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I see you are being downvoted, but I know exactly what you mean. When I eat Impossible and especially Beyond burgers, my stomach feels slightly off. A bit of i

I see you are being downvoted, but I know exactly what you mean. When I eat Impossible and especially Beyond burgers, my stomach feels slightly off. A bit of indigestion. I don't get this with typical veggie patties.

dqv 4y ago
You might have a touch of legume allergy (if only have a touch is possible). Beyond has pea protein and Impossible has soy protein. What's in your veggie patties?
- dagmx 4y ago
  Hmm not to say that’s not it (because people vary) but my wife and I both get this feeling with these Beyond/Impossible meats but we otherwise eat a lot of legumes which don’t give us that feeling
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    I think they both contain methylcellulose, which is considered benign but not digestible. In my experience it doesn’t cause major discomfort, but a mildly off putting sensation in my GI tract for a few hours. It might be something else, but it seems likely after narrowing things down for a while.
    - TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago
      Cellulose? This is the modern equivalent of adding sawdust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        Fiber is good for you. Adding bulk into something that's supposed to be a mixture is only a problem when it's diluting the rest too much.
      - steve_adams_86 4y ago
        If you dig a little deeper you’ll find that methylcellulose has some interesting culinary properties, making it well suited to adding structure and firm texture to soft foods. When mixed with water it transforms into a firm gel after heating, or it can be used to create extremely resilient emulsifications. It’s practically flavourless, so it works well. I’m not convinced it passes through the GI tract with no impact whatsoever, but it appears so far to be relatively benign. It’s nothing like sawdust or a filler, though. It’s also somewhat expensive so it wouldn’t be a good option for filler. My 500g bag was around $25, but if you wanted to use actual sawdust, well I think you could get that for close to nothing.
        TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago
        Thank you for your eloquent and well reasoned refutation! Getting early 90s internet vibes, where prople actually typed out their disagreement in an informative way instead of just downvoting.
        steve_adams_86 4y ago
        I take that as a huge compliment! I find myself dreaming of Old Internet quite often these days, so thank you very much. Maybe we can restore the old ways one comment at a time.
Lammy 4y ago
For me it's the coconut oil / cocoa butter “marbling” that gives me the Olé Olestra problem https://web.archive.org/web/19990203160042/http://www.zug.com/pranks/olestra/ https://web.archive.org/web/19990203160042/http://www.zug.co...
- detritus 4y ago
  I can't touch 'vegan cheese' made with coconout oils for this reason - for some reason it leaves me feeling like I have a film of oil down the back of my gullet that I can't shake off for an hour or two afterwards. It's a weird, unlikeable and thoroughly unwanted sensation.
steve_adams_86 4y ago
I’m not positive but I have a feeling it’s the methylcellulose. In my own home experimentation, none of the ingredients seem to cause issues except for that. It seems fairly benign, but it can’t be digested and it isn’t clear to me if we have gut flora which can break it down efficiently. I enjoy throwing together little experiments in a similar vein to beyond meat or impossible burger products, but it feels too much like a lab experiment to eat regularly. My kids like “meat balls” with spaghetti, so I tend to make that and otherwise I’m gravitating back towards whole food-based garden burgers. A weird thing about beyond/impossible is that while they appear moderately healthier than real meat from some perspectives… They are still pretty trashy. I can’t not feel like I’m making a bad choice, even if it’s home made, and at the end of the day I just want to feel good (mentally and physically) about my food.
- pmarreck 4y ago
  > They are still pretty trashy This is a qualitative/irrational assessment and not a quantitative/rational one, especially considering that fat consumption got a wrongfully-deserved bad rap for decades thanks to unethical lobbying by the sugar industry.
  - oceanghost 4y ago
    What about food is not "qualitative"? :-) Where on the spectrum are you?
  - raspberry1337 4y ago
    It's very rational how many individuals are rejecting these trashy products.
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    For years I’ve spent a lot of time (probably more than I should) crawling through research about exactly this, which is precisely why I use the term trashy. Relatively speaking I suppose it’s better than many other options, which is relevant to some people. In the broader scope, this is still junk food. I’d argue (based on the best dietary research the world has produced) that saturated fats do deserve a bad rap, and most refined fats are also worth minimizing in a diet. Are all fats bad? Not at all, we should eat them. We’d die without them. Are saturated fats and refined plant fats worth including in our diet? Arguably no, not at all. Incidental consumption of them is more than enough and intentional consumption becomes problematic quite quickly. I’m not aware of any outcomes-based studies spanning the globe which indicate that a high fat diet serves most people well as far as long term quality and quantity of life. On the other hand, there are several, and more all the time, showing the opposite. The valid “fat is actually okay!” data almost exclusively comes from whole-food based studies. However, those which position saturated fats as safe or healthy are typically of poor designs. One example off the top of my head is one which put vegetarians on an extremely high coconut oil diet and meat eaters on a lean meat diet. The results? Eating meat is better for your cholesterol! Surprise? I couldn’t make this stuff up. In fact, someone likely paid people a lot of money to make it up. The irony is that it uses the truth (saturated fat raises blood lipids) to indicate that this truth is actually false. If saturated fat was bad, wouldn’t the intersection of meat eaters and vegetarians look different? It must be okay. Makes a great headline! I agree that the sugar lobbying is absurd and harmful to society, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice to believe there isn’t a massive and busy lobby behind fats as well. Why wouldn’t there be? Look at how many studies around animal products and fat are funded by associates of the food processing industry. And yet the best studies we have clearly have no commercial agenda behind them, they typically took years or decades of work, yet they’re hastily discounted by all kinds of people.
SoftTalker 4y ago
Beyond/Incredible meat is awful. There's no other description for it. This highly processed fake meat is not healthy. Just eat meat, or don't if you don't want to. There's no need for this fake garbage.
- tptacek 4y ago
  The idea that processing determines the healthfulness of a foodstuff is fallacious.
  - RupertEisenhart 4y ago
    This source says differently [0], at least for meat. Do you have any evidence or reasoning? [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18444144/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18444144/
    - xapata 4y ago
      Evidence for processing meat doesn't transfer well as evidence for processing beans.
    - tpm 4y ago
      That's mostly related to the curing salts and their reaction with heme iron. Curing salts are not used when processing vegetables; heme iron is not added either (I hope), so this should not apply in this case.
      - noduerme 4y ago
        Impossible patties have heme iron added. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/impossible-burger-vs-beyond-meat https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/impossible-burger-vs-be...
    - RupertEisenhart 4y ago
      For some reason there is no reply button on the other replies. Maybe the evidence for meat doesn't generalise, but the idea that fresh vegetables would retain some sort-lived structures that start to break down once processed seems plausible. I was just pointing out that GPs claim could do with some backup.
djur 4y ago
They're higher in fat than traditional veggie patties. That could explain it.
owaislone 4y ago
I know exactly what you mean and I get this a lot too. I always thought it was in my head but recently I tried a Drunken Noodle recipe from FreshPrep which used Beyond Meat Burgers and I felt nothing. It was actually delicious. I guess the prep method somehow affects it? https://www.freshprep.ca/orders/11661077/recipes/thai-beyond-meat-drunken-noodles-with-green-beans-thai-basil https://www.freshprep.ca/orders/11661077/recipes/thai-beyond...

