in Germany and by looking at the shelves during the coming months it was obvious that BYND's then-market-cap of over 10B USD was unsustainable. Shelves were being emptied out quickly by customers at the start. By the end of the summer though, these new types of patties (whether BYND or its competitors) had more discount/sale stickers on it than the average carpet store window. To be fai…

I was amazed at the cognitive dissonance of people pretending it tasted good, when I similarly remarked that many of those types of products were regularly discounted because their sell-by date was too close. On the same shelf, just one inch to the left, you would be hard pressed to find a discounted meat product that sticks around more than a few hours. And usually, it's the large quantities or specialty items that not many want/know how to deal with.

All those fake meat products were bound to fail because once you remove the ideology, they are just bad products. If at least they could be cheap, they could make sense as a substitute for something better but that's not even the case. If you have to eat bad tasting plant-based product, you might as well eat shitty tofu, at least it's somewhat cheaper (still ridiculously overpriced).

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#632
post #578
post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

I'm happy you enjoy the product, and hopefully you find it to be tasty and healthy. Certainly vegetarians can enjoy it! But the original goal of Beyond Meat was to move people away from eating animals.

Beyond Meats original mission statement starts: "By switching from animal to plant-based protein sources, Beyond Meat..."

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ask a bunch of meat eaters how they feel about animal cruelty, they'll get uncomfortable. Many will admit that they would like to avoid it but don't think it's practical. Look in particular at the kind who seek out organic, free range, and other (honestly, not very effective) ways to reduce suffering. I suspect the market research turned up a large contingent of such. Perhaps not sufficient to justify a whole…

Count me as a conflicted meat eater. It is terrible, but…delicious. I would be willing to switch to Impossible Foods (much better than Beyond Meat) for most of my hamburger consumption. Yet the price is such a premium that it is hard to justify. Yes, there are scaling problems, meat subsidies, etc which are hard challenges to overcome, but not surprising to me that most consumers are unwilling to switch to a novel pr…

I'm a meat eater, but don't eat much red meat as I have mild arthritis and too much red meat causes me to get flare ups. I tried one of those burgers a few years ago (can't remember if it was Beyond or Impossible now) and didn't like it. The taste and texture had a bit of an uncanny valley vibe as they were sort of almost there, but not quite the same. The taste was a bit odd and then I was left with a pea protein after-taste for hours, which was not pleasant at all.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Humans have actually evolved to find the smell and taste of COOKED meat to be delicious because it is so energy and nutrition dense eating it gave a huge evolutionary advantage to people who ate it.

Can you point to any supporting evidence for the claim that humans have evolved an innate “finding meat delicious trait” or alternatively evidence that suggests it’s not purely cultural? I’m genuinely interested as I haven’t found any evidence supporting the claim.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/07/how-early-hu...

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#635
post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The research on optimal protein for athletes is pretty well established. I weigh all of my food and track every macro. If I ate the recommended amount of protein from plant sources, I would be grossly overweight from the additional carb and fat calories. I try plants based every year or so. It just doesn't work for my body. Not to mention the dramatic IBS-like symptoms I get even after forcing it for weeks on end to…

I came to the same conclusion. I always wonder if they are completely delusional and ignore every issue to favor their bias or just don't have the problems that we get. From spending quite a lot of time with those people, my opinion is that they generally are pretty dishonest and will deny the truth to fit their ideology.

Just drink protein shakes? There are soy protein ones that are completely inoffensive and pea protein which isn’t tasty but much cheaper. Do professional athletes actually eat only meat to meet their protein requirements? Because even if you’re not a vegan I imagine that amount of meat every day gets pretty gross.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#636
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people would say it is a problem with making the entire population pay for the moral preferences of a few.

"The entire population" doesn’t want to eat only beef and drink milk, however those are way more subsidized than other food. The real winners are food mega corps and a few rich farmers. Remove the targeted subsidies and "the entire population" will eat less meat and more peas. Subsidize the peas and not the meat and you’ll see vegans skyrocket.

Then how about the people with this moral preference subsidize pea farming and run the experiment on their own dime? How big are these subsidies for farming on a per-capita basis?

If it's too much you could do it for a smaller area ...

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#637
post #635
post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came to the same conclusion. I always wonder if they are completely delusional and ignore every issue to favor their bias or just don't have the problems that we get. From spending quite a lot of time with those people, my opinion is that they generally are pretty dishonest and will deny the truth to fit their ideology.

Just drink protein shakes? There are soy protein ones that are completely inoffensive and pea protein which isn’t tasty but much cheaper. Do professional athletes actually eat only meat to meet their protein requirements? Because even if you’re not a vegan I imagine that amount of meat every day gets pretty gross.

