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

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

#541

Post by DirkH » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 9:40 PM UTC

FlamingMoe wrote: post #497

array_key_first wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hamburger patties are processed, I don't know who y'all are kidding. At the end of the day, red meat is bad for you. Processed red meat is in the same category as carcinogen as Alcohol and Tobacco. To put into perspective, diet coke is two categories lower. And it doesn't get much more artificial than that. Bacon is basically cigarettes in meat form, and hamburgers are just heart disease in a bun. Believe it or not,…

Same IARC group does not equal same risk. Group 1 just means the evidence is strong, not that the danger is equivalent. Smoking increases lung cancer risk by 2,000-3,000%. Daily processed meat increases colorectal cancer risk from around 4.5% to 5%. calling bacon "cigarettes in meat form" is wildly misleading.

It is good provocation even if it is poor analogy.

This is because bacon is more like cigarettes than most people assume, even if far less dangerous in practice.

Like another example is "sugar is poison." which is also structured as a factual equivalence and also gesturing at something real and also designed to land as a stronger claim than the evidence warrants.

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

#542

Post by iinnPP » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 10:22 PM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #528

iinnPP wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salt, among the ingredients in the average burger is the most likely to cause you problems. Calling it bikeshedding is a massive stretch. In a talk of the importance of the contents of your diet related only to burgers, salt is the exact opposite of bikeshedding. Nothing whatsoever is stopping Beyond from removing salt and allowing people to salt their own burgers, as they already do.

The contribution of salt in hypertension and other issues is overblown in popular media. I'm on blood pressure meds. I regularly check in with doctors on things. No, you shouldn't be eating unlimited salt, but sugar and cholesterol are killing (and debilitating) many more of us.

I avoided needing medicine by altering my diet to tone down salt, unhealthy fat, and sugar intake. My doctor was surprised as "everyone just takes the meds."

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

#543

Post by asdff » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

Lord-Jobo wrote: post #421

orwin wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lost weight the regular way. You don't understand how much will I expend to not continuously eat. The strategy I deploy: I never have ready-to-eat anything home, I cook everything just before I eat it, I chose ingredients based on their satiety index, I always have something to drink. I fast 5 days every year to 'reset' my grahlin levels (it still hurts, even if it's way less than it used to). I'm still at 26 BMI,…

The “easily constrained” people like the person you are responding too don’t understand. I’m not sure they ever will. Ive also done it the right way, and it was literally easier, by far, to get a masters degree while working 40 hours a week than it was to drop from 250 to 175. Incomparable. The constant mental pressure to eat, to eat more, to search the cabinets, to stop at x on the way home, etc. I’ve heard “wow sou…

I think you are right that I just don't think I will ever have a concept for it. For me I can easily skip an entire day of meals. I can be hungry. I've gone to bed hungry plenty of times in my life. I remember reading some Herman Hesse, Siddartha actually considers it a skill that he knows how to fast and be content.

Cigarette addiction is even more perplexing for me. I've had nicotine addiction before in college, quit, got the headaches and nausea and all that but IMO having the flu is worse, I just rode it out then it was done. I don't understand what goes on for someone who say wants to quit cigarettes, is trying to quit, is aware of the health issues, but still makes the very conscious dozen plus decisions that have to take place in sequence to get that next pack of cigarettes. I think deep down there is a side of them that is maybe extremely depressed, and self loathing, and maybe wants them to fail to quit because that would satisfy their own internal working model of themselves being a failure, too weak to ever quit. Something that goes beyond any one vice and is a general phenomenon, but unfortunately might never be appreciated with so many targeted vice-specific efforts vs understanding the wider whole.

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

#544

Post by asdff » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 11:05 PM UTC

blargey wrote: post #156

asdff wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear the most ironic stuff on glp from the people I know on it. So doctor is obviously a reasonable person with an interest in making people healthy, not trying to set up glp addicts, and are encouraging better diet and increased exercise while eventually tapering and getting them off the glp entirely as the final end goal. The whole time they are telling me this I can't help but wonder what the hell is the point o…

Because long-term calorie restriction is 100x harder than popping a pill and downing a protein-and-fiber shake, and you can't outrun a burger but you can outlift a calorie deficit, so lumping them all together under "improve diet and exercise somehow" is a nonsensical rhetorical flourish / troll move?

I believe all glp are intravenous on the market currently unless some oral one is out now. Not sure what you are saying about trolling, I was genuine.

