91
These vegan meat brands taste almost as good as the real thing. Taste tests prove it.
(www.nationalobserver.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
91 points (88.2% liked)
Canada
9412 readers
1021 users here now
What's going on Canada?
Related Communities
🍁 Meta
🗺️ Provinces / Territories
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nova Scotia
- Nunavut
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon
🏙️ Cities / Local Communities
- Calgary (AB)
- Comox Valley (BC)
- Edmonton (AB)
- Greater Sudbury (ON)
- Guelph (ON)
- Halifax (NS)
- Hamilton (ON)
- Kootenays (BC)
- London (ON)
- Mississauga (ON)
- Montreal (QC)
- Nanaimo (BC)
- Oceanside (BC)
- Ottawa (ON)
- Port Alberni (BC)
- Regina (SK)
- Saskatoon (SK)
- Thunder Bay (ON)
- Toronto (ON)
- Vancouver (BC)
- Vancouver Island (BC)
- Victoria (BC)
- Waterloo (ON)
- Windsor (ON)
- Winnipeg (MB)
Sorted alphabetically by city name.
🏒 Sports
Hockey
- Main: c/Hockey
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Montréal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Vancouver Canucks
- Winnipeg Jets
Football (NFL): incomplete
Football (CFL): incomplete
Baseball
Basketball
Soccer
- Main: /c/CanadaSoccer
- Toronto FC
💻 Schools / Universities
- BC | UBC (U of British Columbia)
- BC | SFU (Simon Fraser U)
- BC | VIU (Vancouver Island U)
- BC | TWU (Trinity Western U)
- ON | UofT (U of Toronto)
- ON | UWO (U of Western Ontario)
- ON | UWaterloo (U of Waterloo)
- ON | UofG (U of Guelph)
- ON | OTU (Ontario Tech U)
- QC | McGill (McGill U)
Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.
💵 Finance, Shopping, Sales
- Personal Finance Canada
- BAPCSalesCanada
- Canadian Investor
- Buy Canadian
- Quebec Finance
- Churning Canada
🗣️ Politics
- General:
- Federal Parties (alphabetical):
- By Province (alphabetical):
🍁 Social / Culture
- Ask a Canadian
- Bières Québec
- Canada Francais
- First Nations
- First Nations Languages
- Indigenous
- Inuit
- Logiciels libres au Québec
Rules
- Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.
Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
And I bet all of them are loaded with methylcellulose (a.k.a. nature's laxative) just like every other bullshit fake meat product.
I follow a vegan diet now, but grew up in the southern US around legit BBQ. There is no point trying to replicate that, never going to come close and it's just going to use shitty processed food techniques to accomplish it. If you're going to go vegan, how about actually be vegan instead of chasing a life you decided to leave behind.
I’ve been eating Impossible burgers and nuggets for years, and it’s never had a laxative effect. I think you might be assuming there’s a high enough dose to produce the effect, when there probably isn’t.
What’s wrong with being vegan but wanting a meat substitute? Does it make someone a worse person than you if they do that?
I’m not vegan, and I eat Impossible meats, because I try to eat less meat and they taste really good. Would it be better if I ate real meat instead? Because the way you’re talking, it sounds like that’s what you’d prefer.
This. I'm not giving up BBQ, sorry. However, if I can replace my heavily processed meats like nuggies or hamburger patties with something that tastes more or less the same, has a vaguely similar or better texture, and doesn't involve killing an animal, then fuck yeah I'll try it.
Talking about how an ingredient is a laxative as if it's going to immediately make everyone shit their brains out just pushes me and presumably others away from meat substitutes. Tbh it almost feels elitist or like meat propaganda. "The fake meat is gonna make you die from diarrhea!!!!" or "Oooo... Look at me, I'm a real^tm vegan because I don't eat that chemical filled, laxative laced fake meat".
I'd rather people eat for their blood types than trying to force fuck themselves into what someone else suggests they eat.
https://www.webmd.com/diet/blood-type-diet
MC may not have the same effect on you as some other people, just like red meat may not have the same effect on you as it does others. Some blood types actually need meat, others require raw roots and less cooking.
So yes, eat the meat if your body and metabolism react to it in a healthy way. Just do yourself a favor and go to a local butcher, don't buy the pre-packaged garbage from grocery stores or Boar's Head.
Lastly, my point was that the fake meats are all heavily processed foods, as opposed to real meat which is considered a whole-food in most forms. Let your body break it down into what it needs, not some machine in another state run by a CEO who wants to make money off you.
I’ve seen how Impossible burger meat is made. It’s just ground up plants and oils. If that’s what you call “heavily processed”, I feel like I shouldn’t take your advice on diet.
- Source: https://youtu.be/6fGEggkj02g
Savage
Great source.
