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I'm curious as to how Impossible burger compares on the health impact. I understand that it's plant based, but it seems to be highly processed and perhaps (not

• veryworried 8y ago
  It is basically the vegetarian version of an unhealthy burger. If you wouldn’t normally eat a whopper for health reasons, then you have no reason to start eating this.
  • rhn_mk1 8y ago
    Can you provide details on that?
    • BoorishBears 8y ago
      I made a comment above: Mayonnaise and cheese alone probably add almost as many calories as a hamburger patty some of their burgers Removing the patty might even make it less healthy if it doesn't satiate you as much as it would otherwise
      • dmix 8y ago
        I'd be more concerned about the carbs from the bun's bread, which was probably sweetened with corn syrup, than the calories in the cheese.
        • BoorishBears 8y ago
          Well that's kind of my point... a burger isn't a healthy thing, the burger patty is probably the most healthy part of it outside of plain vegetable toppings
  • tyingq 8y ago
    No cholesterol is a pretty big difference, even if they have similar fat content.
    • JamesBarney 8y ago
      The most recent research basically says that dietary intake of cholesterol have very little influence on cholesterol blood levels.
      • gnicholas 8y ago
        There was a very recent analysis on egg consumption that tends to indicate that there is indeed a connection. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2019/03/18/eggs-and-cholesterol-back-in-the-spotlight-in-new-jama-study/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2019/03/18/eggs...
      • reddit_clone 8y ago
        Not only that, when you don't take enough cholesterol through food, body makes its own!
    • jriot 8y ago
      I drink 32oz of whole milk a day, bacon with grits and butter for breakfast, steak at lunch, then my dinner varies. I have normal levels of cholesterol. I believe genetics play a bigger impact.
  • rconti 8y ago
    Burgers aren't really that unhealthy. Skip the fried onions and fried jalapenos and aioli and mayo and it's no big deal. I just had a 1/3lb bison burger last night in a pita, with all kinds of good stuff (feta, sweet hot mustard, ketchup, jalapenos) and it's something like 550 calories. It's quite easy to have a healthy-ish meat burger. Skip the fries and soda. I make black bean burgers sometimes, and they actually have more calories and less protein than beef or bison.
    • lapinot 8y ago
      Yeah right, i'm sure BK is really putting a lot of money into small family businesses with diversified farming light on the ecosystems using no herbicides/insecticides, and not mega food-industry with fields that have thousand of hectares of a single crop and get farmed using a whole fleet of huge diesel machines, get a load of pharma chemicals dropped on their head preventively to make sure no other life form gets to survive in that field. I'm picking on you now but it fcking freaks me out how this whole page seems to feel concerned about "healthy food", "veganism", "ecology". This is a fast-food mega-corp, they are part of one of the ugliest side of the already disgusting industrial food chain. They are right on incompatible with any kind of healthiness you could imagine (of human beings, of crops, polinators, overall countryside ecosystems, farmers). Hey, fast-food/sweet-drink business uses the same marketing strategies than tobacco groups. Or pharma. These are the people that created all the massive public health issues we've got since say '50s. Cancer, diabetes, obesity, one-off epidemics (h5n1, h1n1, mad cow...). And i didn't even start talking about work conditions or economic aspects of these bastards (the corps, not targeting any individuals here).
  • nickik 8y ago
    Actually a real burger is often healthier then a carb loaded veggi burger. We should finally move beyond the 'red meat' bad analysis that has unfortunately dominated scientific discourse for a long time. A burger is fat and protein and there is very little reason not to eat if for health reasons for normal people.
    • gowld 8y ago
      "grease" is the lowest-quality subcategory of "fat".
• BoorishBears 8y ago
  Mayonnaise and cheese alone probably add almost as many calories as a hamburger patty some of their burgers
  • jandrese 8y ago
    Mayo and cheese might be skipped if the person is trying to be more vegetarian. I've always found mayo to be unnecessary and kind of gross on burgers anyway. It's only useful if your meat is lousy or you've overcooked it really badly.
    • kevinmchugh 8y ago
      Many high-quality burgers have mayo by default. Au cheval/small cheval come to mind. Mayo is useful for adding flavors, and can protect the lower bun from water-based liquid penetration that would weaken the structural integrity.
      • ArrayList 8y ago
        > water-based liquid penetration that would weaken the structural integrity. What are you, a Burger Architect?
• jackbrookes 8y ago
  What makes you think "processed" and "chemicals" are bad for you?
  • favorited 8y ago
    Everything is a chemical.
    • iheartpotatoes 8y ago
      Right. But there's a difference between drinking a glass of water and glass of bleach. You are claiming they are equivalent. There's something called "context" in reading comprehension, it is when words take on the meaning relevant to the discussion. In this case, "chemicals" is shorthand for "bad chemicals." I don't understand why so many people fail to understand this and have to make this inane, childish observation that in fact, everything is a chemical. We know already.
      • scott_s 8y ago
        Because when people talk about "chemicals", they are often flirting with the appeal-to-nature fallacy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature).
