What are your thoughts on impossible/beyond meat burgers?

[Forest Nymph]

I generally avoid and am not a big fan but I'll eat them on occasion.

Stuff I always avoid:

Anything with the majority being made up of protein isolates, for instance, soy protein isolate. While it contains a good amount of protein and an array of minerals, protein isolates like soy protein isolate can raise IGF-1.

Products that are 50% or more extracts - from beans, from rice, from herbs etc.

"Fungus protein" like Quorn stuff. I completely distrust it.

Stuff I sometimes eat:

Patties or tubes as burger/hot dog replacements that have 51% or more whole food, and also contain at least some fiber.

Coconut cream ice cream that is made with sugar and flavors. Although I avoid HFCS as I've found this (or this in combination with other stuff) actually hurts my stomach.


Mostly the "sometimes eat" stuff is fairly rare. Aside from the coconut cream ice cream, I've found that many of the mock meats don't fill me up, or I need to eat the whole package. Not a big fan of spending money on food stuffs that don't satisfy, and don't feed (or feed well enough) the beneficial bacteria.

Fungus protein just means mushrooms.

 

[Nekodaiden]

Fungus protein just means mushrooms.

This is false. There a wide variety of fungus species, and some are very dangerous. Quorn products contain a strain that is only distantly related to edible mushrooms and has caused lots of people to get sick, sometimes violently so:

https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/ingredients-concern/quorn

 

[Tadpole]

Fungus protein just means mushrooms.

Fungus is not the same as mushrooms. Mushrooms and mycoprotein (i.e quron) are completely different and shouldn't be confused. It's easy if you simply read beyond the front of the packet... Mushrooms are naturally propagated whereas mycoprotein is a highly processed product fermented from single cell fungi and glucose etc (these can also be classed as molds).
= yuck

 

[Lou]

Well, all of you are sort of right. The species used in Quorn is in the Fungus Kingdom. Just like mushrooms. However, kingdoms cover a pretty large variety. Blue whales and flies are both in the Animal Kingdom.

And yes some people have gotten sick from Quorn. But it's a food allergy. Sure some molds (and mushrooms) are poisonous. Peanuts aren't poisonous but if you are allergic to them then they will make you sick, too.

Quorn has been tested for over ten years. It's been determined to be pretty safe. But it might be a good idea if you have never had it before to just try a little the first time. Just to be extra safe.

I've never had Quorn. I am curious about it and someday I will try it. The reason I haven't is that because the only Quorn products I've seen contain eggs - so they are not vegan. I've been told there are vegan versions of Quorn. but my local grocery store didn't have any when I last looked.

I thought i had read the eggs are also used in the processing of the mycoprotein. But I haven't seen that repeated anywhere.

I also don't think this has anything to do with Impossible Burgers. but we have a thread that is about meat alternatives. I said in that thread that I am Pro-Alternatives. So, in theory, I am Pro- Quorn.

I did just recently read that Quorn is more popular with carnists than with vegetarians. So Quorn saves animals lives. Yay!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus#Taxonomic_groups
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769805/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/food/5578124/what-is-quorn-is-mycoprotein-safe/

 

[Jamie in Chile]

As kids we had quorn for a while a long time ago, maybe in the 1990s in the UK. I can't remember why. It seemed to come into fashion and then go out of fashion.

 

[FredVegrox]

What do I think? About Impossible and Beyond Meat burgers, such things are good for people having a substitute in place of meat, so meat is not had when such is chosen. But doing that is not vegan. Being vegan involves much further, and meat substitutes (saying veggie based for instance) are not necessarily vegan, as I had to learn with having been deceived, and things like the Impossible Burger used animals for testing. I am not against use of actual vegan meat substitutes, I ironically am using some today, though this is extremely rare for me. I don't actually need it or crave it, I got over meat a long time ago without ever using substitutes in place of meat. I am much more often using whole food that is plant-based, that is much better for us.

About Qorn, I never use any of that. And I never use mushrooms, I don't like them. I should have a group for those liking to share recipes, which will always be without animal products and mushrooms. It would truly be plant-based, as mushrooms are fungus parts, and not plants, which vegetables are. Fungi are completely separate, as Opisthokonts, like animals, including us.

