13 ms·

The Fake Meat Revolution

48 points by noondip 11y ago

iofj 11y ago
I do hope people realize that fake meat is plant food and thus requires nutritional supplements (or an -extremely- varied diet) or it will cause serious health issues. Meat has no such requirement. While it may not be good for you in the long term, you can survive purely on meat for decades.
- eimai134 11y ago
  The only supplement required on a vegan diet is B12. Vegetarians don't even need that. The key is to eat a variety of plant-based foods, like our ancestors often did, rather than a lot of junk food. Doing that, studies show that plant-based diets are much more healthy. Protein is not an issue, since most Americans get way too much protein anyway, and there is tons of protein in veg, grains, and beans.
- adenot 11y ago
  People can survive on a vegan diet too, as long as they get the nutrients they need. It doesn't necessarily need to come from meat. It's much easier to add those requirements into fake meat as beyondmeat is doing already.
- DanBC 11y ago
  > you can survive purely on meat for decades. You can, if you have genetic variation that allows you to process the food. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story.html?referrer= http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/inuit-study-add... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10239256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10239256
- nikatwork 11y ago
  Someone please tell India's ~40% of their population of 1.25 billion that they have serious health issues and need to change their diet or they might die. And no, this is not a poverty issue. I work with some very successful expat Indian developers who are strict vegetarians.
  - adrianN 11y ago
    Iron deficiency is prevalent in India http://www.researchgate.net/publication/255701994_Prevalence_of_Iron-Deficiency_Anaemia_in_India_Results_from_a_Large_Nationwide_Survey http://www.researchgate.net/publication/255701994_Prevalence... B12 deficiency is prevalent in India http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19676146 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19676146
  - DanBC 11y ago
    Malnutrition is incredibly common in India. http://wfp.org/content/malnutrition-widespread-indian-children-report-finds http://wfp.org/content/malnutrition-widespread-indian-childr... > Roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under age 5 suffer from malnutrition, a sobering reminder of the persistence of poverty and hunger in the world’s largest democracy,
    - nikatwork 11y ago
      Vegetarianism in India is partly driven by religious and cultural values. That article does not link vegetarianism with malnutrition. My city has a flourishing expat Sikh community who are largely (though not exclusively) vegetarian, they are for the most part robust and successful individuals. To categorize vegetarians as intrinsically at risk of health issues needs evidence before I'll buy it. And I say this as a meat eater.
      - eimai134 11y ago
        Great point! According to research done on "Blue Zones," the healthiest community in the U.S. is a group of Seventh Day Adventists who are vegetarian. It would be so interesting to see what their diet has in common with vegetarians in Indian and Sikh communities.
pbreit 11y ago
The fake meat stud is certainly interesting but I think we (Americans) could get pretty far, if not the whole way, by simply moderating meat consumption. For example, just tonight my group of 5 adults and 5 toddlers claimed they were satisfied with just 16oz of beef for all. My sense is that meat does tend to be harder on the body and that vegetarians are healthier and live longer.
- geomark 11y ago
  Are there decent studies that show that vegetarians are healthier and live longer? I've seen nothing but anecdotes. And my own anecdotal evidence is the opposite. But I'm comparing healthy vegetarians I know to healthy meat eaters I know. The vegs spend a lot of time and effort to get enough balance in their diets to remain healthy, but they still seem a little weaker and a bit puny compared to the healthy meat eaters. And a few people I know who are into ketogenic diets eat lots of meat while avoiding carb rich foods and they seem the strongest of the bunch. Everybody says their blood work is good, no cholesterol issues, etc.
  - eimai134 11y ago
    Look up the "China study" for an incredibly detailed study on plant-based diets, or the research that's been done on the "Blue Zones." In addition there have been quite a number of studies on diet that show people who follow plant-based diets live longer and have fewer health problems. Being vegetarian doesn't require a lot of effort if you learn a little bit more than the average American about food. Eating fruit, veg, grains, and beans is not difficult and provides all the nutrients one could need - even more, considering how unhealthy the standard American diet (SAD) is. Look up vegan body builders - you will see that they are not puny at all!
    - com2kid 11y ago
      The China Study has been debunked numerous times[0]. I'm currently on a high fat, medium protein, 0 carb diet. It isn't environmentally friendly, but the weight falls off and I feel great. The Standard American Diet is High Carb, Medium Fat, with some tasteless white meat (turkey breasts) thrown in at random. [0]http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html
Jayschwa 11y ago
I think I'll pass on plants processed to look and taste like meat. What I'd really like to see is real meat that is grown without being attached to a conscious animal.
- meowface 11y ago
  That's where we'll end up some day, but it probably will be a long while.
- ant6n 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken
  - breakingcups 11y ago
    That chicken was still alive, the largest part of the chicken's brain remained intact. Not exactly not "attached to a conscious animal".
    - ant6n 11y ago
      It says that the brain stem was still attached, and it controlled most reflex actions. I wouldn't consider that a 'conscious' animal, especially with the reduced sensory input. The point is, you could lobotomize animals to make 'conscious' animals unconscious, basically turning it into a vegetable. Is that what you want though?
- coldtea 11y ago
  You'd love Soylent Green then!
  - puredemo 11y ago
    mmmm Cadmium
wodenokoto 11y ago
Wow, people are really missing the big picture. These are great developments towards reducing environmental damage, increase animal welfare and long term increase health (as we can much better tweak nutritional content of meat, when we construct it ourselves)
- tbrownaw 11y ago
  long term increase health (as we can much better tweak nutritional content of meat, when we construct it ourselves) I'd be a bit concerned about this, with how the guidelines keep changing.
- omginternets 11y ago
  >as we can much better tweak nutritional content of meat, when we construct it ourselves Hmm, I heard something vaguely familiar not so long ago... Have people already forgotten trans-fats? To call meat, let alone nutrition, complex is an understatement that borders on comical. To think the first hundred iterations of artificial meat will be anything short of carcinogenic strikes me as an opinion ill-informed by history.
  - eimai134 11y ago
    Those are two entirely different things. This type of fake meat is plant-based. Trans fats are highly uncommon in nature, and the hydrogenation process used to create them is completely different from what goes into making fake meats.
    - omginternets 11y ago
      >and the hydrogenation process used to create them is completely different from what goes into making fake meats. And this is completely missing the point, which is that the processes used to make fake meat are significantly different from those encountered in nature, and therefore likely to introduce side-effects.
  - CamperBob2 11y ago
    As somebody pointed out in a comment on another story, your CPU executed about a dozen instructions while the light from your monitor traveled to reach your eyes. So I think we can make meat.
p1mrx 11y ago
I just noticed yesterday that my local grocery store was selling Beyond Chicken, and decided to try some. It does have some vaguely chicken-like properties, but it's still too dry and rubbery to fool anyone paying the slightest attention.
- hyperbovine 11y ago
  > it's still too dry and rubbery to fool anyone "Dry and rubbery" is all the chicken I ever experienced until moving to the Bay Area and getting way more into food. At the top segment of the market sure, it's going to be many decades before people plow into a SynthSteak™ with the same verve that they would a dry-aged porterhouse. But I think you underestimate what many people are willing to put up with as their daily protein source.
  - grimman 11y ago
    > But I think you underestimate what many people are willing to put up with as their daily protein source. As far as I'm concerned, it's not even about putting up with anything. Real meat is cheaper and tastes better. That's two reasons to keep eating meat, and depending on your beliefs it's either one or zero reasons against.
- eimai134 11y ago
  I'm really interested in trying it. I'm familiar with fake meat products like Smart Dogs and the fake chicken nuggets - put ketchup on those and you can't tell the difference. There also a soy-based taco "meat," I believe from Fantastic Worlds foods, that is incredible. I use my husband as a test since he eats meat and he prefers many of these products to the real thing.
  - ant6n 11y ago
    I'd argue the health impact from the ketchup (basically refined sugar syrup) is bigger than that of real meat.
    - 11y ago
hyperion2010 11y ago
This or mealworms. Test tube beef will be made from serum albumin from slaughtered cows.
eimai134 11y ago
This is fabulous news! Great for animals, good for the environment, good for world hunger, and good for people's health and well-being.
guard-of-terra 11y ago
I'm not sure that growing veggie burger consumes much less water than its animal counterpart.
- eimai134 11y ago
  There is a chart in this article that shows how significantly lab-grown meat decreases water use compared to meat from cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens. And this is referring to a process that is in very early stages! http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/20/meet-the-future-of-meat-a-10-lab-grown-hamburger-that-tastes-as-good-as-the-real-thing/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/20/me...
itachi444 11y ago
I think the problem is the people who says my dream is the change the world.

