4 ms·

> making a simple switch to soya meat replacements and milk alternatives is a realistic and easy dietary change for most consumers to achieve Pardon my French,

> making a simple switch to soya meat replacements and milk alternatives is a realistic and easy dietary change for most consumers to achieve Pardon my French, but I don’t know what the author of that article finds “easy” in that. Soy milk tastes like s*t, as does soy meat, in fact one of the main reasons we, Romanians, deposed Ceausescu back in the day was because his technocrats had tried to impose on us to eat soy-based salami, all in the name of “rational eating”. In fact, one of the main complaints made against the returning diaspora after Ceausescu had already fallen was that said diaspora hadn’t really known the hardships of dictatorship, literally those guys were told that “you didn’t eat soy-based salami”. Which is to say that I find all this present discussion about “rationalizing” our eating habits as highly dystopic, more dystopic still when seeing the discourse that goes against all this non-sense getting labeled as conspiratorial and thrown to the margins.

dtgriscom 3y ago
Yes, "easy dietary change" is very subjective, so is "soy milk tastes like s*t". Both are overgeneralizations.
throwuwu 3y ago
Those who have experienced it see it for what it is.
verall 3y ago
Soy only tastes like shit if you don't know wtf to do with it. Plenty of great food made with tofu but I doubt that soy salami is any good.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > Soy only tastes like shit if you don't know wtf to do with it. In other words, if it's not highly processed...
  - laurentlb 3y ago
    It's probably possible to use spices to get decent taste yourself, but indeed, this is not what the food industry tries to sell.
  - puchatek 3y ago
    He's talking about batter and sauce, the way it's prepared in many Asian cuisines. You might want to look up the definition of highly processed foods. Hint: it's not the things you do in a normal kitchen.
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      > Hint: it's not the things you do in a normal kitchen. No, it's something with much greater control over quality, safety and consistency than I could ever hope achieve in the kitchen. The difference between process chemistry and cooking is like between civil engineering and playing with mud in your back yard. Now it's true that industrial processing of food optimizes for different features than my own cooking (e.g. shelf-stability, bacteriological safety, process consistency, and of course, cost, vs. taste customized to my liking) - but that alone does not warrant saying "highly processed = bad", or playing motte-and-bailey with the "definition" of the term. EDIT: see also the edit to comment here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37632381 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37632381 for an actual definition of "processed food" as this term is used in the industry and regulations, which reinforces my point, and happens to cover everything you do to food in your kitchen.
  - verall 3y ago
    I actually had to google to find that tofu is "processed" but not "ultra-processed". I think the asian-style soy milk I buy for cooking might also not be "ultra-processed" since I don't think it has emusifiers or things that western soy milk has, but googling for this doesn't give much info. I guess I just assumed they were considered to be ultra processed since they're produced industrially.
virtualritz 3y ago
> Soy milk tastes like s*t, as does soy meat, [...] I do believe the stuff you had in Romania at the time did. But what is your base of comparison? I invite you to sample the produce a supermarket in a bigger German city has today in plant-based dairy/meat alternatives (soy and other). And then re-visit your opinion on this matter -- after bringing your taste bud's experience up to date, so to speak. ;) > in fact one of the main reasons we, Romanians, deposed Ceausescu back in the day was because his technocrats had tried to impose on us to eat soy-based salami [...] Yes, that surely was one of the worst things this "soy-dictator" and his henchmen did. You, sir, must be joking. For if you don't, you do not know the the recent history of your peoples well.
- paganel 3y ago
  > You, sir, must be joking Web search for “salam cu soia” and then try and use some google translate on the stuff you will have found, that way you’ll see that I wasn’t joking.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > But what is your base of comparison? I invite you to sample the produce a supermarket in a bigger German city has today in plant-based dairy/meat alternatives (soy and other). And then re-visit your opinion on this matter -- after bringing your taste bud's experience up to date, so to speak. ;) I'm going to guess the difference will boil down entirely to German soy milk being... <horror_movie_music.wav> an ultra-processed product :).
puchatek 3y ago
Of you don't like soy milk try oat. The better ones taste better than cow milk in a cappuccino IMO. Meat replacement products are based on all kinds of plant proteins these days. Some of them taste pretty good, though the true meat lover won't be persuaded. Unfortunately they are still rather pricey compared to meat, even organic meat from the supermarket. Whether this is because of the small scale of production or because the target group can and will pay a Premium I can't say.

dtgriscom 3y ago

Yes, "easy dietary change" is very subjective, so is "soy milk tastes like s*t". Both are overgeneralizations.

throwuwu 3y ago

Those who have experienced it see it for what it is.

verall 3y ago

Soy only tastes like shit if you don't know wtf to do with it. Plenty of great food made with tofu but I doubt that soy salami is any good.

TeMPOraL 3y ago
> Soy only tastes like shit if you don't know wtf to do with it. In other words, if it's not highly processed...
- laurentlb 3y ago
  It's probably possible to use spices to get decent taste yourself, but indeed, this is not what the food industry tries to sell.
- puchatek 3y ago
  He's talking about batter and sauce, the way it's prepared in many Asian cuisines. You might want to look up the definition of highly processed foods. Hint: it's not the things you do in a normal kitchen.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    > Hint: it's not the things you do in a normal kitchen. No, it's something with much greater control over quality, safety and consistency than I could ever hope achieve in the kitchen. The difference between process chemistry and cooking is like between civil engineering and playing with mud in your back yard. Now it's true that industrial processing of food optimizes for different features than my own cooking (e.g. shelf-stability, bacteriological safety, process consistency, and of course, cost, vs. taste customized to my liking) - but that alone does not warrant saying "highly processed = bad", or playing motte-and-bailey with the "definition" of the term. EDIT: see also the edit to comment here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37632381 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37632381 for an actual definition of "processed food" as this term is used in the industry and regulations, which reinforces my point, and happens to cover everything you do to food in your kitchen.
- verall 3y ago
  I actually had to google to find that tofu is "processed" but not "ultra-processed". I think the asian-style soy milk I buy for cooking might also not be "ultra-processed" since I don't think it has emusifiers or things that western soy milk has, but googling for this doesn't give much info. I guess I just assumed they were considered to be ultra processed since they're produced industrially.

virtualritz 3y ago

> Soy milk tastes like s*t, as does soy meat, [...] I do believe the stuff you had in Romania at the time did. But what is your base of comparison? I invite you to sample the produce a supermarket in a bigger German city has today in plant-based dairy/meat alternatives (soy and other). And then re-visit your opinion on this matter -- after bringing your taste bud's experience up to date, so to speak. ;) > in fact one of the main reasons we, Romanians, deposed Ceausescu back in the day was because his technocrats had tried to impose on us to eat soy-based salami [...] Yes, that surely was one of the worst things this "soy-dictator" and his henchmen did. You, sir, must be joking. For if you don't, you do not know the the recent history of your peoples well.

paganel 3y ago
> You, sir, must be joking Web search for “salam cu soia” and then try and use some google translate on the stuff you will have found, that way you’ll see that I wasn’t joking.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
> But what is your base of comparison? I invite you to sample the produce a supermarket in a bigger German city has today in plant-based dairy/meat alternatives (soy and other). And then re-visit your opinion on this matter -- after bringing your taste bud's experience up to date, so to speak. ;) I'm going to guess the difference will boil down entirely to German soy milk being... <horror_movie_music.wav> an ultra-processed product :).

puchatek 3y ago

Of you don't like soy milk try oat. The better ones taste better than cow milk in a cappuccino IMO. Meat replacement products are based on all kinds of plant proteins these days. Some of them taste pretty good, though the true meat lover won't be persuaded. Unfortunately they are still rather pricey compared to meat, even organic meat from the supermarket. Whether this is because of the small scale of production or because the target group can and will pay a Premium I can't say.