 

[Forest Nymph]

Fungus is not the same as mushrooms. Mushrooms and mycoprotein (i.e quron) are completely different and shouldn't be confused. It's easy if you simply read beyond the front of the packet... Mushrooms are naturally propagated whereas mycoprotein is a highly processed product fermented from single cell fungi and glucose etc (these can also be classed as molds).
= yuck

Mushrooms are in the fungi kingdom. If I am incorrect about the specific ingredient in Quorn, my apologies, but yes mushrooms are in Kingdom Fungi. Mycology includes the study of mushrooms, it's quite popular where I live.

 

[Forest Nymph]

It would truly be plant-based, as mushrooms are fungus parts, and not plants, which vegetables are. Fungi are completely separate, as Opisthokonts, like animals, including us.

This is a legitimately psychotic belief about mushrooms. I really hope you don't have a YouTube channel.

Seriously, fungi are distinct from both plants and animals in their genetic sequencing required to replicate multicellular organisms to make new life.

Animals and fungi only loosely share an ancestor about a billion years ago...these fungi are actually no longer even classified as fungi. They're called slime molds and they're most similar to diseases like malaria.

If you don't have an ethical problem with killing malaria plasmodiums it's absurd for you to say you won't ingest fungi.

It's also incorrect to state this as you did, it's inaccurate to behave as though edible fungi such as mushrooms or corn smut are even close to being slime molds.

 

[Forest Nymph]

This is false. There a wide variety of fungus species, and some are very dangerous. Quorn products contain a strain that is only distantly related to edible mushrooms and has caused lots of people to get sick, sometimes violently so:

https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/ingredients-concern/quorn

Some mushrooms are dangerous, making people anything from mildly sick, to causing hallucinogenic effects, to causing a rapid death. That doesn't make edible mushrooms less edible.

Some molds are also edible, including the molds in antibiotic medications, the molds in wine and corn smut, and the mold in aged cheeses (if one is vegetarian rather than vegan).

I ate Quorn when I was a vegetarian. It never made me sick, it tasted good. My old roommate and her son were both vegetarian and they ate it.

People have allergies, that's the only issue with Quorn. Some people are also allergic to peanuts and would have an asthma attack if you ate a peanut butter sandwich next to them. Doesn't stop me from eating peanut butter.

You can really tell from these kinds of threads who is actually a philosophical vegan, and who just has "oooh that's icky" food disgusts.

 

[TofuRobot]

Also, if meat alone did the trick, why aren't we all being ruled by tigers instead of worrying about them going extinct.

I would actually like to see that

 

[Slonaut]

Actually humans evolved due to the efficiency of cooked food. Nature did not intend for us to be 100% raw.

It was necessary in the past, not anymore. Now we can buy all essential raw food any time of the year. Not saying cooked food is bad, just not necessary to be healthy.

 

[Forest Nymph]

It was necessary in the past, not anymore. Now we can buy all essential raw food any time of the year. Not saying cooked food is bad, just not necessary to be healthy.

This is completely false. If you peruse the bulk of "raw vegans" on YouTube, most of them went back to eating animal products. It's extremely expensive and impractical to try to get nutrients and calories from a raw diet. I'm not saying it's entirely impossible, it just seems...******* stupid. A waste of time and money. Even Freelee of raw til 4 admits this.

If you want to do it, hey fine, that's fine. Nobody is telling you not to. But "we can buy all essential raw food any time of year" is also antithetical to environmental conservation, and bespeaks a level of wealth and privilege most people don't have. I also think it would be really unsatisfying if you lived anywhere too far away from the equator. Equatorial regions like sub-Saharan Africa and the Amazon rain forest are the only regions consistently hot and muggy enough to where you wouldn't start to crave something warm.

 

[Lou]

I'm going to pile on. Sorry.

I became interested in Raw a few years back.
I am also a big fan of CronOmeter.
And I am a small, sedentary, older guy (read a limited number of calories a day)

I couldn't do Raw.

In order to get enough protein and other micronutrients every day, I would have to increase my calorie intake by like 50%. and then I would gain weight. Looking at the YouTube Raw Vegan's What I Eat in A Day videos - most if not all of them are athletes and eat over 2500 calories a day. Some of them ate even more than 3000 calories day.

All of our favorite vegan Doctors have thoughts about raw. Although they all promote lots of raw foods (read salads), they also promote cooked foods. I'm sure they would think that Raw Till 4 is ok. Although maybe not.

