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Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

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Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#221

I always wondered who their demographic was. The core early adopters, the ethical vegans, who actually like the taste of plants are never going to make a lab made ultra processed salt bomb their daily driver (never mind issues surrounding industrial agriculture). Health-conscious folks would take one look at the ingredient list and bail because of the heavy processing and industrial fillers. You've got bodybuilders a…

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Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#223

I always wondered who their demographic was. The core early adopters, the ethical vegans, who actually like the taste of plants are never going to make a lab made ultra processed salt bomb their daily driver (never mind issues surrounding industrial agriculture). Health-conscious folks would take one look at the ingredient list and bail because of the heavy processing and industrial fillers. You've got bodybuilders a…

their demo is vegans who want a burger, which is not a rare thing at all.

Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#224
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, the product is fine, but there's a reason all the other brands in the freezer aisle aren't raising hundreds of millions of dollars at 100x multiples. Burgers don't scale like smartphone apps. Here's a comparison - Tyson Foods, best known for their frozen meat, had a revenue of $54.44 billion last year. Their current market cap is $21.77 billion. Beyond Meat reported an annual revenue of $87.9 million in their 20…

I was having trouble understanding the issue then I realized 87.9 MILLion with an M. Ok I see lol.

I feel like AI and "tech" has normalised billions way too much. So even as millions are really a lot we don't even think about those anymore... Crazy crazy world.

Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#225
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a weird comment. Why do you think that "ethical vegans" like the "taste of plants" any more than anyone else? The whole point of being an ethical vegan/vegetarian is to not consume animals, not because you don't like the taste. Health conscious folks would definitely choose these over hamburgers. Sure, they're not perfect from a health food point of view, but they're lower in sodium and saturated fat tha…

Beyond Burger ingredients: Yellow Pea Protein, Avocado Oil, Natural Flavors, Brown Rice Protein, Red Lentil Protein, 2% or less of Methylcellulose, Potato Starch, Pea Starch, Potassium Lactate (to preserve freshness), Faba Bean Protein, Apple Extract, Pomegranate Concentrate, Potassium Salt, Spice, Vinegar, Vegetable Juice Color (with Beet). Except for Vinegar, every one of these is an industrially processed/extracte…

> every one of these is an industrially processed/extracted/refined ingredient that humans never ate until within the last ~50 years

what absurd scaremongering! Do you know how yellow pea protein, for example, is "refined"?

You take dried peas and grind them into powder. Pop in a centrifuge to separate protein from starch. Not exactly pumped full of "toxins"!

> Avocado Oil

You literally press avocado flesh. It's been done for centuries. It's not some crazy refinement process.

> brown rice protein

This is just ground up rice mixed with amylase or protease to isolate the proteins. There's nothing scary here. We've been eating it for millennia.

etc

Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#226
post #132

I always wondered who their demographic was. The core early adopters, the ethical vegans, who actually like the taste of plants are never going to make a lab made ultra processed salt bomb their daily driver (never mind issues surrounding industrial agriculture). Health-conscious folks would take one look at the ingredient list and bail because of the heavy processing and industrial fillers. You've got bodybuilders a…

This is such a weird comment. Why do you think that "ethical vegans" like the "taste of plants" any more than anyone else? The whole point of being an ethical vegan/vegetarian is to not consume animals, not because you don't like the taste. Health conscious folks would definitely choose these over hamburgers. Sure, they're not perfect from a health food point of view, but they're lower in sodium and saturated fat tha…

This is such a weird comment.

It’s ultra processed food devoid of micronutrients with low quality protein and poor bioavailability.

Health conscious folks would definitely not choose this. In fact, it’s all the things you try to avoid as soon as you start being health conscious. Folks who want to believe they are being health conscious may be convinced via marketing to buy it, but anyone seriously invested in their nutrition would steer very clear of these.

Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#227
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no reason to believe that the foods humans have historically eaten are safer/healthier than "industrially processed/extracted/refined" food simply because we have historically eaten them. Evolution does not select for avoiding the health problems facing modern-day humans such as cancer or heart disease.

I'm not saying they're healthier simply because we've historically eaten them. But there are many reasons to believe natural/traditional foods may be safer and healthier than new industrial foods. To name a few: 1) There's reason to believe our bodies may be more adapted to eating natural or traditional foods, having eaten them for hundreds of thousands of years rather than one or two generations. 2) Many highly proc…

> There's reason to believe our bodies may be more adapted to eating natural or traditional foods, having eaten them for hundreds of thousands of years rather than one or two generations.

This is an argument that no white people should be eating pineapples, mangos, bananas, kiwifruit, etc. Hell, probably not even apples.

Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#228
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond Burger ingredients: Yellow Pea Protein, Avocado Oil, Natural Flavors, Brown Rice Protein, Red Lentil Protein, 2% or less of Methylcellulose, Potato Starch, Pea Starch, Potassium Lactate (to preserve freshness), Faba Bean Protein, Apple Extract, Pomegranate Concentrate, Potassium Salt, Spice, Vinegar, Vegetable Juice Color (with Beet). Except for Vinegar, every one of these is an industrially processed/extracte…

[flagged]

Please don't post snark like this here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#229
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really - every single Burger King out there sells the beyond burger as far as I've seen.

If they're selling in a supermarket, it's more than fair to compare them to those offerings. Who's buying Burger King more than grocery shopping?

I've eaten maybe 5 burgers at home in my 35 years but I've eaten plenty more at fast food restaurants.

Re: Beyond has dropped “meat” from its name and expanded its high-protein drink line

#230
post #12

That's too bad. I don't expect fake-meats to be healthy, or cheap, but I like that they can be made without killing animals and without raising them in inhumane conditions. I had really hoped that people would say, "Well, if it tastes close enough, then how about I go for the cruelty-free version." And it is close-enough -- it's at least as good as a fast-food hamburger. Perhaps the cognitive dissonance is just too m…

It was close enough for me and I do acknowledge the cruelty and abstain from many kinds of meat. I was super excited when I tried it first. But after about a year of being part of my regular diet it started being disgusting unfortunately. Now I can only eat it once a in a while.
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