tl;dr: Reducing meat consumption should not rely on meat substitutes, it's a losing game. It's much better to explore alternative vegan dishes than to expect pl

tl;dr: Reducing meat consumption should not rely on meat substitutes, it's a losing game. It's much better to explore alternative vegan dishes than to expect plant-based or lab-grown products to replace something that the average westerner consumes almost every day. I have reduced my meat and dairy consumption by well over 90% and I'd say that vegan meat substitutes are the worst option for people looking to reduce (or eliminate) meat consumption long term in terms of taste, texture, nutrition, climate impact (due to food processing) etc. At best, you get a 'passable' substitute when you could be having a delicious and nutritious meal instead. You wont ever get the taste and texture of a prime cut, cooked chicken skin, bacon or anything of the sort – so why bother? There are countless great vegan dishes that leave you fully satiated and won't bore you like textured plant proteins (TPP) would if you ate them every other day. Drastically reducing meat consumption required a change of habit and the way our family looked at food. If we ate meat/poultry every day, we couldn't rely on meat substitutes (aside from vat-grown meat, I guess), because you cannot really substitute the variety of cuts, fat to lean meat ratios, cooking versatility, organs (from pig ears to duck liver and beyond) that people consume. I found that consuming different types of TPP seven times a week, made me much more likely to throw in the towel well before someone who expanded their protein sources to chickpea (humus, falaffel), soy (tofu, tempeh), nuts (peanut and almond flour/butter), ate more mushrooms for the meaty flavor etc. Eliminating cheese from my diet was the hardest part for me. I am not holding my breath for passable vegan cheese substitutes to appear any time soon. Now, I'd say nutritional yeast and peanut butter scratch the itch for basic fermented cheese for me. To be fair, there is one meat substitute that I actually like – tofu spreads beat most liver pâtés. What I do is just blend some tofu with caramelized onions and nutritional yeast, add soy sauce or salt.