I went down a bit of a nutritionally-complete food rabbit hole and ended up here:
Can Huel get on this too? 
1 Like
As long as it doesnāt taste like a McPlant
No offense intended to anyone who needs and likes plant-based / vegan sausages or burgers etc. To me it just makes no sense. I donāt like the idea of ācheatingā or misleading my brain. And because one of my reasons to tend to a vegan diet as best as I can is the ethical aspect. Iāve never felt like buying a vegan sausage or burger or food alike. But thatās just me 
.
I think the main demographic for products like Impossible and Beyond are people who have moved onto plant based diets fully or partially for whatever reason and miss this kind of food. That was the case with me - they arenāt especially healthy but good occasional comfort food. Itās big business - over $2B and continuing to grow to the point where thats expected to double in the next 4 or 5 years.
Youāre certainly right. I just guess that people who āneedā that kind of comfort food have maybe a bigger chance to fall back into old eating routines. For me it would probably be 
.
I eat vegan sausages and burgers from time to time but wouldnāt dream of eating meat based ones. I donāt eat them because I crave burgers or sausages but to add more variety to my diet.
2 Likes
I donāt feel like I āneedā to eat burgers, but I do quite enjoy them. Same with bacon etc and whilst Iād tend to agree that the meat industry as a whole isnāt great - I do eat meat and intend to keep eating it.
I will however happily have a Mana burger instead of beef, because theyāre pretty tastyā¦ And thatās how you get the 90% of the population that will never go vegan to eat plants. You make something that looks and tastes like the meat they enjoy, but isnāt.
Mana burger/impossible burger, theyāre aimed at meat-eaters, not vegans.
1 Like
I love a āmeatyā vegan burger or sausage once in a while. Iād never buy one from McDonaldās though.
Was is BK or KFC that were cooking vegan patties on the same grill as meat ones?
I get it to an extent. Something to put between veg and potatoes. My grandma used to give me a gap haha.
Not really for me though. They taste too much like meat for me and I spend the time eating around it for that reason. Happier with pad Thai and tofu.
Both of them I believe
yeah - thatās the key difference between meat substitute patties/sausages like soy and meat analogues like Impossible and Beyond which are designed to replicate meat as closely as possible even down to appearance and cooking behaviour. These definitely are not aimed at traditional vegans as @Tristan mentioned.
If people need something similar to what they were eating before, and it isnāt available, then that makes them more likely to take the route of least resistance and just buy a pack of sausages.
It also helps people to consider plant-based, if itās not too different to what they already know they enjoy, or know how to cook. My partner isnāt vegan, but heāll opt for the fake stuff that replicates that experience if itās available. He knows itās better for the environment. More choice isnāt a bad thing.
People buy ersatz products for all sorts of reasons. Thereās no shame or guilt in enjoying a veggie burger, whether you can see the lentils in it, itās a veg protein patty, or a Meatless Farm creation. Itās not cheating. Not any more than using store bought stock rather than boiling up your own veg peelings. We all cook and eat in different ways.
Go to the comments section on any Huel FB advert and youāll see people shaming anyone that chooses to eat Huel because they think it means theyāre lazy or too stupid to cook. But Hueligans have their reasons, they are varied and many. Just like the reasons people have for buying fake animal products.
1 Like
I know youāre absolutely right from a pragmatic point of view. I was only speaking about myself. I still donāt really get the point why a plant-based sausage or burger tastes better when it looks like a meaty oneā¦ but of course I know how it works for most people and itās easy for someone like me that likes eating veggies and fruits and mushrooms 
ā¦. and in the end itās a good thing for animals and the environment when people try more plant-based food based on whatever reasons. But I still wish that there will be a time where people donāt like the idea of eating animals anymore.
I agree, but we are a long way from that which is why products like these make it much more easy for people to eat plant-based but also eat what they are used to.
I myself have eaten burgers like this (Iāve never eaten a McDonalds or Burger King meat based or plant based burger); Iāve also eaten plant based black pudding and haggis yet never eaten the animal based ones. I see a company has just launched plant-based salmon fillet steaks - Iād try them despite never eating salmon in my life.
Are they a big part of my diet? No. Over half of my diet over past nearly six years has been Huel and over a third of the rest has been whole foods, fruits, nuts etc.
I see all the new plant based foods launched for Veganuary and I do worry that many of them are far off nutritionally complete. You check the packets and they are loaded with salt, sugar, fat, and lack many minerals and vitamins. Jackfruit is trendy, but itās not really very nutritional.
4 Likes
I donāt really get the point why salad tastes better when itās covered in condimentsā¦ or why people put parsley on anythingā¦ or why avocados are so popular with middle class womenā¦ or cola. I donāt get cola AT ALL. Itās just that people have different tastes.
1 Like
Sorry, that I wasnāt clear enough. It was rather meant with an ironical undertone: why do the same ingredients taste better when the eyes think itās an animal product. But maybe is my English not good enough to point out properly what I mean. But I didnāt want to go to far away from what Alexday wanted to discuss.
Presentation plays a huuuuuuuuge part of peopleās enjoyment of food. Even really simple things like being on a nicer plate can change peopleās experience of food. Appearance matters.
Or on a piece of slate or a shovel or something
My mum whoās be a vegetarian her entire life does enjoy a burger form time to time, she usually opts for your more bean type burger and she eats burgers so she can have burgers with others. Like a social thing where she can have something she can eat which is still tasty. The number of times when I was vegan where going to place with friends meant eating salad or chipsā¦ itās always nice to have a veggie/vegan alternative
1 Like