48 points by noondip 11y ago

iofj 11y ago

I do hope people realize that fake meat is plant food and thus requires nutritional supplements (or an -extremely- varied diet) or it will cause serious health issues. Meat has no such requirement. While it may not be good for you in the long term, you can survive purely on meat for decades.

eimai134 11y ago
The only supplement required on a vegan diet is B12. Vegetarians don't even need that. The key is to eat a variety of plant-based foods, like our ancestors often did, rather than a lot of junk food. Doing that, studies show that plant-based diets are much more healthy. Protein is not an issue, since most Americans get way too much protein anyway, and there is tons of protein in veg, grains, and beans.
adenot 11y ago
People can survive on a vegan diet too, as long as they get the nutrients they need. It doesn't necessarily need to come from meat. It's much easier to add those requirements into fake meat as beyondmeat is doing already.
DanBC 11y ago
> you can survive purely on meat for decades. You can, if you have genetic variation that allows you to process the food. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story.html?referrer= http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/inuit-study-add... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10239256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10239256
nikatwork 11y ago
Someone please tell India's ~40% of their population of 1.25 billion that they have serious health issues and need to change their diet or they might die. And no, this is not a poverty issue. I work with some very successful expat Indian developers who are strict vegetarians.
- adrianN 11y ago
  Iron deficiency is prevalent in India http://www.researchgate.net/publication/255701994_Prevalence_of_Iron-Deficiency_Anaemia_in_India_Results_from_a_Large_Nationwide_Survey http://www.researchgate.net/publication/255701994_Prevalence... B12 deficiency is prevalent in India http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19676146 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19676146
- DanBC 11y ago
  Malnutrition is incredibly common in India. http://wfp.org/content/malnutrition-widespread-indian-children-report-finds http://wfp.org/content/malnutrition-widespread-indian-childr... > Roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under age 5 suffer from malnutrition, a sobering reminder of the persistence of poverty and hunger in the world’s largest democracy,
  - nikatwork 11y ago
    Vegetarianism in India is partly driven by religious and cultural values. That article does not link vegetarianism with malnutrition. My city has a flourishing expat Sikh community who are largely (though not exclusively) vegetarian, they are for the most part robust and successful individuals. To categorize vegetarians as intrinsically at risk of health issues needs evidence before I'll buy it. And I say this as a meat eater.
    - eimai134 11y ago
      Great point! According to research done on "Blue Zones," the healthiest community in the U.S. is a group of Seventh Day Adventists who are vegetarian. It would be so interesting to see what their diet has in common with vegetarians in Indian and Sikh communities.

pbreit 11y ago

The fake meat stud is certainly interesting but I think we (Americans) could get pretty far, if not the whole way, by simply moderating meat consumption. For example, just tonight my group of 5 adults and 5 toddlers claimed they were satisfied with just 16oz of beef for all. My sense is that meat does tend to be harder on the body and that vegetarians are healthier and live longer.

geomark 11y ago
Are there decent studies that show that vegetarians are healthier and live longer? I've seen nothing but anecdotes. And my own anecdotal evidence is the opposite. But I'm comparing healthy vegetarians I know to healthy meat eaters I know. The vegs spend a lot of time and effort to get enough balance in their diets to remain healthy, but they still seem a little weaker and a bit puny compared to the healthy meat eaters. And a few people I know who are into ketogenic diets eat lots of meat while avoiding carb rich foods and they seem the strongest of the bunch. Everybody says their blood work is good, no cholesterol issues, etc.
- eimai134 11y ago
  Look up the "China study" for an incredibly detailed study on plant-based diets, or the research that's been done on the "Blue Zones." In addition there have been quite a number of studies on diet that show people who follow plant-based diets live longer and have fewer health problems. Being vegetarian doesn't require a lot of effort if you learn a little bit more than the average American about food. Eating fruit, veg, grains, and beans is not difficult and provides all the nutrients one could need - even more, considering how unhealthy the standard American diet (SAD) is. Look up vegan body builders - you will see that they are not puny at all!
  - com2kid 11y ago
    The China Study has been debunked numerous times[0]. I'm currently on a high fat, medium protein, 0 carb diet. It isn't environmentally friendly, but the weight falls off and I feel great. The Standard American Diet is High Carb, Medium Fat, with some tasteless white meat (turkey breasts) thrown in at random. [0]http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html

