The popularity of 'plant based meat alternatives' is waning

Right. Nobody wants to eat this shit.

R1 People want to eat it, they cannot afford it. Can you read.

They’re still serving fake meat at Panda Express.

Just two days ago I violently chose a different item.

Pricey and if you’re looking for health benefits, good luck. Most of the time you’re better off with actual meat.

It is ultra-processed (read: treated with chemicals and cancer-causing) food.

Really investing video from a food scientist (yes actually someone with a degree)

TLDR - Lab grown meat just isn't practical.

I recommend Primal Strips for you fat whores who want a portion controlled chewy snack that’s a good alternative to beef jerky.

I remember years ago, BK rolled out 'The Impossible Whopper' across the country. It was double the price of their traditional Whopper (back then a Whopper was around $6) and supposedly tasted 'just like' the traditional Whopper (because it was being flame-broiled on the same greasy grill as the fatty meat burgers).

Today, there are no BKs in my area that still serve 'the Impossible Whopper' (probably because they're all owned by the same franchisee and are not required to offer them if they are poor sellers). According to a Google search, they are still available at 'some BKs' across the country.

I've also noticed the boom of 'Vegan' and 'Vegetarian' restaurants which opened in my area in the 2010s have mostly closed.

Plant based meat alternatives are the food equivalent of dry humping while wearing jeans. Just stupid. Either eat real meat or eat some brussel sprouts or something

There's a plant-based restaurant which opened in my area right before the pandemic. Some of my friends started going there regularly (even though it was outrageously expensive) and raved about it (along with all the food and restaurant critics in the region). One night, I finally agreed to go with them - I ordered the 'plant based Lasagna' that (supposedly) tasted like 'real Lasagna' (according to my friends). I could only choke down about half the portion - not that it tasted particularly bad (though it didn't taste anything like lasagna) - the texture was so gritty and it had a strange aftertaste. And it was soooo expensive !

I couldn't wait to make it home and run to the bathroom. I had to call out sick at work the next day ( a rarity) as I had diarrhea for days from this shit food. It was awful - just the thought of it makes my stomach turn. Sure enough, the owner of the restaurant has admitted in an interview the popularity in 'plant food' has dropped over the years, and she's thinking of trying a new concept in the space.

Trying to replicate the flavor and texture of meat is a fool's errand, because it requires chemicals and processing that is WORSE for you than the actual meat!

I love eating plant-based. It makes me feel great. I have had amazing soups, stews and sandwiches using tofu, seitan, and mushrooms as stand-ins for meat. But not pretending to be sausages, ground beef, or steak.

I won't touch that fake meat shit. I also can't go entirely veg or vegan. I limit red meat to a few times a year but still have chicken and fish as protein sources. Both are helpful for satiety, along with some cheese.

I eat more plant-based “meats” now than I ever did

I've had some pretty good homemade lentil burgers, cooked by other people. I've been told the various recipes but they all sounded like too much work. I don't eat much red meat though. For lentils, I just simmer them with canned tomatoes.

Yay! Now the prices will be so low!

I rather just have a veggie burger than plant based. Ive had some really good frozen veggie burgers. I wish I could remember the brand. There is a sort of dryness like with turkey burgers but it’s still good. When I got to Atalanta next month I’ll def hitting up Slutty Vegan this time.

[quote]I rather just have a veggie burger than plant based.

What's the difference, r15?

R16 you know what that’s a good question 😆. I’m just talking about good ol fashion veggie burgers. Not created in a lab to taste and look like ground beef. There are no chemicals in them, more natural.

It’s Frankenfood and it’s not a healthy choice.

It tastes like shit and full of chemicals.

You know, that's interesting, R15 and R16. A few months ago at Whole Foods, they were having a sale on "plant-based" sushi for a couple of weeks. Each Saturday, I went in and chose like a cucumber roll and an avocado roll, something like that, but when I went through the checkout, it never came up as 20% off. They would go back to the refrigerator, see the "20% off plant-based rolls" sign, and give me the 20% manually.

Finally, the third time it happened, a manager told me that's not what "plant-based" meant. It meant fake meat. I said, "That's funny, because cucumbers and avocados are plants, so ....?" It's like they never thought of it that way. Seems like "plant-based" no longer means anything made of plants. It means fake food.

I'm vegan and follow Ms. Tabitha Brown on my socials as well as Chef Joya (love her!). They have the best meat alternative recipes that don't disrespect your wallet.

For example, you can make a good imitation pulled pork with jack fruit.

