Hacker News Reader

Comment by notjoemama | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know what is in meat that aids in the pleasurable sensation (both psychological and physiological) of eating it? And, is there a way to recreate that in an all plant based meal without introducing the same problems this study shows? I'd be happy to switch to full vegan if I felt full in a similar way for a similar length of time along with a "Wow, that was really good!" experience.

View on HN

Have you tried indian vegan food? for example the "Sagar" restaurant? Some Indians have hundreds of years of vegan experience and they perfected it.

I'm not vegan, but this was the first time I've had vegan food and felt both full and "wow, this was amazing".

My guess is mainly the fat.

That's why the most satisfying vegan food (such as Indian food mentioned by a sibling comment) has lots of coconut milk, ghee, oil, or more recently, avocado.

Though I think there's definitely something about biting into the protein too, which is a big part of what Beyond Meat goes for.

The tongue has a set of receptors that fire for cooked meat. So yes, it is in fact the protein. I grew up and we learned about the 4 tastes and then stumbled across this a whole back and was fascinated. It probably explains why cooking meat first caught on.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

> ghee Ghee is a type of butter, so not vegan.

Thank you for clarifying :)

I often eat meat-only meals. There isn't anything particularly satisfying or a feeling of being "full". Just the opposite - meat is being digested slowly and some feeling of satiety only kicks in after about 2 hours.

What you describe probably comes mostly from fat + carbs.

When I was focused on growing muscle mass I ate around 200-250 grams of dietary protein a day. It was a chore. I had to eat well past satiety every meal. And this was on an 1800 calorie diet, so it was basically just lean protein and low glycemic index vegetables.

I don’t think that’s what they mean. There’s like a satisfaction from the actual act of eating it. It’s difficult to explain.

Shouldn't be that difficult to explain. I think the concept is called "tasty" :) And there is plenty of food with that property. Meat wouldn't even rank in top 10.

I’m plant based these days, and it’s not just that. I eat all sorts of things that taste fantastic, but they don’t hit that specific note. It’s something specific about the texture or I don’t even know. I think it might be a signifier of protein content, analogous to sweet taste signaling the presence of energy rich sugar.

I wonder if that’s just a comfort food like thing. You associate it with a satisfactory feeling.

My sister was vegetarian for a couple of decades. There's a lot of vegetarian food that I really enjoy. They all have in common that they don't pretend to be meat.

However full vegan I could never do. There might be a few meals that I enjoy, but not enough to keep my will to live through a year.

Protein is the most effective food macronutrient providing a satiating effect. I find the beefy/meaty flavor of the recent wave of meat analogues (Impossible Meat, Beyond Meat) very satisfying.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com