dqv 4y ago

You might have a touch of legume allergy (if only have a touch is possible). Beyond has pea protein and Impossible has soy protein. What's in your veggie patties?

dagmx 4y ago
Hmm not to say that’s not it (because people vary) but my wife and I both get this feeling with these Beyond/Impossible meats but we otherwise eat a lot of legumes which don’t give us that feeling
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  I think they both contain methylcellulose, which is considered benign but not digestible. In my experience it doesn’t cause major discomfort, but a mildly off putting sensation in my GI tract for a few hours. It might be something else, but it seems likely after narrowing things down for a while.
  - TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago
    Cellulose? This is the modern equivalent of adding sawdust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      Fiber is good for you. Adding bulk into something that's supposed to be a mixture is only a problem when it's diluting the rest too much.
    - steve_adams_86 4y ago
      If you dig a little deeper you’ll find that methylcellulose has some interesting culinary properties, making it well suited to adding structure and firm texture to soft foods. When mixed with water it transforms into a firm gel after heating, or it can be used to create extremely resilient emulsifications. It’s practically flavourless, so it works well. I’m not convinced it passes through the GI tract with no impact whatsoever, but it appears so far to be relatively benign. It’s nothing like sawdust or a filler, though. It’s also somewhat expensive so it wouldn’t be a good option for filler. My 500g bag was around $25, but if you wanted to use actual sawdust, well I think you could get that for close to nothing.
      - TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago
        Thank you for your eloquent and well reasoned refutation! Getting early 90s internet vibes, where prople actually typed out their disagreement in an informative way instead of just downvoting.
        steve_adams_86 4y ago
        I take that as a huge compliment! I find myself dreaming of Old Internet quite often these days, so thank you very much. Maybe we can restore the old ways one comment at a time.