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

#545

Post by justin66 » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 11:09 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #543

Lord-Jobo wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “easily constrained” people like the person you are responding too don’t understand. I’m not sure they ever will. Ive also done it the right way, and it was literally easier, by far, to get a masters degree while working 40 hours a week than it was to drop from 250 to 175. Incomparable. The constant mental pressure to eat, to eat more, to search the cabinets, to stop at x on the way home, etc. I’ve heard “wow sou…

I think you are right that I just don't think I will ever have a concept for it. For me I can easily skip an entire day of meals. I can be hungry. I've gone to bed hungry plenty of times in my life. I remember reading some Herman Hesse, Siddartha actually considers it a skill that he knows how to fast and be content. Cigarette addiction is even more perplexing for me. I've had nicotine addiction before in college, qu…

> For me I can easily skip an entire day of meals.

I was like that earlier in life. It didn't last forever.

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

#546

Post by justin66 » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 11:12 PM UTC

hbn wrote: post #425

lambda wrote: 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…

> Health conscious folks would definitely choose these over hamburgers Not sure what health-conscious people you know, but I'd hazard to guess that most would choose the patty made from a single natural ingredient that's been a staple of the human diet since the dawn of man over the ultra-processed slurry of starches and oils.

I know a few fitness people and they've all moved past being overly worried about an ingredient list that includes words with multiple syllables. On the contrary, they usually seem pretty content to find out what all the oddities on an ingredient list mean.

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

#547

Post by notepad0x90 » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 11:13 PM UTC

gusennan wrote: post #195

Vegetarian here. I like Beyond products, such as their chorizo, and eat them all the time. I don’t eat animals not because I’m trying to “eat healthy”, but because I’m trying to opt out participating in a system that is brutally cruel to sentient beings.

I want to do what you're doing, but if I can't do it well, why bother? If had the whole "cooking at home for yourself" thing down, maybe I could buy only beyond (not-meat?), but when i cook for myself, I don't even like cooking meat. I use eggs but that's about it.

A lot of the meat i consume is from restaurants and fast food, it isn't easy to get a meat alternative, that isn't part of a "veggie" item that has different ingredients (if available at all). For example, a "beyond cheeseburger" that uses the same sauce,buns,prep as a regular cheeseburger would be nice, but usually it's under a "veggie burger" with vegetable centric things with it.

Tangentially, indian food is awesome for avoiding meat, but restaurant ordered indian food isn't healthy if you eat all the time (a couple of times a month is ok, if you're fit).

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

#548

Post by justin66 » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 11:17 PM UTC

behringer wrote: post #395

malfist wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe awesome to you, but many people will find that exact same construction more flavorful if salt is added

Yes but that would make it "unhealthy" for many Americans. So for the health-conscious eater, the real hamburger wins.

> So for the health-conscious eater, the real hamburger wins.

The health-conscious are famous for their hamburger usage.

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

#549

Post by asdff » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 11:17 PM UTC

orwin wrote: post #76

asdff wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear the most ironic stuff on glp from the people I know on it. So doctor is obviously a reasonable person with an interest in making people healthy, not trying to set up glp addicts, and are encouraging better diet and increased exercise while eventually tapering and getting them off the glp entirely as the final end goal. The whole time they are telling me this I can't help but wonder what the hell is the point o…

I lost weight the regular way. You don't understand how much will I expend to not continuously eat. The strategy I deploy: I never have ready-to-eat anything home, I cook everything just before I eat it, I chose ingredients based on their satiety index, I always have something to drink. I fast 5 days every year to 'reset' my grahlin levels (it still hurts, even if it's way less than it used to). I'm still at 26 BMI,…

I realize there are probably a lot of low hanging fruit in my own consumption habits that let me generally coast into healthy BMI that for a lot of people, nonobvious tradeoffs might block. I'm a water and black coffee drinker for example. That puts me up a good couple hundred calories on the day compared to people who might reach for something sugary instead. I'm active every day, exercise, and play sports, another couple hundred calories from that. That's not even getting into the actual eating and I'm up probably well over a thousand calories on a lot of people a day.

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

#550

Post by justin66 » Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 11:29 PM UTC

delecti wrote: post #63

Grimblewald wrote: post #11

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…

> 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 Why not? I think there's a false conflation of veganism and health food (and gluten-free, though that's not relevant in this discussion). I love burgers, and fried chicken, and crappy chicken nuggets, but I don't want more animals to have to suffer for my…

> I think there's a false conflation of veganism and health food

Indeed. I ate at two different vegan restaurants in a city I visited recently and they both were on par with bar or diner food, but vegan. Plenty of vegans (I'm not one, but I've got eyes...) clearly don't have a problem with that.