Messed up the link

There are many delicious vegetarian dishes. Authentic Indian food is primarily vegetarian and it has one of the most vaunted cuisines on the planet. All that is necessary for a vegetarian diet to provide adequate protein is complementary amino acids consumed sometime within the same day. Basically, grains pair with legumes. (Rice and beans, rice and lentils, a peanut butter sandwich, pea soup with bread, a corn tortilla with refried beans, etc). If a person feels he needs some animal protein, cheese and eggs are good sources of protein which don't involve killing an animal. I'm not a vegetarian, but I try to eat only about 3-5 meat meals in a week. I think it's healthier for the planet and also avoids some of the dangers of meat (antibiotics, hormones, heavy metal contamination, bacterial contamination, etc). . The effort to duplicate the mouth feel of meat is really where these products go wrong and it is that effort which caused these companies to stuff the products with all sorts of additives.

Meat isn't perceived as bad for you anymore, so people aren't forgoing it for health reasons so much.

[quote]Meat isn't perceived as bad for you anymore

But it is.

I'm not a preachy vegan, but I'm not going to ignore the science behind how beneficial avoiding ingesting animal byproducts is for my overall health. The only thing I consume that comes from animals that doesn't make me a "true vegan" is honey. And that's because of it's natural defenses against allergens (I have bad allergies).

Another perspective...

I prefer to look at what the World Health Organization says, in preference to youtube loons.

bullshit.

not more expensive than meat per pound. depends on the brand like anything.

walmart has gone from 2 shelves in a freezer of morningstar farms to two whole freezer sections (doors) in the past two years.

bullshit.

^ Morningstar Farms. Farms? More like "Morningstar Labs".

Their plant based bacon strips:

Water, Soybean Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Egg Whites, Soy Flour, Wheat Gluten, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Contains 2% Or Less Of Vegetable Glycerin, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Phosphate, Sugar, Yeast, Caramel Color, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Malic Acid, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Guar Gum, Lactic Acid, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Yeast Extract, Spice, Locust Bean Gum, Sodium Sulfite (for Freshness), Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Carrageenan, Red 3, Nonfat Milk, Yellow 6, Citric Acid, Vitamins And Minerals: Niacinamide, Iron (ferrous Sulfate), Vitamin B₁ (thiamin Mononitrate), Vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B₂ (riboflavin), Vitamin B₁₂

Sounds dreary. Unhealthful.

I'd rather buy a good quality nitrate free bacon. In fact I cooked up some for dinner: Calves liver, onions and bacon.

Some of you are so bothered by this subject and it’s so telling. And there is so much misinformation on this thread.

Beyond Meat has gone to great strides every year to make their products more healthful. Their latest is far healthier than your average beef burger, and in a few years, it will likely be better. Because they continue to learn and grow. That’s a good thing.

And who the fuck are you to say don’t eat plant-based alternatives? Some of us are vegetarians not because we reject the taste of meat, but rather because we reject the cruelty and impact. You haven’t done anything noble that allows you to enjoy a certain flavor just because you’ve numbed yourself to the realities of factory farming.

[quote] If a person feels he needs some animal protein, cheese and eggs are good sources of protein which don't involve killing an animal.

R23, at the risk of being a hall monitor of your worthy and helpful post, I feel compelled to point out that the dairy and egg industries do a whole lot of killing of animals. The Mercy for Animals website explains this in detail and with.documentary video footage. It's why people decide to be vegan.

I'm not on to be preachy, I get it that people love their meat. Hey, maybe it's even healthy. But I am a longtime DLer and I have been veggie/vegan for 40 years. I hate to push my thing on anyone, but for me, I have been super duper healthy, even considering my at times serious drinking. In spite of that, I tend to be healthy and I Iook probably ten years younger than I am. I was raised vegetarian and I skew vegan. Again, I don't judge, but I do think that meat is hard on a body. It's hard on the heart when ingested regularly. We do a lot of tofu in this house, and no one misses meat. You don't require Frankenstein meat to eat well. Tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, it's all good. I also like cheese, but I don't eat it a ton.

Still tastes like shit though R31.

you would know.

Why such a shitty personality R35? Do you always react so defensively?

I love all the alternatives

[quote] It is ultra-processed (read: treated with chemicals and cancer-causing) food.

The people pushing it are the same ones who champion pumping gay children full of hormones and castrating them.

R33, I love the way you explain what you're doing while not sounding holier than thou. So cool. 🙏

There is always some strident loon in these threads who screeches about FRANKENFOOD, CHEMICALS, UNNATURAL!!!!!

But looking at the ingredients of a Beyond Burger nothing too menacing jumps out.

Water, 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).

Meat substitute has been around in Chinese restaurants for decades. It’s all tofu based. It’s good because they are not trying to fully replicate the meat taste. It’s delicious in its own way.

The idea of eating processed food with cloned-in hemoglobin is revolting.

R40 That sounds disgusting.

Tofu is gross too. The texture is very weird.

I have a plant based diet due to some health issues.

Plant based food that mimics the “real thing” varies widely in taste and quality. I am a fan of the Beyond burger, which to me tastes the most like a traditional burger.