Finally, although raw foods have lots of bioavailable nutrients. Some nutrients in some foods are more available only after cooking.
When the weather warms up and the Farmer Markets open up, I will be eating a salad almost every day. But even my salads are not entirely raw. I add cooked beans and grains to them.

 

[Nekodaiden]

This is completely false. If you peruse the bulk of "raw vegans" on YouTube, most of them went back to eating animal products. It's extremely expensive and impractical to try to get nutrients and calories from a raw diet. I'm not saying it's entirely impossible, it just seems...******* stupid. A waste of time and money. Even Freelee of raw til 4 admits this.

I can honestly say I was a fan of ZERO of these "ex-vegans" before they made their trashy attention-seeking videos, and I've been watching vegan YouTube for approximately five years. I don't watch anyone with raw in their name, or anyone who does it for "strictly health reasons," or any Barbie girl who is obviously doing it for attention to her physical appearance.

 

[FredVegrox]

Well Forest Nymph you misunderstood almost everything.

This is a legitimately psychotic belief about mushrooms. I really hope you don't have a YouTube channel.

I'm sorry, but What? Legitimately psychotic? Where was that? I have beliefs, but I wasn't expressing any of it here. I stated facts and used logic. I was not telling you to do anything either, so there isn't need for being defensive. And what would be on a Youtube channel that concerns you?

Seriously, fungi are distinct from both plants and animals in their genetic sequencing required to replicate multicellular organisms to make new life.

I understand and didn't say anything different to that.

Animals and fungi only loosely share an ancestor about a billion years ago...these fungi are actually no longer even classified as fungi. They're called slime molds and they're most similar to diseases like malaria.

Animals have distant relationship to fungi. You are talking about something altogether different from anything I was saying, talking about fungi that are not fungi. I say nothing about slime molds, that are not even Opisthokonts, and so not fungi or animals at all.

If you don't have an ethical problem with killing malaria plasmodiums it's absurd for you to say you won't ingest fungi.

I was saying nothing at all about malaria. I didn't say anything about ethics of eating fungi. I just don't like to, and I never wanted mushrooms ever. It wasn't about you. And I have just never had Qorn, and don't plan to.

It's also incorrect to state this as you did, it's inaccurate to behave as though edible fungi such as mushrooms or corn smut are even close to being slime molds.

Your are confused, it is wrong to say I ever said that. Nothing I actually said was wrong. You are referring to things I never said. I just used facts and logic. To still respond the right way that would be to quote my actual statements as I worded them.

 

[Lou]

Fungi are clearly sentient. As this Nature video demonstrates.

 

[amberfunk]

I actually really like the impossible burger. I liked the beyond burger until it started upsetting my stomach so I don't eat it anymore. Beyond meat's brats are really really good. I like having some options that taste like meat and are not meat. I hope they come out with more options.

 

[Lou]

Just heard that Tyson has sold off its share of Beyond Meat.
I don't know if its true but Tyson might have done that in preparation of creating its own line of plant protein.

Tyson sells stake in plant-based meat maker Beyond Meat

Tyson Foods Inc said on Wednesday it had sold its 6.5 percent stake in vegan burger maker Beyond Meat, as the no. 1 U.S. meat processor looks to develop its own line of alternative protein products.

www.reuters.com

 

[Tadpole]

I actually really like the impossible burger. I liked the beyond burger until it started upsetting my stomach so I don't eat it anymore. Beyond meat's brats are really really good. I like having some options that taste like meat and are not meat. I hope they come out with more options.

All burgers are reminiscent of 'hamburgers' so to me anything like that is the devil. I don't understand why you would want anything to taste like meat?.. when its not meat, and you don't eat meat?
Meat substitutes are just awful and confusing.
Also, raw foods are good but as humans we are really adapted to eating predominantly cooked foods.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I'm glad - I never was too comfortable with this. I am considering investing in Beyond Burger if I can set aside a few hours to do the research necessary to make a decision. Soon it will have an IPO (initial public offering) and become a public company so it may be possible for anyone to buy.

Not sure if the IPO was a factor in the decision. The company valuation may fluctuate wildly after it launches. Maybe Tyson feels it can get a better price IPO.

By the way, it's annoying when a company floats at say $20 a share, and then the price immediately burns up to say $30 a share, a say 50% profit for anyone that got in before the float whereas Joe Public has to come in at the higher price. Might not buy if that happens. Still, Tyson obviously thinks that the opposite will happen.