I've never seen anything credible that says any human "needs meat." Every major health and dietetic organization in the world says that humans do not require meat for optimal health. However, the more meat you eat, the younger you die and the more debilitating diseases you experience. (You can scholar search "meat all cause mortality".)
you're playing fast-and-loose with the language. what they usually say is something closer to it's possible to have a healthy lifestyle without meat.
How many people even know their blood type? Certainly noone before types were even discovered.
These are not for vegans. Vegans alone couldn't remotely pay back what has been invested in these products. These are for carnists looking for the moral license to continue eating shitty food. Like how when people order a diet pop, they allow themselves any amount of high-calorie food to go along with it. It's a marketing gimmick for carnists, not a solution to any problem vegans have.
I love the taste of meat, and I’m not going to stop eating meat unless there’s an alternative that tastes as good. Impossible meat is an alternative that tastes as good, so whenever Impossible is an option, I choose it. Whether you think that means I’m moral licensing or whatever doesn’t matter to me, but to some people, you may be pushing them away from making a better choice by talking down to them for trying to improve. Would you make fun of a fat person for going to the gym and working out? If someone is making better choices, you should be celebrating that.
Fair enough, I can agree with that for sure. I just hate how taste is the driving factor in these kinds of articles / sentiments, and that most people focus solely on taste. It's way better when it's tasty, no doubt, but the purpose should be more on fueling the complex biological machine that carries you around and interacts with your friends and family.
To add to your point on the flipside, I know several vegans that think they are healthy just because they only eat things with a vegan label. High Fructose Corn Syrup is technically vegan, and can be included in products that have a label (in high amounts, even). Vegan != Healthy. It just means no animal products.
It's such an easy trap to fall into. We all have the same brain, and we're all wired for the same stupid tricks.
"Carnists" is an inappropriate slur. It's the first time I have heard it but I just know I should probably be offended. I reserve the right to use it on other people.
I can tell you're being funny but I'm not exactly sure what you're saying. Taking your comment at face value (sorry about that), "carnist" was not intended as a slur, and certainly is not defined as one. Carnists are people with the (typically unconscious, unexamined) belief that sometimes it is acceptable or even good to be needlessly cruel and violent to animals. The word contrasts with vegans, who believe needless cruelty and violence are never acceptable or good. It was coined by Melanie Joy in their 2009 book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.
The person you’re replying to is the kind of person that makes rednecks proud to eat meat. Personally, I don’t care if someone thinks I’m doing it to virtue signal; I’m going to eat meat alternatives when they taste as good as meat, and Impossible meat does taste as good as meat. Reducing our overall meat consumption as a society is a good thing.
I completely agree with you. OP and people like them are actually slowing down the transition away from meat
I tend to think things like toxic masculinity and fear of empathy do far more to make rednecks proud of eating meat. Though, the mere presence of someone who does not eat meat for moral reasons is unbearably aggravating for many people.
Yeah, true. You shouldn’t let that make you feel jaded though. If someone is dipping their toes into meat alternatives, encouragement can really help them. :)
(Please don’t visualize that metaphor. I just did. 0/10, do not recommend.)
I get what you mean especially in comparison to the real southern BBQ. However things aren't rational ... I used to have cravings for meat all the time and a random veggie dog or burger would make it go away.
I don't really chase the vegan lifestyle so there's probably a market for those people like us that would try to eat vegan/veggie more often than they do.
Yeah, but what if they're not loaded with methylcellulose, or what if we do eventually come close to the real meats or what if this is a gateway product that could convert carnists?
Nope. Give me real plants, unprocessed. Just because a heavily processed compound that happens to be considered vegan might taste like meat has absolutely no bearing on whether or not someone is going to stop eating meat.
It's kinda like a heroin addict. They're not gonna stop just because you took their needle away or gave them a different drug. They have to want to stop on their own, otherwise anything you try is moot.
In your heroin example, when they do decide to break the addiction, giving them a different drug (Methadone) is exactly what you do.
Fair point, although the addicts are not actually interested or want to take the methadone as a replacement and is mainly for uncontrollable withdrawal symptoms.
It's a larger difference gap than plant meat vs animal meat IMO. In other words, not taking methadone could be a life or death difference (or at least the difference between relapse and not).
In the meat debate, you could most definitely get a very close texture/taste without the fake meats if you use the right plants and spices. You don't need the fake meats in order to replicate and satiate that meat-taste desire.
I don't think the question should be whether or not it's needed, but rather whether it'll make things easier and encourage more people to make the switch.
No one is making you eat these products. If you’re so addicted to meat that you can’t have even fake meat without risking falling off the bandwagon, then it’s probably better you don’t anyway.
There are plenty of people (me included) who enjoy the taste and experience of eating meat, but would rather eat a plant based alternative. That’s who these products are for. When I have a choice between a real burger and an Impossible burger, I’ll choose the Impossible burger every time. But when I don’t have that choice, I’m going to eat the real burger.
