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Friday, January 18, 2019

Faux Meat: Friend or Foe?

When it comes to faux meat, there are now more options than ever before. Gardein, Boca, and many other companies offer a wide variety of plant-based alternatives to most traditional meat favorites. And new faux meat products like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger are making it even more convenient and accessible to choose vegan options. The popularity of some of these products has also sparked curiosity in those who might otherwise not have tried faux meat.

For people who are not already vegan or vegetarian, this wide availability makes it easier to try these products and possibly choose them more often. And for kids and picky eaters, having more options that are closer to their favorite foods is always advantageous.

As faux meat gets closer to imitating real meat, some vegans might be turned off by how much it resembles real meat. But I feel this is outweighed because tasting more like real meat will help more non-vegans try it.

"But it's so processed," you might wonder. While I'm not making nutritional claims on this blog, it's common knowledge that it's generally better to eat less processed food. I personally prefer to replace meat in most dishes with more vegetables, but this doesn't work for everyone, or for every recipe.

Take burgers for example. On my journey to eating vegan more often, burgers were my last holdout for land-animal meat products. Until I tried the Beyond Burger. I still crave burgers, but the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger are close enough for me that they satisfy my craving without needing to eat beef. I haven't had a beef burger since.

To be fair, it's not like non-vegans don't eat their share of processed food too. Yet for some reason the nutritional aspect is questioned more when it's vegan. I wouldn't recommend eating faux meat every day, the same way I wouldn't recommend eating any heavily processed food every day, but that's up to each person to decide for themselves.

And are all processed foods equally "bad" for being processed? I would guess that some vegan faux meat options are more nutritious than some of their fast food, "real meat", counterparts. Consider chicken nuggets, which are highly processed whether they're made from meat or plant-based protein.

So is the rising trend of faux meat products a good thing or a bad thing? While it's up to individuals to balance the amount of processed food in their diet, having more plant-based options is always a good thing in my opinion - and it benefits everyone from vegans to vegan adjacents, and even carnivores.

Have you tried any plant-based meat alternatives? Which is your favorite?