The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry? • Hacker News Board

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#181

Post by saidajigumi » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:25 PM UTC

technotony wrote: post #163

notJim wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe with Impossible Foods, but I don't see anything about RNA here: > The vegan meat substitutes are made from mixtures of pea protein isolates, rice protein, mung bean protein, canola oil, coconut oil, and other ingredients like potato starch, apple extract, sunflower lecithin, and pomegranate powder with a range of vitamins and minerals. Beef products that "bleed" are achieved by using beet juice Just sounds like…

The science is in picking the isolates. They don't market that science, but it's the reason their burger is so much better than other veggie burgers. The Stanford RNA scientist (and some colleagues) helped them figure out which proteins to focus on and how to modify those proteins based on ph and other conditions to create the taste/texture they wanted. What they are doing is much harder than it looks from the ingred…

I think the real problem goes deeper than appealing to the palate: we have a long history of creating heavily processed foods that are disastrous for human health. A massive proportion of the first-order treatment and maintenance advice from what I'd call the ongoing "gastrointestinal research revolution" boils down to: "eat real, whole foods".

To a large extent, I bin this work in with things like Soylent, until proven otherwise: a narrow attempt to create an edible substance with poor alignment to actual human biological needs.

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#182

Post by p1necone » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:29 PM UTC

AareyBaba wrote: post #177

p1necone wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a beyond meat burger, I'm curious to hear the opinion of others that have had one too because I thought it tasted terrible . The texture was nothing like real ground beef and neither was the flavour. It wasn't good different either - I'd much rather have a regular bean burger. I feel like it's all marketing and they're just riding the hype wave caused by other better products or peoples desire for one. (I as…

I purchased a package of Beyond Meat Burgers after the IPO stock skyrocketed, to see what all the fuss was about. The texture is like a persian koobideh kabab, the taste is meh, but I couldn't stand the ammonia like smell. The aftertaste lingered for most of the day and I had to ventilate my kitchen to get rid of the odor. I'd rather eat a Dr Praegers veggie burger. Their Beyond Meat Sausages (Brat) are much better b…

I got the ammonia smell/taste too - that was the worst thing about it.

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#183

Post by blueadept111 » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:35 PM UTC

dao- wrote: post #147

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I really cannot believe we eat animals I don't understand this. We are animals. Why is it specially prohibited to us that we eat other animals? Note also that, as animals, we are not plant-eaters: we can't survive on plant matter alone. We are made [1] to eat other animals. We are omnivores, yes? So why is it unethical for us, specifically, to eat other animals when it's not unethical for other animals? __________…

> So why is it unethical for us, specifically, to eat other animals when it's not unethical for other animals? You almost answered your own question. "Unethical" is a foreign concept for animals because they don't even have ethics. Humans do, and these ethics have implications for how you should or should not treat other sentient life.

Well if I eat a salmon, then I'm actually saving the lives of all the other other fish that the salmon would have eaten if I hadn't eaten the salmon. So in that case, it's unethical NOT to eat salmon. Oh my, there's just no rest for the weary ethics student.

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#184

Post by zeroimpl » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:39 PM UTC

morning_breeze wrote: post #164

What about milk? The milk industry produces beef as a byproduct. Cows have to calve regularly to produce milk and eventually became beef themselves. In my country McDonalds and other burger producers are the biggest buyers of old milk cows. Their beef might be not good enough for steaks, but still good enough for burgers.

Nut-based milks are a great alternative. Though just like veggie burgers, there are good and bad nut milks - look for ones without tons of additives. They are also trivial to make yourself.

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#185

Post by flagfeedingusa1 » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:39 PM UTC

seisvelas wrote: post #158

moreranchplease wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think water shortages will change people's preferences?

No. I live in Mexico City, where it is not unheard of for the government to outright cut off the city water supply for days to account for shortages. People's preferences haven't changed. Beef continues to be very popular, as do public fountains. The choice not to consume meat (at least here) is mostly associated with pretentious, upperclass people who like yoga and are keenly interested in social justice (there is e…

>The choice not to consume meat (at least here) is mostly associated with pretentious, upperclass people who like yoga and are keenly interested in social justice

Believe me it's the same here. Rich pretentious people that post here rarely step out of their bubble, but if they did for five seconds they'd realize there are still real people struggling and the idea of cutting meat out or raising the prices via a tax to get people to eat less is outrageous.