So far, I have not been impressed to say the least. First there is the problem that they often use sucralose or another weird sweetener that my digestive system does not like at all (very annoying reflux) and then of course they often taste weird at best and mostly not good at all. It's also very hard to incorporate properly into other stuff because being protein, it fluffs up and creates strong structure that takes volumes; good luck cooking/baking it.

But yes, I could try some more references to see if there is something decent. I very much doubt so because the fundamentals are not aligned for this.

Luckily, I am relatively small and I do triathlon training, not weight training so I don't care as much for volume and mass. Yet the need is still there though and it is very noticeable when I fail at balancing the diet (it is extremely easy to indulge in the pleasurable carbs, that are systematically cheaper as well). I need at least 80g of protein per (training) day and it's more challenging than it may look.

So, I try to balance things with various sources but animal meat is by far the easiest to work with. For example, I like nuts a lot but they carry a shit ton of fat with their protein, so it becomes hard to get enough carbs in the caloric budget. Of course, at this rate meat becomes just another thing you have to eat and is not really special or a pleasure. But the thing is that it's much less terrible than a protein shake, there are also plenty of things that you get from animals' meat that I doubt are truly replaceable with today's limited knowledge. I already have to pay close attention to what I eat and cannot indulge too much in some things, I'm not really keen on making my food experience completely miserable; I wish I could because it would be much cheaper/easier this way.

But I think people presenting meat as a pleasure are ideologically motivated. I dont think killing/eating animals is something humans ever did for "pleasure", it was done out of necessity and not much else. I was never a big meat eater, particularly in my youth I was very addicted to sugar and would rather avoid eating meat as much as possible. It contributed to a small frame/build. Now that I'm older and training hard I eat meat not because I like it that much but because I have to.

If you ask me, I would be stoked if I could survive just on chips, candy, nuts, or even just flavored pasta. Those things I can eat unlimited amount with no problem at all. Turns out it's not really what's needed...

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#638
post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you “cook” a piece of fish in salt and lime (a la Ceviche) you are also altering the protein structures). When you're cooking a piece of fish, you're not changing its structure using heat and pressure so that globular plant cell structures are transformed into stuff resembling fibrous animal cell structures. https://youtu.be/uTHCqjIspKU?si=pFqoQOuGbIPNnJox Around the 1:30 mark.

> When you're cooking a piece of fish, you're not changing its structure using heat and pressure so that globular plant cell structures are transformed into stuff resembling fibrous animal cell structures. You are if the fish ate any plants before they died (and you cooked with heat, I'm vegetarian so am unfamiliar with the other poster's a la Ceviche ). And even if the fish didn't eat any plants, you're still changi…

If you ever marinate broccoli in balsamic (a favorite in our household) it’s the same technique: it precooks from the acid.

Try it with dried cranberries and sunflower seeds for a great salad! (Don’t forget the salt, pepper, and garlic)

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I also don't see it as much better than Boca Burgers or Quorn or many other earlier generation products never mind tofu, tempeh, seitan all of which can be great on a bed of rice or as sandwich fillers. Ecologist Howard Odum developed a system of environmental accounting based on tracing energy back to the sun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergy a calorie of vegetarian food is estimated to require 200,000 calories w…

Quorn is awful. I pray to never be subjected to it again. Impossible is amazing in comparison.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#640
post #637
post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just drink protein shakes? There are soy protein ones that are completely inoffensive and pea protein which isn’t tasty but much cheaper. Do professional athletes actually eat only meat to meet their protein requirements? Because even if you’re not a vegan I imagine that amount of meat every day gets pretty gross.

So far, I have not been impressed to say the least. First there is the problem that they often use sucralose or another weird sweetener that my digestive system does not like at all (very annoying reflux) and then of course they often taste weird at best and mostly not good at all. It's also very hard to incorporate properly into other stuff because being protein, it fluffs up and creates strong structure that takes…

MyProtein manufactures raw protein powders without artificial flavours: soya, pea and hemp. That way you can add your own preferred/safer sweetener to the shake, or just drink them quickly raw (you can gulp down 30g of protein in under 10 seconds, it’s not a big deal). Or you can use them in certain food preparation (e.g combine with oat flour, peanut butter, water and a sweetener; make small balls that you can eat as a snack). Soy protein in particular has a creamy, silky, luxurious texture when mixed with water, very pleasant and can be a perfect substitute for custard-type desserts when sweetened, or can be used as a sauce/soup thickener.

If the craving for bullshit food (chips, candy, pasta etc) doesn’t stop, that’s either a signal for nutritional deficiency of some kind (your body is still searching for something), OR a signal that you’re not hungry enough, to eat the healthy options. I spend regularly months-long periods eating the exact same ultra-basic food every day: steamed vegetables (not even salt) and home made biscuits from grains, nuts and seeds. I don’t struggle with cravings for other foods, because all my nutrients are in there and it satiates me. If I don’t feel like eating my food, then I wait until I’m hungry enough to want it. My diet is extreme, but it proves a point.

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