Bye-bye fake meat

[Mahk]

Probably having been influenced by this thread, I just had a new (to me at least) "hamburger" called Moophrey (there's a cartoon cow wearing a superhero outfit with cape giving a thumbs up by the word vegan!) Check this out:

- all natural, no chemicals
- organic non-GMO soy
- also wheat gluten making the protein diverse in amino acid balance
- baked not fried
- 110 calories
- calcium 4% DV
- iron 8% DV
- only 1.5g of total fat (ten calories only)
- only 330 mg of sodium (not great but not terrible either)
- 16g of protein (not shabby at all)

I wouldn't call this "junk food" at all.

[kriz]

Sounds like a good meal to me, Mahk. Quality is also they key with fake meats - some are better than others and they're not all crappy category.

[Eat Y'self Fitter]

is it just me or does soy, give people terrible farts, that in itself is reason enough for me to cut back on fake meat.

[Mahk]

^ All beans are said to do that, not just soy beans.

"Beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot."

Some people are more susceptible than others.

[TheAlterEgo]

I love fake meat, I think it's a good way to introduce non-veggies into our lifestyle and helps encourage them to think differently. A lot of the people I know always tell me that I have enlightened them in regards to veggie/vegan diets etc...

I don't actually know how much fake meat tastes like real meat though. I stopped eating meat when I was 7 and I also didn't like meat before I became vegetarian anyway. I just like the texture of it in food and I think it helps to 'bulk up' some meals.

[Eat Y'self Fitter]

Oh well soy and I don't get a long in mass quantities.

[Zero]

If people want to give up mock meat/fake meat that really is a personal choice. If people don't feel right consuming it then so be it, there are so many other creative ways to produce tasty food that one certainly doesn't need them.

It also shows that we can live without creating these high protein "substitutes" which they are often referred to as.

Equally though, I certainly wouldn't look down on, think badly of, or assume others are any "less vegan" because they choose to consume them. Lets face it, the whole reason many of us gave up meat wasn't because we thought it tasted bad, it was because it is unethical.

If society was completely vegan and had been for a long time I am sure we would have come up with interesting ways to produce similar products to the "mock meats" we have today, utilizing various grain protein and beans. Of course we just wouldn't call it "fake meat" or "mock meat" because we wouldn't have lived for years consuming a food that we would later realize was unethical and wrong.

Look at eastern culture, Tofu/Bean curd, Tempeh, Seitan etc, these cultures have been getting creative with these substances for a long time.

They can be great for people transitioning, and I feel they are important in this regard it means that people don't have to completely change their approach to cooking food right away and have access to foods that resemble what they have been used to eating and can feel both comfortable with and good about.

There is nothing ethically wrong with consuming them.

From a health angle, they are just like every other type of packaged product, some are made with better and healthier ingredients than others, personally I still read the ingredients even when something is labelled vegan, just to see what is in there.

Some individuals may have certain reactions to some of the ingredients such as soy or wheat, therefore they are better off avoiding ingredients that produce those reactions (obviously).

Just because a person eats these "fake meat/mock meat" products, it doesn't mean they crave meat, it just means they like them