The plant-based meat alternative arena is still new. Of course there will be remarkable ups and downs in its fashionability. Beyond Meat became too popular too fast, partly due to the idiocy of the guy who runs the company, Ethan Brown, an avaricious, silly man. If he had reined in all the hype, then he would have a company that started small and slowly grew. But, again, he was too greedy to do that.

These plant-based meat alternatives will have their place, and they will stay around, but they'll always be niche. What will become big are the clean meats, the ones grown from cells in a laboratory. Although at first these sound scary, once they're financially viable to make (a few years away) and well marketed, the product line will become huge, especially in places like Singapore which can't create its own food (Singapore is already the lab for all these products). These meats are better for the environment (and obviously, for animals). They'll also eventually taste better, be less expensive, and available everywhere. However, this is probably still a decade away.

DLers will all swear they'd never eat them, but the kids of the next generation who will grow up on them will find as normal as anything else in a future world where normalcy might not apply to anything.

I am sceptical, R45. Real meat has all kinds of connective tissues, fat tissues, vasculature, etc that contributes to the taste. I doubt they will be able to replicate this in a Petri dish any time soon.

People who give a list of ingredients to show that plant-based fake meats are poison amuse me. What do you think is in the meat you eat? Do you think it is made of just one elemental whole called "meat"? Show me a chemical analysis of what beef contains, for instance.

[quote]People who give a list of ingredients to show that plant-based fake meats are poison amuse me. What do you think is in the meat you eat? Meat is not a "whole food."

People who think meat is not classified as a "whole food" amuse me.

"there’s a general agreement that foods like fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans and lentils, milk, wholegrains, and unprocessed meats and fish are whole foods. Meanwhile, foods like ready meals, processed meats or products with added sugars, salt, fats or any additives are not." - British Heart Foundation

Oh, a general agreement? That certainly seems authoritative!

Any answer for the main point that everything contains a lot of ingredients/components, and you don't know what's in your meat?

I had a hearts of palm ceviche that was surprisingly good and almost replicated the taste of the original.

[quote]They’re still serving fake meat at Panda Express.

Well, to be fair, Panda Express has never used real meat in its dishes.

Early in the plant-based meat alternatives fad, I read an article that suggested that they're full of oils and binders which make them for all practical purposes as bad or worse from a nutrition/health perspective as real meat. Literally, the ONLY benefit to them was that no animal died to create the hamburger. Now, given the climate change impact of beef cattle, that might be a huge benefit.

By all means, keep eating your meat and contributing to this.

The only meat substitute I want is a dildo.

I went vegan a couple years ago. I have no regrets. My weight has gone down since giving up most animal products. (I put on a bunch a weight during the COVID pandemic.) Now, I feel more energetic. My skin is a lot more clear since I mostly gave up dairy. I eat a lot more healthy. I eat a lot of fruit, vegetables, and grains. I have learned a little bit of plant-based cooking. I found good recipes for things such as tofu scramble (which I like) and meatless pad Thai.

Recently, I have slipped a bit recently. I eat dairy products here and there. I’m at a point now where if I slip up now and then, it’s okay. I just do the best I can at the end of the day. I’m a college student at the moment and, thankfully, our dining hall has some pretty good vegan and vegetarian options, for which I am most grateful.

I like mock meats (such as Beyond and Impossible Meats), but I only eat them on occasion. I like the taste, but I know and understand that they are meant to be consumed sporadically (once or twice a week), not on a daily basis.

If done properly and done right, a plant-based, vegan diet can be one of the best diets you could ever be on as long as you do it right.

The trick is to swap out when you can and if you enjoy the product. Some veggie products are better than others. I admit vegan breakfast burritos are good. That brand Sweetearth had one that was a tofu scramble but more curry forward. I haven’t seen it in awhile. Amy’s has new tofu bean burritos but they have cheese so not egg and not vegan, not understanding that since the tofu scramble one is fine (not spiced like the first one I mentioned).

No one should be fake shit as food. That’s a recipe for disaster.

[quote] Some veggie products

If you’re going to post like a three-year-old, leave.

R28 😆. I never seen that movie. That’s hilarious.

R31 I hear you. That’s exactly why I want to be a vegetarian, for ethical reasons. For the past 2 months I’ve been mostly on a pescatarian diet, though I did bake chicken today :/. As an ethical vegan, do you honestly feel like eating seafood is as bad as red meat and poultry. I mean it’s not like they have our same form of consciousness ; they’re technically aliens who live here on Earth with us.

R57 You cannot be serious. Get real. So what he/she stated veggies. Kick rocks you troll.

India has been doing (mostly) plant-based cuisine for centuries.

And look where it got them.

NOOOOO!!!!

The I Hate The Word 'Veggie' Troll Has Been Triggered! (@ R57)

She Is Tender To The Touch!

R62, on buffet tables all across the world, baby! ;)