Jayschwa 11y ago

I think I'll pass on plants processed to look and taste like meat. What I'd really like to see is real meat that is grown without being attached to a conscious animal.

meowface 11y ago
That's where we'll end up some day, but it probably will be a long while.
ant6n 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken
- breakingcups 11y ago
  That chicken was still alive, the largest part of the chicken's brain remained intact. Not exactly not "attached to a conscious animal".
  - ant6n 11y ago
    It says that the brain stem was still attached, and it controlled most reflex actions. I wouldn't consider that a 'conscious' animal, especially with the reduced sensory input. The point is, you could lobotomize animals to make 'conscious' animals unconscious, basically turning it into a vegetable. Is that what you want though?
coldtea 11y ago
You'd love Soylent Green then!
- puredemo 11y ago
  mmmm Cadmium

wodenokoto 11y ago

Wow, people are really missing the big picture. These are great developments towards reducing environmental damage, increase animal welfare and long term increase health (as we can much better tweak nutritional content of meat, when we construct it ourselves)

tbrownaw 11y ago
long term increase health (as we can much better tweak nutritional content of meat, when we construct it ourselves) I'd be a bit concerned about this, with how the guidelines keep changing.
omginternets 11y ago
>as we can much better tweak nutritional content of meat, when we construct it ourselves Hmm, I heard something vaguely familiar not so long ago... Have people already forgotten trans-fats? To call meat, let alone nutrition, complex is an understatement that borders on comical. To think the first hundred iterations of artificial meat will be anything short of carcinogenic strikes me as an opinion ill-informed by history.
- eimai134 11y ago
  Those are two entirely different things. This type of fake meat is plant-based. Trans fats are highly uncommon in nature, and the hydrogenation process used to create them is completely different from what goes into making fake meats.
  - omginternets 11y ago
    >and the hydrogenation process used to create them is completely different from what goes into making fake meats. And this is completely missing the point, which is that the processes used to make fake meat are significantly different from those encountered in nature, and therefore likely to introduce side-effects.
- CamperBob2 11y ago
  As somebody pointed out in a comment on another story, your CPU executed about a dozen instructions while the light from your monitor traveled to reach your eyes. So I think we can make meat.

p1mrx 11y ago

I just noticed yesterday that my local grocery store was selling Beyond Chicken, and decided to try some. It does have some vaguely chicken-like properties, but it's still too dry and rubbery to fool anyone paying the slightest attention.

hyperbovine 11y ago
> it's still too dry and rubbery to fool anyone "Dry and rubbery" is all the chicken I ever experienced until moving to the Bay Area and getting way more into food. At the top segment of the market sure, it's going to be many decades before people plow into a SynthSteak™ with the same verve that they would a dry-aged porterhouse. But I think you underestimate what many people are willing to put up with as their daily protein source.
- grimman 11y ago
  > But I think you underestimate what many people are willing to put up with as their daily protein source. As far as I'm concerned, it's not even about putting up with anything. Real meat is cheaper and tastes better. That's two reasons to keep eating meat, and depending on your beliefs it's either one or zero reasons against.
eimai134 11y ago
I'm really interested in trying it. I'm familiar with fake meat products like Smart Dogs and the fake chicken nuggets - put ketchup on those and you can't tell the difference. There also a soy-based taco "meat," I believe from Fantastic Worlds foods, that is incredible. I use my husband as a test since he eats meat and he prefers many of these products to the real thing.
- ant6n 11y ago
  I'd argue the health impact from the ketchup (basically refined sugar syrup) is bigger than that of real meat.
  - 11y ago

hyperion2010 11y ago

This or mealworms. Test tube beef will be made from serum albumin from slaughtered cows.

eimai134 11y ago

This is fabulous news! Great for animals, good for the environment, good for world hunger, and good for people's health and well-being.

guard-of-terra 11y ago

I'm not sure that growing veggie burger consumes much less water than its animal counterpart.

eimai134 11y ago
There is a chart in this article that shows how significantly lab-grown meat decreases water use compared to meat from cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens. And this is referring to a process that is in very early stages! http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/20/meet-the-future-of-meat-a-10-lab-grown-hamburger-that-tastes-as-good-as-the-real-thing/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/20/me...

itachi444 11y ago

I think the problem is the people who says my dream is the change the world.