Hacker News Reader

Comment by 3pt14159 | Hacker News Reader

I'm presently torn about this. I want to be vegan / vegetarian as often as I can be for ethical / environmental reasons, but I find that whenever I eat a substitute it tastes like it should, but the satiation of the inner desire for meat isn't met. It's like smoking a nicotine-free cigarette or a non-alcoholic beer. Yeah, sure, it's better than nothing but I wish it fully replaced the experience because I would literally pay double not to cause an animal to suffer ever again.

View on HN

Like most things, just do it and you'll get used to it. The satisfaction might be due to culturally being raise in a place that eats meat.

> I would literally pay double not to cause an animal to suffer ever again.

Think of it this way. It's not about _you_ it's about the _animals_ suffering. It's a selfless thing to do and fairly simple. Most foods are not animals they're plants! It gets easier.

This zoomed in view of a single animals suffering seems short sighted to me. Sure, factory farms are terrible, but farm animals (cows, chickens, sheep, goats, etc.) in general have grown up symbiotically with humans. Replacing a system where we collaborate with nature to one where we're dependent on a corporate lab grown product does not seem like it's being more integrated with, or compassionate to nature.

> Replacing a system where we collaborate with nature to one where we're dependent on a corporate lab grown product does not seem like it's being more integrated with, or compassionate to nature.

Are you really saying that slaughtering animals is more "compassionate" than growing meat synthetically? And are you saying that the massive environmental cost of factory farms makes it more "integrated" with nature?

It's like you're deliberately trying to attach a negative connotation to synthetic meat by using the words "corporate lab".

Literally all first world amenities originate in a corporate lab! Are you suggesting we stop taking COVID vaccines because they were developed in Pfizer's corporate lab?

What do you propose we do instead to curb the world's desire to eat meat? You say "factory farms are terrible". Yes they are! And synthetic meat is the only way factory farms will go away.

Sorry, I think you misinterpreted what I was saying. Synthetic meat seems morally better than a factory farm, however I don't think the choice is between factory farms and synthetic meat. I'm saying it would be better to to cultivate an approach where we collaborate with nature via humane farms and moderated consumption.

I don't have any economic answers, however I think the vegan vision of a human race separate from nature is very scary, and not separate from one where we eradicate the natural world through industrialization.

I've never met a vegan who had the vision of a human race separate from nature.

Focusing on non-substitutes helps. Dishes that play the strengths of vegetables taste far better than dishes that only attempt to replicate meat.

Yep, you have to learn new recipes but this is what I've done and works well. Don't really miss meat after redoing my cookbook to focus on south asian, buddhist, and other traditionally vegan or vegetarian cuisines. Dinner guests also prefer getting a freshly made curry instead of a sad frozen bean burger.

My wife is vegan so I have tasted them all. I think the initial taste is good, but the after taste and the taste as you chew it, they get wrong somehow. The main problem however is lack of variation in texture and consistency. It is like everything is a cheap hot dog in texture.

I wish they added strains of imperfection that get stuck in your teeth or something.

I personally think it's a matter of mindset. First few times I tasted plant based meat substitutes I too had this feeling, but as soon as I stopped thinking of them as substitutes and just considered them a new category (if you will) of foods that feeling went away.

Beyond Meat do burgers that are particularly close to the real thing. Bleeds correctly, burns slightly in the right way. My main issue is not the taste experience, but that the thing is probably quite processed. For instance there's a lot of salt. If the thing is a really good reproduction of a burger, might it also be just as unhealthy? Waiting to see while I enjoy having one now and again.

I'm also trying to be as vegan as possible, but mainly for health reasons. Though after starting that, I now also think there's ethical reasons. Funny how that works.

Ugh, I just hard disagree. Beyond tastes like a veggie patty to me.

Personally, I think this stuff is probably more unhealthy. The fats they use are not good, and legumes can be problematic in quantity.

Our family decided to adopt a more vegetable based diet and buy more ethically sourced local meat, especially beef and pork. The unit cost is higher but we spend about the same by eating smaller portions.

Substituting food like a burger for food like a burger isn’t doing much other than some warm fuzzy stuff.

I recall a similar experience when I first went vegetarian a decade plus ago. It only lasts a week or two.

I do get a hint of that after impossible. I think the lack of "meatier" fats leaves some unfulfilled craving.

But also many lifetime vegetarians, so probably able to adapt away from the craving.

It's probably because there is something nutritionally missing compared to actual meat and your body can tell. Macronutrients might be similar, but the micronutrient composition, down to the amino acid ratios and bioavailbility, is probably significantly different.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com