Comment by ohbleek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ohbleek | Hacker News Reader

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I get so tired of this argument. If you were raised eating meat then you'll likely have tendencies to eat meals based around meat. Meat substitutes make sense in the current world and given the typical diet of western cultures. It doesn't have to taste just like the meat it mocks, it just has to taste good. There is nothing special about the taste of chicken or beef other than it is good and you're used to it. If something is similar it doesn't have to be exact and if it doesn't hit that mark it doesn't make it inferior. Chances are most meat doesn't taste the same and has various levels of quality but people don't have the same level of scrutiny between choices of chicken as they do between fake chicken and real chicken. I have given fake buffalo chicken sandwiches to friends before that had no idea at all that it wasn't real until I told them (Iknew about any allergies beforehand). Please excuse my tone, I've been veg for +10 years now and I'm tired of hearing the same weak arguments and excuses. People eat too much meat and it's time to stop making excuses. It's not necessary to stop eating it completely if you don't want to but you shouldn't be eating it more than a few times each week. The nuance of your argument is not lost on me, in fact I agree with the main point but not the part meant to persuade.

You might get tired of it, but it's a pretty strong argument. If I know what real bacon tastes like then eating some vegetarian facsimile of bacon is going to lead to massive disappointment and drawing the conclusion that eating vegetarian is not really an option for me. If instead I just eat things that are vegetarian and have no meat based equivalent then there is a good chance of discovering new and interesting foods and really being able to enjoy what you are eating.

For people who feel strongly enough about the ethics of animal farming and the environment, meat substitutes can be "good enough." When I gave up meat years ago I just considered it to be the price of doing what was right.

I wasn't trying to make the argument that "'not meat' doesn't taste as good as 'meat', so don't eat it", but rather "Don't eat oranges looking for apple". Oranges are still delicious, but they're different and comparing them is not the point.

Also, I might disagree with this statement:

> There is nothing special about the taste of chicken or beef other than it is good and you're used to it.

Umami (savoriness) is actually fairly difficult to find outside of meat if you have an even slightly limited diet and some studies suggest it's craved as an instinctive signal of protein (like sweetness and simple carbs), so if you just stop eating meat there can definitely something missing.

(BTW, if you're trying to get off of meat but still have a craving, dried mushrooms and soy sauce have very concentrated umami flavors, and adding MSG can just up the tasty factor in a lot of dishes)

umami has been replicated over and over, along with texture, it's not special

> It doesn't have to taste just like the meat it mocks, it just has to taste good

You just made the same argument you are attempting to argue against.

I was never arguing against their point

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