- checking login information
Loading...Fake Meat — Good Idea?
- Megan, selected from Experience Life
- August 25, 2009
- 11:09 am
- 26 comments
By Kristin Ohlson, Experience Life
When some people decide to eat less meat, they still want something that looks, smells and tastes like meat on their plate — and they want its preparation to be as easy as flipping a ground beef patty. Even mainstream supermarkets now offer dozens of veggie burgers and other protein-rich products (usually made from some combination of textured or hydrolyzed soy protein, wheat gluten, and grains) to fill this savory niche. Great idea, right?
Not necessarily. It may be convenient to rely on “meat analog” products when first making the transition to a plant-based diet, but many of these products also contain industrial-food byproducts, chemically processed soy and grain powders, artificial flavorings, colorings, and other chemicals to make them palatable. Many vitamins and minerals are leached away during their high-heat production. And some people may have trouble digesting them or experience intolerances to ingredients like gluten and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
“I advise people to cut these highly processed things out drastically — even cut them out completely,” says Brendan Brazier, professional Ironman triathlete and author of Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life (Da Capo Press, 2008).
Concurring is Mitzi Dulan, RD, CSSD, sports nutritionist for the Kansas City Chiefs football team and Kansas City Royals baseball team, and coauthor with NFLer Tony Gonzalez of The All-Pro Diet: Lose Fat, Build Muscle, and Live Like a Champion (Rodale, August 2009). If consumers want good sources of non-meat protein, she encourages them to eat beans, lentils, quinoa, legumes, nuts, whole soybeans (edamame) and naturally fermented soy foods like tempeh. Or, she suggests, choose vegan products (e.g., veggie burgers) made primarily from these whole-food ingredients rather than relying on products made from soy protein isolate, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) and textured vegetable protein (TVP).
Next: A Better Way to Maintain a Vegetarian or Vegan Diet
Read more: Eating for Health, Food, Health, Vegan, fake meat, healthy vegan eating, vegan diets, vegetarian, veggie burgers
Megan, selected from Experience Life
Experience Life magazine is an award-winning health and fitness publication that aims to empower people to live their best, most authentic lives, and challenges the conventions of hype, gimmicks and superficiality in favor of a discerning, whole-person perspective. Visit experiencelife.com to learn more and to sign up for the Experience Life newsletter, or to subscribe to the print or digital version.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
people are talking
thank you, new alternative mold & mildew cleaners :)
Too bad that fox didn't know how to aim better. I'm not even joking.
If you don't have children, your pets are your babies, my cat is my baby and I adore her, I know her…
Of course......those are the best birthdays.
Yet another video with the Cute pegged to 11...
26 comments
+ add your ownThank you.
I think that they are fine in certain circumstances. Eating out, I've been known to get a veggie burger on the menu, which is usually a Gardenburger or equivalent. And my kids love Quorn chicken nugget-like things. They've never had the evil McDonald's equivalent but maybe it's just part of being a kid?
r4 software
i myself have tried fake meats and while they are good, i don't enjoy eating them because of the concept. Eating fake meat seems like cheating, a vegetarian doesn't eat meat and that is the whole idea. so why eat fake meat when you can certainly go without.
whoops I meant to say hemp milk
I like Tofurky products. They are made of real tofu and taste great. They make,roasts, cold cuts, sauages etc. Along with seitan I also like a brand called Original Field Grain Meats. They have wonderful flavoring. Besides beans, avacadoes, nuts and seeds which also have protein we sometines eat Quorn. However, quorn is not vegan it contains eggs, but has a good variety of products. We drink hemp which is also high in protein and contains Omega three oils
Loli (and any others looking for yummy veg recipe ideas), visit http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com for an amazing assortment of healthy, delicious vegan recipes on cookbook author Bryanna Grogan's fabulous blog.
Meat analogs have a fascinating history. Anyone living in or near a city with a Budhist Vegetarian restaurant should try their variations on this theme...delicious! They were created originally centuries ago, to appease the palates of visitors to Budhist monasteries who were not vegetarian.
Anything made from scratch with organic whole foods is going to be best for us, obviously, but I think commercial meat analogs are fine for folks transitioning as long as they don't make a habit of eating them all the time.
The trick is not to think about needing 'fake meat' to get through a meal, but (as others have said) look for recipes that incorporate other sources of protein into your diet in creative ways.
That said, I make holiday tofu turkeys for people because old habits do die hard! (and there are few good substitutes on the market IMO that are satisfying)
My adivce to new veggies is not to be disheartened if they buy a meat analog that is really disappointing...there are good ones out there! Don't give up...shop around, and experiment with recipes. It can seem like a lot of work to make veggie burgers from scratch, but once you have a good recipe you can make a big batch and always freeze a couple dozen! Same with homemade seitan, 'neat'balls, etc!
Boca Burgers and Amy's are my favorite type of fake meat. It's made of tofu, so it is protein like real meat and it tastes like it too! It's healthy and a great idea.
I have no problem with faux meats and enjoy a good veggie burger pretty often! I may not be the healthiest vegetarian but at least I am one!
twitter.com/voice4change
vgnsnaps.wordpress.com - for vegetarians & vegans, free to join!
I'm not sure if anyone is saying that the fake meats are gross.. Some are gross but some are very good!!
No matter what they taste like processed foods are high is sodium, preservatives and that my friends is the point.
The athlete's diet in the article was full of un-processed whole foods of the entire spectrum.. yummy
The new so called fake meats are really tasty. Don't knock it til ya try it.
If I go out with friends and they want to eat at Burger King I order a salad, once I ordered a whopper minus the meat, it was a very good samdwich.
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment