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I went vegan 6 months ago. I tried a Beyond Burger for the first time last night (and again tonight). I wasn’t expecting this, but: it looks like a burger, it

by cj 7y ago

I went vegan 6 months ago. I tried a Beyond Burger for the first time last night (and again tonight). I wasn’t expecting this, but: it looks like a burger, it cooks like a burger, it smells like a burger, and it tastes like a burger (including texture). That said, I will likely never buy it again, and have no interest in trying new products from Impossible Foods. My main problem with it is the lack of clarity around how healthy engineered foods like the Beyond Burger really is. Sure, it doesn’t have the cholesterol of real meat, but is a heavily processed alternative really any better?

crooked-v 7y ago
> My main problem with it is the lack of clarity around how healthy engineered foods like the Beyond Burger really is. That's what the nutrition facts label is for. "Being processed" doesn't magically make food worse than non-processed food. For the Beyond Burger in particular, it's directly comparable to ground beef: roughly similar fat content (depends on the lean/fat blend you get for the beef), more sodium but no cholesterol, similar protein levels, and a bit more miscellaneous stuff like potassium, iron, and phosphorous.
- imtringued 7y ago
  > "Being processed" doesn't magically make food worse than non-processed food. No but being processed at a factory means that it can be treated in a way that makes non-processed food or home-processed superior. By definition, processed food bought from the supermarket is not fresh and has already lost nutrition and it will stay in a supermarket for weeks. No matter how many preservatives you add it's old food. Processing often increases the surface area which makes it easier for bacteria to spread and the food to oxidize. Meanwhile the most significant "processing" you do at home happens a few hours or minutes before eating. Nobody is arguing that left overs are superior to eating food on the same day it's cooked. The heuristic that factory processed food is worse still holds. In theory you could make healthy processed food but there is no economic incentive for that so it is the exception, not the rule.
  - andrewla 7y ago
    > The heuristic that factory processed food is worse still holds. This is a critical observation, and should be at the top of this entire comment thread. There's a fetish amongst intelligent people to try to think "logically", but logic is actually a terrible system for analyzing anything in the real world. The argument that "it is possible for a processed food to be good for you, and possible for an unprocessed plant to be deadly" is a totally logical refutation of the idea that "processed food it bad" but nonetheless is completely nonsensical because we don't live in a world of binary.
Gatsky 7y ago
Yes, this is the thing... it is highly processed. It is a similar situation to nut milks and soy milk, which tend to be either highly processed, lacking real nutritional value, or both. The other problem I think is that over time these meat substitutes will evolve to improve sales, and if the biggest buyers are fast food chains, that evolution will tend in the wrong direction.
deleted 7y ago
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by cj 7y ago

crooked-v 7y ago

> My main problem with it is the lack of clarity around how healthy engineered foods like the Beyond Burger really is. That's what the nutrition facts label is for. "Being processed" doesn't magically make food worse than non-processed food. For the Beyond Burger in particular, it's directly comparable to ground beef: roughly similar fat content (depends on the lean/fat blend you get for the beef), more sodium but no cholesterol, similar protein levels, and a bit more miscellaneous stuff like potassium, iron, and phosphorous.

imtringued 7y ago
> "Being processed" doesn't magically make food worse than non-processed food. No but being processed at a factory means that it can be treated in a way that makes non-processed food or home-processed superior. By definition, processed food bought from the supermarket is not fresh and has already lost nutrition and it will stay in a supermarket for weeks. No matter how many preservatives you add it's old food. Processing often increases the surface area which makes it easier for bacteria to spread and the food to oxidize. Meanwhile the most significant "processing" you do at home happens a few hours or minutes before eating. Nobody is arguing that left overs are superior to eating food on the same day it's cooked. The heuristic that factory processed food is worse still holds. In theory you could make healthy processed food but there is no economic incentive for that so it is the exception, not the rule.
- andrewla 7y ago
  > The heuristic that factory processed food is worse still holds. This is a critical observation, and should be at the top of this entire comment thread. There's a fetish amongst intelligent people to try to think "logically", but logic is actually a terrible system for analyzing anything in the real world. The argument that "it is possible for a processed food to be good for you, and possible for an unprocessed plant to be deadly" is a totally logical refutation of the idea that "processed food it bad" but nonetheless is completely nonsensical because we don't live in a world of binary.

Gatsky 7y ago

Yes, this is the thing... it is highly processed. It is a similar situation to nut milks and soy milk, which tend to be either highly processed, lacking real nutritional value, or both. The other problem I think is that over time these meat substitutes will evolve to improve sales, and if the biggest buyers are fast food chains, that evolution will tend in the wrong direction.

deleted 7y ago

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