        • iheartpotatoes 8y ago
          Right. It's a synonymous fallacy. We get it. Apparently we cannot move on until everyone is elevated to the same level of reading comprehension. Stop trying to score petty points, and discuss the issue that yes, there is some pretty nasty shit that is manufactured by chemical companies and put into our food, and stop trying to derail the argument to "own the libs." In other words: grow up.
          • scott_s 8y ago
            I can assure you that I am never trying to "own the libs"; I am often the kind of person such people would want to own. But I do care about unstated assumptions about what is "good," when I fear those unstated assumptions are rooted in some form of magical thinking.
• josefresco 8y ago
  Nutrition facts: https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018939274-What-are-the-nutrition-facts- https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189392... Ingredients: https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018937494-What-are-the-ingredients- https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189374... Saturated fat numbers don't look great. Also, TONS of salt which isn't great either. sigh oh well, maybe some day.
  • natalyarostova 8y ago
    I'm curious, what would you consider an appropriate food? I personally look for high fat/protein when picking my food, and the there isn't much reason to believe salt is bad for you.
    • josefresco 8y ago
      My diet is specifically about reducing inflammation. Low sugar, low salt, mostly plant based. There is much reason to believe salt is bad for you.
      • natalyarostova 8y ago
        That's cool, I mean definitely do what is best for you. I think there is a lot of room for self-discovery of our own optimal diets. The salt debate is one of those things where nutrition science can't seem to settle on it, depending on the survey.
        • josefresco 8y ago
          High salt consumption is linked to high blood pressure, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. You're right in that there's some debate around salt, and what amount is the "right" amount. However, for people with auto immune diseases (like me) it's a valid concern. https://www.cdc.gov/features/sodium/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/features/sodium/index.html
• dmix 8y ago
  From wikipedia: > the company aims to give people the taste and nutritional benefits of meat without the negative health and environmental impacts associated with livestock products. The goal of the founder seems to be primarily the negative impact animal agriculture has on the environment/climate, while matching the same taste/nutrition of meat (not improving upon it).
• natalyarostova 8y ago
  n...not chemicals :O
• tyfon 8y ago
  > loaded with bunch of chemicals and potentially unhealthy ingredients that make it taste like meat I never understood why one would want to make a veggie burger taste like meat. Properly made veggie burgers taste delicious by them selves. Much more flavour than the meat versions. But those are probably already on the menu and this is an addition to regular vegetarian burgers? Here in Norway we've had vegan burgers from both mcdonalds and burger king and max hamburgare (swedish company) for a couple years that do not taste like meat and especially burger kings' score high on the taste tests [1]. Personally I never eat fast food except a kebab once every two months but we do make vegetarian burgers maybe every other week here at home [2]. [1] https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dagbladet.no%2Fmat%2Fburger-king-ypper-med-mcdonalds-ny-burger-overrasker%2F69839148 https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&u=https%3... [2] https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Flivlaga.hoff.no%2Fprodukter%2Fhoff-liv-laga-vegetarburger-tomat-og-ost https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&u=https%3...
  • rflrob 8y ago
    > I never understood why one would want to make a veggie burger taste like meat. Because most people find meat delicious and it fills a particular cultural niche in the United States in particular. Veggie burgers are tasty too, but if you are craving a beef burger, it's not the same thing, much like tofu is not a satisfying substitute for chicken, even if it's delicious when prepared as tofu. You can try to change the tastes of millions or you can just make a less environmentally damaging substitute.
  • stevekemp 8y ago
    > Much more flavour than the meat versions. No. A different flavour, perhaps. A decent burger tastes good, be it meat or non-meat. Burger-King appeals to the majority and is not going to be making the best burger of any kind, just a "standard" one.
  • avinium 8y ago
    > I never understood why one would want to make a veggie burger taste like meat. Properly made veggie burgers taste delicious by them selves. Much more flavour than the meat versions. Because some people - myself included - like the taste of meat, and would only choose the veggie version for environmental (or economic) reasons if the taste were basically the same.
• rflrob 8y ago
  So the major thing that Impossible Foods puts in that "makes it taste like meat" is leghemoglobin, which is an ortholog of regular hemoglobin from cows blood, though in this case it was isolated from a legume. The argument, as I've heard it, is that since it's an oxygen binding molecule, it catalyzes all kinds of tasty reactions when you brown it. They do list all their ingredients [0], and you can take a look and see whether there's anything objectionable to you. If you're going by the "5 ingredients or fewer" heuristic, then it doesn't qualify. Avoiding "chemicals" is impossible, since everything is made out of chemicals, and just limiting to naturally occurring chemicals is no better of a guideline because cyanide, asbestos, and arsenic are all "natural". As a sibling comment notes, it's likely not significantly better or worse for you than a standard beef whopper [0] https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018937494-What-are-the-ingredients- https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189374...
• dfxm12 8y ago
  it seems to be highly processed and perhaps (not sure) loaded with bunch of chemicals and potentially unhealthy ingredients This is true of pretty much everything at Burger King. It's true of most burgers, too. I mean, any meal coming with processed cheese and a processed bun is going to be on the low end of the "healthy" scale, relatively speaking.
• Wheaties466 8y ago
  in fact its not really that heavily processed. They make an impossible burger by hand in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63FHZy_7-qs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63FHZy_7-qs