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#186

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:39 PM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #130

landonxjames wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My digestive system got wrecked trying to be on a mostly vegetarian diet over several years after the housing bubble popped. The gist of it is that the lectins (and other defense mechanisms in the husks) of legumes and nightshades disrupt the mucus lining of the intestines, which leads to leaky gut and stool getting into the body cavity and blood (leaky gut), which may lead to autoimmune diseases like colitis and a…

Ya sorry, it's a relatively new concept: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319593.php My feeling is that it's similar to how allergies/cancer/etc often have 2 or more triggers that must coincide to set off the condition. So for example, maybe people who wouldn't typically have gluten sensitivity (a lectin), ended up with it because they distrupted their gut flora by eating, say, the glyphosate in oats (especi…

[deleted]

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#187

Post by zeroimpl » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:47 PM UTC

codesushi42 wrote: post #122

artimaeis wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last time I checked, not all beef is consumed as hamburgers. The author of the article explicitly mentions using Impossible Burger for non-hamburger applications: "It looked identical to ground beef, so that’s how I treated it. And that’s how it performed. I made sliders, kebabs, nachos, chili, Bolognese sauce, even a little tartare (note: the company frowns hard on this)."

Not all beef is consumed as ground beef. Happy?

The author mentions that 60% of it is...

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#188

Post by dsalso » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:48 PM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #73

I'm excited for meat alternatives, but have 3 thoughts on them that I haven't seen mentioned yet (I'm 42): * Nearly all of the rangeland and high desert in the western US was destroyed by cattle and sheep grazing over the past 150 years. This is a billion dollar industry with the emotional buy-in of millions of people so I'm skeptical that it will be reformed in our lifetimes. * My digestive system got wrecked trying…

You are correct sir. When first coming to the US from Mexico I felt something (of my ALWAYS up to this point)- resilient stomach was going wrong. After doing some research plus experimentation, I realized back home I ate some kind of bone broth multiple times per week. The glycine and collagen in general inside it is so restorative you would not believe it. I find it to be extremely relaxing and anti inflammatory to consume it at least once per week.

Plus the meat I did consume had some mixture of tendon/cartilage in it. Once I figured out what was missing it has been only smooth sailing for my stomach.

Regarding meat and bodybuilding, I would like to comment that there is simply no comparison for the amount of vitamins and mineral in meat, plus the absorbability of not having lectins and oxalates to leech them. There is a reason why both my grandmother's insisted on cooking their children liver once a week and they all grew up very healthy individuals.

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#189

Post by tryptophan » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:50 PM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #73

I'm excited for meat alternatives, but have 3 thoughts on them that I haven't seen mentioned yet (I'm 42): * Nearly all of the rangeland and high desert in the western US was destroyed by cattle and sheep grazing over the past 150 years. This is a billion dollar industry with the emotional buy-in of millions of people so I'm skeptical that it will be reformed in our lifetimes. * My digestive system got wrecked trying…

>My digestive system got wrecked trying to be on a mostly vegetarian diet over several years after the housing bubble popped. The gist of it is that the lectins (and other defense mechanisms in the husks) of legumes and nightshades disrupt the mucus lining of the intestines, which leads to leaky gut and stool getting into the body cavity and blood (leaky gut), which may lead to autoimmune diseases like colitis and arthritis.

Umm...did you cook the plants before eating them? Cooking destroys like 99% of lectins.

>Something about animal protein heals this lining, probably because humans evolved as scavengers eating leftover kills and carrion from top predators.

This sounds like total pseudo-science new age woo. No organism EVER directly incorporates foreign protein into itself. Its always broken down completely first, so the structure or origin of these "animal proteins" doesn't matter.

Re: The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?

#190

Post by zeroimpl » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 11:53 PM UTC

I’ve tried these burgers and they are decent. But there are far better veggie burgers out there that don’t try to resemble meat at all. For some reason fast food companies stick with their garbage soy-based ones, so I’m happy to see them at least get some better veggie options.

But for reference, quinoa burgers, chickpea burgers, mushroom burgers, black bean burgers, sweet potato burgers, beet burgers - all taste great and are more appealing for most vegetarians/vegans.