Lammy 4y ago

For me it's the coconut oil / cocoa butter “marbling” that gives me the Olé Olestra problem https://web.archive.org/web/19990203160042/http://www.zug.com/pranks/olestra/ https://web.archive.org/web/19990203160042/http://www.zug.co...

detritus 4y ago
I can't touch 'vegan cheese' made with coconout oils for this reason - for some reason it leaves me feeling like I have a film of oil down the back of my gullet that I can't shake off for an hour or two afterwards. It's a weird, unlikeable and thoroughly unwanted sensation.

steve_adams_86 4y ago

I’m not positive but I have a feeling it’s the methylcellulose. In my own home experimentation, none of the ingredients seem to cause issues except for that. It seems fairly benign, but it can’t be digested and it isn’t clear to me if we have gut flora which can break it down efficiently. I enjoy throwing together little experiments in a similar vein to beyond meat or impossible burger products, but it feels too much like a lab experiment to eat regularly. My kids like “meat balls” with spaghetti, so I tend to make that and otherwise I’m gravitating back towards whole food-based garden burgers. A weird thing about beyond/impossible is that while they appear moderately healthier than real meat from some perspectives… They are still pretty trashy. I can’t not feel like I’m making a bad choice, even if it’s home made, and at the end of the day I just want to feel good (mentally and physically) about my food.

pmarreck 4y ago
> They are still pretty trashy This is a qualitative/irrational assessment and not a quantitative/rational one, especially considering that fat consumption got a wrongfully-deserved bad rap for decades thanks to unethical lobbying by the sugar industry.
- oceanghost 4y ago
  What about food is not "qualitative"? :-) Where on the spectrum are you?
- raspberry1337 4y ago
  It's very rational how many individuals are rejecting these trashy products.
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  For years I’ve spent a lot of time (probably more than I should) crawling through research about exactly this, which is precisely why I use the term trashy. Relatively speaking I suppose it’s better than many other options, which is relevant to some people. In the broader scope, this is still junk food. I’d argue (based on the best dietary research the world has produced) that saturated fats do deserve a bad rap, and most refined fats are also worth minimizing in a diet. Are all fats bad? Not at all, we should eat them. We’d die without them. Are saturated fats and refined plant fats worth including in our diet? Arguably no, not at all. Incidental consumption of them is more than enough and intentional consumption becomes problematic quite quickly. I’m not aware of any outcomes-based studies spanning the globe which indicate that a high fat diet serves most people well as far as long term quality and quantity of life. On the other hand, there are several, and more all the time, showing the opposite. The valid “fat is actually okay!” data almost exclusively comes from whole-food based studies. However, those which position saturated fats as safe or healthy are typically of poor designs. One example off the top of my head is one which put vegetarians on an extremely high coconut oil diet and meat eaters on a lean meat diet. The results? Eating meat is better for your cholesterol! Surprise? I couldn’t make this stuff up. In fact, someone likely paid people a lot of money to make it up. The irony is that it uses the truth (saturated fat raises blood lipids) to indicate that this truth is actually false. If saturated fat was bad, wouldn’t the intersection of meat eaters and vegetarians look different? It must be okay. Makes a great headline! I agree that the sugar lobbying is absurd and harmful to society, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice to believe there isn’t a massive and busy lobby behind fats as well. Why wouldn’t there be? Look at how many studies around animal products and fat are funded by associates of the food processing industry. And yet the best studies we have clearly have no commercial agenda behind them, they typically took years or decades of work, yet they’re hastily discounted by all kinds of people.

SoftTalker 4y ago

Beyond/Incredible meat is awful. There's no other description for it. This highly processed fake meat is not healthy. Just eat meat, or don't if you don't want to. There's no need for this fake garbage.

tptacek 4y ago
The idea that processing determines the healthfulness of a foodstuff is fallacious.
- RupertEisenhart 4y ago
  This source says differently [0], at least for meat. Do you have any evidence or reasoning? [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18444144/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18444144/
  - xapata 4y ago
    Evidence for processing meat doesn't transfer well as evidence for processing beans.
  - tpm 4y ago
    That's mostly related to the curing salts and their reaction with heme iron. Curing salts are not used when processing vegetables; heme iron is not added either (I hope), so this should not apply in this case.
    - noduerme 4y ago
      Impossible patties have heme iron added. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/impossible-burger-vs-beyond-meat https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/impossible-burger-vs-be...
  - RupertEisenhart 4y ago
    For some reason there is no reply button on the other replies. Maybe the evidence for meat doesn't generalise, but the idea that fresh vegetables would retain some sort-lived structures that start to break down once processed seems plausible. I was just pointing out that GPs claim could do with some backup.

djur 4y ago

They're higher in fat than traditional veggie patties. That could explain it.

owaislone 4y ago

I know exactly what you mean and I get this a lot too. I always thought it was in my head but recently I tried a Drunken Noodle recipe from FreshPrep which used Beyond Meat Burgers and I felt nothing. It was actually delicious. I guess the prep method somehow affects it? https://www.freshprep.ca/orders/11661077/recipes/thai-beyond-meat-drunken-noodles-with-green-beans-thai-basil https://www.freshprep.ca/orders/11661077/recipes/thai-beyond...