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Comment by drewg123 | Hacker News Reader

I encourage people to try plant based "meat" substitutes. I have a vegan friend when encouraged me to try Impossible burger. I finally relented during the early days of the pandemic when I could not find ground beef one day at the store, and I have to say that I love it. I use it everywhere I'd have used ground beef (burgers, tacos, chili, etc). My cholesterol and blood sugar numbers have improved dramatically.

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Do any of these plant based meat substitutes have the same macro and micro nutrient profiles as the real thing, or are they mainly comprised of cheap carbs?

I'd be willing to give it a go for a few things, like burgers, but only if nutritionally they are close to like for like. (there is also a medical reason behind this for me personally, as I have reactive hypoglycemia and avoid all but the smallest carb intake).

I'll also add, our family doesn't actually eat much red meat - it's more of a treat, with chicken and pork far more common at our table than beef or lamb. Partly for health reasons, partly for cost reasons.

If you have medical reasons to eat meat, IMO you shouldn’t be experimenting with new foods unless your doctor/nutritionist okays it. Ie I feel like you may not be the target audience of people who can give up meat.

Generally they are very high in protein, have a decent amount of good fats (normally have much less omega-6 than red meats) and have low carb content. Beyond Meat, for example, is my go-to substitute. I get their ground stuff in a pack and add more spices and make patties (though I'm a huge fan of it as is when eating out).

The newer ones (Beyond, Impossible) are a lot closer nutritionally to beef than the older style of veggie burgers that were mostly bean-based in my experience. Those could still be pretty good for what they were, but not really comparable to beef.

It's hit and miss. I've tried one premier producer's "vegan minced meat" in Germany (Wiesenhof) and one supermarket's "vegan minced meat".

They look okay, but they don't brown in the pan and worst of all, they smell very very foul. You open the packaging and want to immediately put in in the garbage bin.

Taste is okay-ish, if boring and bland, but the smell disqualifies it.

I understand there are brands that don't have that problem (or less of it), but after two disasters I'm currently eating real meat when I want some, but try to limit it.

Better an honest vegan/vegetarian substitute than a "it has to look like meat, no matter what" substitute.

Soy shreds can be a good substitute for some uses of minced meat, for example.

The 2 beef analogs here in the us are much better. Both brown in the pan.

Of the 2 (Impossible and Beyond), the visual cooking profile is far better on Impossible. Their fake blood leads to the expected color change. Beyond starts out kind of brown, and its harder to tell when what stage of done-ness it is at.

Beyond feels more like meat, in terms of the fat. Impossible tends to stick because its not fatty enough, but Beyond feels like a "real" burger in that respect.

Of the 2, I like the taste of Impossible more. Seems much closer to real beef.

If you want to eat a vegetable patty, why does it have to be a fake meat burger? Why can't you enjoy a falafel?

More to the point, if you want to stop eating meat, why do you have to eat pretend-meat? If you're cutting out a major food group from your diet you're already making a huge commitment in time and effort to eat in a certain way while not missing out on nutrients (so no excuses about how it's simpler to eat fake meat). So why not spend this time and effort to learn to cook tasty, delicious foods, without meat?

Why not spend this time and effort to learn to cook the many traditional dishes of the many world cuisines that are majority vegetarian or vegan, that teem with dishes that are absolutely heavenly, without any animal products in them? Learn to cook Indian, or Mediterranean, or African, or Thai. Learn to cook with olive oil instead of butter, learn to cook succulent, decadent aubergine casseroles and succulent legume dishes. Learn to cook! And don't leave your nutrition to the same old actors in the same old food industry that is destroying the environment and abusing animals with industrial beef (and pig, and chicken) production.

Remember that the biggest investors in meat substitutes are... giant meat and dairy conglomerates. Check out this article:

https://www.just-food.com/features/eyeing-alternatives-meat-...

Recognise any names?

Those are usually not "meat" substitutes but "ground meat" substitutes. I personally don't consume much ground meat, so they are a bit useless for me unfortunately.

The only drawback I’d see is it’s ultra processed food, but it looks as though ftom your experience you experienced health improvements which outweigh Ann concern over ultra processing .

I looked up a comparison.[1] It seems that the only potential issue with an impossible burger is much more sodium. On the other hand, it actually contains fiber(3 grams).

Apparently, Impossible meat are fortified with micronutrient as well.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the problem with ultra processed food is not the processing per se, but the poor nutritional profiles.

1. https://www.cnet.com/health/nutrition/is-the-impossible-burg...

I wanted to find some views on the the impossible/beyond GMO meat substitutes vs organic, grass-fed, which many contend is the gold standard for healthy meat, not regular feedlot / grain raised beef.

Found a number of different perspectives [1], [2], [3] [4] [5]

Most alarming was the presence of GMO, and soy & glyphosate connection alleged by testing from Moms Across America [6] found in both varieties (They are anti-GMO and anti-vaxx in the pre-covid term, using the original vaccine defintion). A vegan response by The Reasoned Vegan to these allegations and testing can be found at [7] which raised questions about the overblown testing hyperbole by Moms Across America. Consequently, I don't have a strong opinion on the veracity of the testing.

However, given my biases towards organic, grass-fed and away from both soy, GMO, and feedlot/grain cattle, the Chiropractor Dr. Pompa best captured a nuanced view with which I concur. [8] I say this because I've known many vegans, and the one I dated expressed concerns around the negative implications of a heavy soy diet that led to her to cut out all soy, and head more towards a raw food diet.

[1] https://blessingfalls.com/2019/08/14/plant-based-impossible-...

[2] https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/lab-produced-mea...

[3] https://www.eatthis.com/news-impossible-meat-ingredient-may-...

[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoim/2019/12/20/what-the...

[5] https://www.gmoscience.org/2019/06/25/rat-feeding-studies-su...

[6] https://www.momsacrossamerica.com/gmo_impossible_burger_posi...

[7] https://thereasonedvegan.com/2019/07/24/lies-about-roundup-i...

[8] https://drpompa.com/cellular-detox/meat-substitute-burgers-a...

> My cholesterol and blood sugar numbers have improved dramatically.

That’s a big claim. Most meat substitutes are ultra-processed food with lots of carbs and a poorer nutritional profile. Did you make other diet or lifestyle changes? Red meat should not impact blood sugars much.

i tried (ed: strike impossible) beyond burgers recently. they were... ok. but i did notice that i felt extremely sluggish after eating them. (like having to lay down)

the thickness of the oil exuded onto the griddle and the difficulty i had cleaning it off was a bit frightening as well... but i don't prepare meat so maybe the real deal is worse?

Not sure how much you eat of it. But generally processed foods are not that good for you. I know they add and additive to make it taste like it has serum from blood. I remember there being media reports and controversy over the safety of it. I tried making a meatless burger, and found adding almond flower goes a long way to make it taste great.

One of the brands uses a generically engineered yeast to create a plant heme with a gene spliced in from soy. It's GMO but seems safe (its not like a round up ready GMO). I think these engineered meat substitutes may not be as healthy as a whole food plant based diet -- but I find it hard to believe they are less healthy or have a higher environmental impact that the meat they replace.

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