Falling off the bandwagon is not my point. I'm not trying to convert anyone to veganism here. All I'm saying is, just because something tastes like meat doesn't mean it will pull someone away from eating meat. If they don't actually want to stop eating meat, then they won't.
Besides taste, there are very real changes in your body's gut biome based on the content of what you digest. Your body knows that what you ate is not animal protein and adjusts the enzymes in your stomach as a result. This is why a lot of people complain for the first several weeks of going vegan, because they are gassy as all hell due to these changes.
However, if you keep a little meat mixed in with your new plant diet, that won't be as strong of a change. Your body knows even if your taste buds don't.
I can definitely tell you’re not trying to convert anyone to veganism. If anything, I’d say you’re trying to keep people from becoming vegan.
I just don't see it as a religion to force down other people's throats.
And from your other comment, oils are processed foods on top of the fake meats still containing preservatives.
I'm glad you don't shit yourself, that means you don't need to pay attention to my warning about MC in the fake meats. Some people have reactions to it, though. Are you also going to tell me that Lactose Intolerance is bullshit because you've never shit your pants from drinking milk?
Of course not. The moral imperative not to be needlessly cruel and violent is not religious in nature. It is philosophical. It is also something that most people feel deeply, even if they fail to be consistent with those feelings.
Do you think preventing child abuse is "a religion to force down people's throats," or do you see that children have a right not to be beaten, and moral people have a duty to protect them from it? Am I forcing my religion down your throat if I stay your hand from striking your child? Would you say, "It's fine if you're against child abuse. Don't beat your children, but don't try and tell me how to raise mine!"
I take your point, but it assumes that I see killing an animal for sustenance as being needlessly cruel or violent in all cases. In factory settings with no regulation, yes it is most likely true. However, if you consider living off the land and all that, honoring the animal and respecting nature, etc. then I don't have an issue with it.
There are certain regions of the planet, like large swaths of the USA and many more, where killing animals for sustenance isn't needed at all in the present world. Yes, there are a lot of arguments for converting cow land into crop land. On the flip side there are areas of the world where the communities have to rely on their livestock for sustenance (whether by lack of infrastructure or climate or both), and it's probably 50/50 whether or not some do it humanely. Animals killing other animals for sustenance is something that has been a part of evolution and survival for a very long time.
I don't think it's fair to compare it like you are to child abuse for these reasons.
So, statistically and in practice, greater than 99% of the time. I think we can dispense with the fig leaf and just admit that killing an individual who doesn't want to be dead is cruel and violent. You might try to argue that it was necessary, and if (for example) it makes the difference between a human living or dying, then that is a valid justification, but it does not make it not cruel and not violent. That truth remains, despite any necessity.
How do you honor and respect an individual you killed against their will? This is a lie people tell themselves for the sake of moral license. It's only convincing when you want to be convinced. Its function is to allow one to think of themselves as a good person, while doing things that good people do not do.
What animals do, or for that matter, what other humans do, has no bearing on the morality of what you and I do. Lions eat their partner's young. Great role model! There are rapists in the world. That does not mean it is okay for you and I to also rape.
The animals we create are morally entitled to the exact same unconditional love and protection as our own children. The act of creation creates a debt, not an ownership. It doesn't matter if it's a human infant, a puppy, or a piglet. Creating intelligent life specifically to exploit it is abominable and indefensible.
If I added some olive oil to a recipe, I wouldn’t consider it processed. Here are the ingredients of Impossible burger meat:
- https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018937494-What-are-the-ingredients-in-Impossible-Beef-Meat-From-Plants
The only preservatives in there are cultured dextrose and vitamin E. Vitamin E occurs naturally in meat anyway, and cultured dextrose is just dextrose that’s been fermented. It’s used as a natural preservative in tons of foods, including deli meats.
Nothing in there is something I would consider “processed”, but I guess that depends on your definition of processed. If fermentation is “processed”, then tons of healthy natural foods are processed, including yogurt, cheese, kombucha, and sauerkraut.
Oil is itself processed food.
Not necessarily. Extracting oil, you can say, is a form of processing, just like juicing an orange. I think it makes the label somewhat useless to say that, but sure. When you eat a raw soybean, though, you’re consuming soybean oil. That’s not processed in any way.
That's an amusing semantic ploy. Let us say I am using "oil" in the culinary sense, which would not include fats still trapped in cells and fibers of the plant.
The term “processed food” is entirely semantic. What is considered “processing”?
It's a spectrum, not black and white. Ranges from minimal- to ultra-processed. I'm referencing anything more than minimal (which is as simple as slicing an apple). I have less GSI issues when my intake is raw and whole.
https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/processed-foods/
So yes, I would consider all those things you listed as processed.
Processed water is an interesting concept.
Or do you just mean cheese and yogurt etc?
I feel like the label just becomes useless if something like a bowl of oats is “processed”.