[BeaverFever]

It is a processed food product so it would not at all surprise me to learn it’s unhealthy. All I can say is when I tried it, nutrition-wise it beat the frozen beef patties I had in my freezer hands down in almost every category.

The endorsement for meat at the bottom without mention if any of the many health related concerns related to meat, especially grilled meat, has me suspicious of the article though. I could be wrong but I wonder if it might be a plant from the meat industry.

[Tricks]

Processed food isn't unhealthy by default. Rolled oats are processed. Cheese is processed. Milk is processed. Cereal of almost any kind is processed. Tomato sauce, Granola, jam, peanut butter, pretty much anything in a jar or a can is likely processed.

[BeaverFever]

Tricks Tricks:

Processed food isn't unhealthy by default. Rolled oats are processed. Cheese is processed. Milk is processed. Cereal of almost any kind is processed. Tomato sauce, Granola, jam, peanut butter, pretty much anything in a jar or a can is likely processed.

A lot of those things have a ton of added salt and sugar...not all of them but you have to read the label to know what you’re buying. Peanut butter is a good example- “Natural” peanut butter is simply pureed peanuts, no problem there but the stuff most people know as peanut butter is loaded with added sugar and emulsifiers and preservatives. I made the switch to Natural about 10 years ago and now the other stuff tastes like a dessert topping to me.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Tricks Tricks:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

soy...an estrogen emulator that can cause infertility in men and breast cancer in women.

Not enough evidence to support either one of those statements.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5188409/

Nope, but there is a potential link between too much processed soy and peanut allergies. I know Asians eat a fair amount of soy but most of that is unprocessed or very lightly processed. Over here there's all kinds of overly processed soy-based products.

Meat has also taken a bad rap from the scientists in the sugar industry. It was them that got the whole "animal fats make you fat" schtick going so they could replace them with refined sugar. Now, humans have been eating animals for 250,000 years. Our bodies evolved to eat meat, and plants. Our bodies did not evolve to eat refined sugar. That shit is far more fattening than animal fat. But, enough people bought the lie and now we have a bunch of fat fucks, myself included, who have been forced over the years to eat foods with refined sugar instead of natural animal fats.

Personally I hope the fast-food industry goes all in on the beyond meat crap and quits selling real burgers altogether. That'll cut WAY down on the number of cows being raised meaning they can go back to pasture feeding them so that people can go back to really enjoying beef again.

Which brings up an interesting point. Cattle are also a scapegoat in the whole AGW scam. But it's not the cattle really, it's the fast food and chain restaurants that are the real problem.
My wife and I calculated that you can get around 2500 1/4 lb burgers from an average size (these days) steer. Between McD's and BK alone there are over 22,000 locations. Now, if each of those locations throws out just one burger a day it would be the equivalent of 9 cows. That's 9 cows that required resources to raise, process and transport just to end up in the dumpster at the end of the day. Now multiply that by thousands of burgers every day and that's a LOT of cows where the resources required for them were completely wasted. And people bitch about the oil industry.

[Tricks]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Tricks Tricks:

Processed food isn't unhealthy by default. Rolled oats are processed. Cheese is processed. Milk is processed. Cereal of almost any kind is processed. Tomato sauce, Granola, jam, peanut butter, pretty much anything in a jar or a can is likely processed.

A lot of those things have a ton of added salt and sugar...not all of them but you have to read the label to know what you’re buying. Peanut butter is a good example- “Natural” peanut butter is simply pureed peanuts, no problem there but the stuff most people know as peanut butter is loaded with added sugar and emulsifiers and preservatives. I made the switch to Natural about 10 years ago and now the other stuff tastes like a dessert topping to me.

Sugar and salt aren't bad for you either, in moderation. Hell you need salt to live.

[Tricks]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

Nope, but there is a potential link between too much processed soy and peanut allergies. I know Asians eat a fair amount of soy but most of that is unprocessed or very lightly processed. Over here there's all kinds of overly processed soy-based products.

I wasn't able to find anything that supports that, got a source?

$1:

Meat has also taken a bad rap from the scientists in the sugar industry. It was them that got the whole "animal fats make you fat" schtick going so they could replace them with refined sugar. Now, humans have been eating animals for 250,000 years. Our bodies evolved to eat meat, and plants. Our bodies did not evolve to eat refined sugar. That shit is far more fattening than animal fat. But, enough people bought the lie and now we have a bunch of fat fucks, myself included, who have been forced over the years to eat foods with refined sugar instead of natural animal fats.

