The main reason why plastic eating utensils are common is that it reduces the labor costs of serving food, which in turn allow fast food restaurants to charge lower price.
Reusable travel utensils and reusable drinking cups seems to also gained some traction for drivers, an otherwise large consumer of single-use utensils. A bit more work but far superior to paper and plastic in their feel and use.
(I prefer both utensils made from metal and eating meat. Eating meat with plastic utensils is just a terrible experience. Being against plastic has nothing to do with food culture or diet).
Best alternative is no straw.
If the costs (environmental, health, or money-wise) are a major factor in your choice of diet, it seems clear that beans provide more for less.
https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/resources/2020-2025-dietar...
So for example, fava beans are called high protein. 200g of fava beans has 220 calories, 15g protein, and a digestibility of 0.55. 200g of chicken breast has 220 calories, 46g of protein, and a digestibility of 1.08. You're getting about 6x as much protein in the chicken breast there. If somebody wants to maintain a relatively high protein diet, they're simply not going to be able to do that on a vegan/vegetarian diet unless they just start downing endless protein powder shakes.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestible_Indispensable_Amino...
Tofu e.g. has DIAAS of 0.97 and ~18g protein per 100g (checked the one in my fridge). If you really need a lot of protein, you can just cook stuff with tvp, that usually has dry 50% protein, but I've seen also seen 75%. You basically hydrate it with water, add a bunch of spices cook, and eat it with whatever else you'd like.
I don't think there is a big difference for the average consumer, consider some processed stuff:
Protein/100g from the products on the rewe online store:
Vegan Nuggets: 9, 11, 3x13, 15, 17
Chicken Nuggets: 2x12, 13, 2x15, 16
Beef Burger: 17, 2x18
Vegan Burger: 10, 13, 2x14, 3x17
Salami: 3x21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
Vegan Salami: 2x8, 29, 32, 2x33
Reguarding DIAAS, soy and pea protein seem to be the most used and have 0.89 and 0.82 DIAAS respectively.
My issue is pretty simple. A quick look around the world today, compared to how things were not that long ago, shows we're probably not only moving way too fast in terms of changing what we consume, but we also seem to be going very much in the wrong direction. So my main focus in diet is sticking with what worked in the past.
[1] - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B97818...
The only way to get a balance on a vegetable only diet involves mixing different veggies and supplements in order to try to level the ratio of amino acids and vitamins you get. It's very complicated and honestly is difficult to get right consistently even if you know what you're doing, the average person will not be able to do this right and will get sick.
If everyone is pushed onto that kind of diet most people will do it wrong, and a lot of people will get sick as is already very common in people who try veganism. I would argue you need to have significantly above average intelligence to do it right. So at the moment a healthy large population requires a lot of meat.
I didn't say "disease" i said class of diseases, there are a lot. lysine deficiency, osteoporosis, some kinds of arthritis on the amino acid end. And then there's the vitamins that beef always has, which wipes out a huge class of vitamin deficiencies... it's hard to understate how important meat is... reducing meat consumption is a very, very bad idea for public health.
It doesn’t seem to make much of difference. I understand that a healthy diet requires a wide variety of nutrients and so on but it’s interesting that allegedly even just reducing meat consumption (and really specifically beef) is so detrimental.
I am skeptical that people who consume less meat are so much worse off and would really need some recommendations on some reading to begin to understand that. I know my health hasn’t changed much but my grocery bill being cut in half by just not buying meat is pretty nice.
As such, it's all very well to give a nod to our animal nature, but why stick to easy? Particularly as far as nutrition is concerned, humans could be doing so much better than we are.
I blame capitalism ;) or at least the exploit of it that involves being able to sell sugar water to animals until they choke and die. This is where we start to run into the failure of natural consumption to produce good outcomes, and have to jump up a level and start asking what a good outcome would represent.
Absolutely no reason to avoid doing this with meat consumption. I thrive on stir-fried chicken and rice and an egg in the morning and gummy vites and too much coffee, but there's no reason I couldn't do something else. I mean, I already supplement…
A shift from a meat heavy diet to a diet with a more balanced mix of foods should probably be the focus both from a health and environmental standpoint. On the other hand, full veganism probably isn't practical for most people in current American society. It would be great if we could also make it easier for people to choose a lacto ovo vegetarian diet in America.
Eat less. Eat less fat. Eat less sugars. The remaining recommendations are to eat enough vitamins/fibers, and to eat less salt.
From an environmental standpoint we should focus on bio diversity and sustainability which sadly very few of current food cultures fulfill. Increased use of shell fish and seaweed. Increase use of bio diverse farming. Reduced use of artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Reduced use of fresh water. Increased hunting of invasive species. Increased use of grazing animals in nature reserves and area needing clearing (power lines and so on). Increased use of small scale farming and food waste management. Meat definitively has a role here but not in the mono-culture way that current industry meat production do it.
I think it's important to keep in mind that calorie requirements vary dramatically based on lifestyle and goals; however, too many calories definitely seems to be the most common problem in the developed world.