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Comment by ratsmack | Hacker News Reader

I find it funny that vegans would even want to associate with food names of products that they abhor. Many vegans say that have never eaten meat, so why would they want 'steak' or 'sausage' fake meat?

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I've been vegan for c. 27 years and I like these products. I grew up eating meat and dairy, and I still like the flavor and mouth feel, but I hate the cruelty.

Every veg I know in the UK occasionally eats faux meat products, even the most hardcore ones. In fact, it's the hard core vegans that tend to be quite enthusiastic about these products, as most of them are vegan due to ethics rather than specifically disliking meat. Also, I've never met a meat eater here bothered by calling veg food sausage, burger, mince, milk, steak, etc. either.

However, products like Quorn have been popular here since the 80s so perhaps people are used to it by now. Even before the whole vegan movement took off, the terms have been overloaded, for example mince pies, head cheese, milk of magnesia, Welsh rabbit/rarebit, peanut butter, portobello steak, beefsteak tomato, rice burgers, oil-based "butter"...

Their customer-base isn't just vegans, it's also people who aren't vegan but will often eat foods that are.

It's sort of 50/50 within the community, actually. I don't want to eat fake meat.

But folks who are avoiding meat on Fridays and during Lent are different from me.

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