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Beyond Meat fights for survival

foodinstitute.com

371–380 of 645 posts

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#371
post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A category that includes both twinkies and whey protein powder doesn't seem that useful.

The rule of thumb is that the ultra-processed food should not account for a too large part of your diet. The protein powder is usually taken as a supplement and in small quantities, as opposed to food like twinkies people can easily overeat on. But try to make protein powder 80% of your protein intake and see how you'll feel in a week.

> But try to make protein powder 80% of your protein intake and see how you'll feel in a week

This is true for any food though. A different line of argument would be what if 95% of your protein came from whey and all other nutrients came from other sources. As long as you get the right balance of macronutrients and micronutrients i suspect you will be fine. Unfortunately studies on diet are very difficult to actually implement so we don't have the data to be certain.

Obviously most ultra processed food is low in nutrition, high in sugar, and high palateability so it makes sense that ultraprocessed foods are associated with bad health outcomes but I think it's a step too far to say that all ultra processed food is bad (it's probably a good rule of thumb for most people however).

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'we can do it and it may get more people to eat vegetarian.' That's a noble goal in and of itself. Every step to reduce environmental impact and animal cruelty has value. Beyond and Impossible were my "off-ramp" from eating meat every meal to exploring vegetarianism and veganism. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

You needed a product to help you do that? Were vegetables themselves unappealing?

Vegetables as a meat substitute were. I don't think it's wise to pretend meat unto itself is not appealing to many humans because it's different from vegetables, grains, and fruits.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#373
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whey protein is definitely among the better options, but I once did what you described, and then switched to eating a large amount of chicken breasts. I definitely feel a bit better, and have a much easier time building muscle. If you run the numbers, you can actually eat a shocking amout of protein (300g+ / day) from lean meat while maintaining a calorie deficit. And if you buy frozen chicken breasts from Costco, I…

> frozen chicken breasts How do you make that taste good though

You cook them before eating.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess the primary target market is ex meat eaters that are trying to go vegetarian but have been raised to enjoy the taste/texture of meat. I am in this group. I agree it’s not a very large market for the reasons you stated above. However, maybe BM hoped they could grow that market, I.e. convince more meat eaters to give it up for ethical reasons.

"raised to enjoy the taste/texture of meat" Humans have evolved to enjoy the taste/texture/smell of cooked meat

Yeah, their comment gave me a chuckle. lol

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#375
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in hill country Texas, even Walmart sells MorningStar corn dogs. H-E-B carries most of the Impossible line including meatballs. I made some dirty rice with the IF ground "beef" and it was awesome. There's almost no oil in it, browning onions and peppers required adding some avocado oil (never use olive oil for high temperature cooking). PS: I'm a lazy vegetarian who will eat a real burger every few months. When…

> never use olive oil for high temperature cooking This is a myth and needs to die. Olive oil is fine at high temperatures, even EVOO. https://www.seriouseats.com/cooking-with-olive-oil-faq-safet...

350 degrees is not high temperature cooking. Stir fry for instance is 500+ degrees and even higher

All this in F of course

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#376
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What part of the UK does this happen in? I've never been asked this. I can only assume you're in London?

Woops, sorry, yes, this is in London. According to Good Food Institute (which is a plant-based food lobbying group), 35% of UK households purchased plant-based milk at least once during 2023 and 33% of UK households bought plant-based meat alternatives at least once during 2023. https://gfieurope.org/blog/plant-based-meat-and-milk-are-now... For a less biased source, a 2022 ipsos poll found that 48% of the UK uses al…

> 35% of UK households purchased plant-based milk at least once during 2023

I'd estimate my household purchased ~200 litres of cow's milk in 2023. We also "purchased plant-based milk at least once" or twice when we had guests over that don't drink cow's milk.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't they massively subsidized already? It's soybeans, after all.

Most soybeans are fed to animals and only a tiny amount of soybean calories are converted into meat. So a soybean subsidy scales better in the meat industry and makes their product disproportionally cheaper.

and unfortunatly cows raised on soybeans yields trash quality meat with high amounts of omega 6 vs 3.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I mean is that clearly processed foods aren't harmful because they are processed. All the correlations go away when you control for basic things like sugar and vegetable consumption. The whole idea that processed foods are bad for health is a hysteria.

Treating food with chemicals usually it's not good. Also you simply don't know what exactly are they doing. Like ultra processed american bread is not so good comparing with european wholegrain sourdough bread.

I don’t understand the downvotes. Replacing foods that have been prepared in the same way for hundreds of years with foods treated with processes that have not yet been considered harmful is inherently risky. There are plenty of examples of unknown byproducts, isomers, and side effects that take years to flesh out.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess the primary target market is ex meat eaters that are trying to go vegetarian but have been raised to enjoy the taste/texture of meat. I am in this group. I agree it’s not a very large market for the reasons you stated above. However, maybe BM hoped they could grow that market, I.e. convince more meat eaters to give it up for ethical reasons.

"raised to enjoy the taste/texture of meat" Humans have evolved to enjoy the taste/texture/smell of cooked meat

If you speak with vegetarians/vegans who have been raised that way and never eaten meat you will find many that are repulsed by it. Nurture seems to be able to override nature here and, as far as I’m aware, there’s no strong evidence that we’re born with an inherent taste for meat, we’re just born with bodies that need certain nutrients that are easily obtained from meat but can be found elsewhere.
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