Technically true and untrue at the same time. Sugar isn't technically more "fattening". It has 4 calories per gram compared to the 9 of animal fat. It's how our brains react to it that makes it bad. Animal fat is better at making you feel full and stay full, and is more nutritionally meaningful than sugar. Sugar, you could basically eat non stop and almost never feel full, and then start craving more.

[N_Fiddledog]

An opinion piece from the Calgary Herald:

Fake meat marketers will prey on gullible burger eaters

$1:

Recent developments in the race to create a cheaper, flavoursome fake meat (plant) burger has food and meat processing companies salivating. They are throwing millions of dollars at food research, processing and marketing companies involved in the plant hamburger goldrush.

Two giants in the meat business, Cargill and Tyson, are deeply involved; one suspects they must know more about this potential market as it could dramatically affect their core business. One motivator may be that the biggest hurdles with plant hamburgers, taste and cost, may have been overcome. The actual manufacturing part is easy — building a facility grinding out millions of plant burgers per day is no obstacle. The savings in raw material acquisition, logistics and labour costs for food processors would be very profitable indeed.

But what about consumer acceptance of fake meat burgers? I expect relentless promotion will wear down the gullible consumer. The final straw will be selling it for less than the traditional real meat hamburger. Food promoters know instinctively that taste tests are a sure-fire way to change people’s minds. Add into that insinuations that the new product is healthier (no antibiotics, steroids, stress, etc.) and in the idyllic perceptions of today’s trendy consumer, buying fake meat will be more politically correct than the traditional product, especially if it’s cheaper. Putting “no animal was killed” labels on plant burgers next to real meat burgers in the marketplace will be the test — if it’s the same flavour, texture and cheaper — it could be a done deal.

There is concern that the chemical/vegetation concoction of a plant burger might cause consumers some apprehension about this being a healthier alternative to real meat. It’s far from being a natural, organic product. It’s a witches’ brew containing dozens of chemicals and dubious additives, like preservatives, emulsifiers, binders, colourants, extracts, and GM products like canola, corn and soy.

I expect that all would be downplayed by comparing it to the slaughter of innocent animals in creating real hamburger. Trust crafty marketers to come up with gruesome images of the meat-processing business to discourage squeamish consumers enough for them to choose “cruelty-free” plant hamburgers. You can just imagine the scale of the advertising once McDonald’s buys into the concept.

One recalls some fast-food chains have not had a lot of success with veggie burgers or hot dogs, but then many of them tasted like chopped cardboard. Since then, food scientists have discovered plant molecules that mimic the taste of meat. That’s the key to the new enthusiasm for plant-based fake meat products.

Some in the meat industry are advocating that legislation be used to legally define what is a real meat product. That would be futile as lawsuits and devious marketers would find ways around any such restrictions. Labelling regulations would be hard to apply to hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, etc. since they are more generic descriptions of a food product. Many of those products are already a combination of meat, spices, binders, even ground cereals.

The real meat industry hasn’t exactly come out fighting over the plant-based fake meat onslaught. That’s curious considering the billions involved in the meat hamburger business alone. The industry is somewhat conservative, believing science and honesty will support real meat products. That’s a noble position, but not realistic in the ruthless world of food marketing. The livestock and meat industry would be better served if they launched an all-out advertising war against these non-natural (fake meat) products.

Anti-real meat folks and their government and food marketing allies need a dose of their own medicine. After years of disparaging real meat with deceptive allegations about food safety, nutrition and health, they need to be challenged about any support for plant-based fake meat products that are essentially a chemical and additive mishmash concocted in a lab by food scientists.

https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/colum ... l_verboven

[stratos]

stratos stratos:

Tricks can you please use smaller words so I can read what you wrote.

Tricks, I just now seen what you did. FUNNY

[DrCaleb]

The best part, Beyond Meat stock is up over 500% since the IPO.

[BartSimpson]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Tricks Tricks:

Processed food isn't unhealthy by default. Rolled oats are processed. Cheese is processed. Milk is processed. Cereal of almost any kind is processed. Tomato sauce, Granola, jam, peanut butter, pretty much anything in a jar or a can is likely processed.

A lot of those things have a ton of added salt and sugar...not all of them but you have to read the label to know what you’re buying. Peanut butter is a good example- “Natural” peanut butter is simply pureed peanuts, no problem there but the stuff most people know as peanut butter is loaded with added sugar and emulsifiers and preservatives. I made the switch to Natural about 10 years ago and now the other stuff tastes like a dessert topping to me.

On that 'added salt and sugar' thing I recently discovered that if you use a prepared ingredient (like Nutella) in a bakery product you don't have to disclose the sugar or salt in the ingredient so long as you disclose the ingredient.

Meaning there's probably a lot of hidden sugar and salt in prepared and processed foods that we're not aware of when we buy them.