Vegan Practically

Several years ago, before I’d ever heard of “Beyond,” I sent back a burger I’d ordered in a sports-bar style restaurant because I thought it was a beef burger rather than the veggie burger I’d ordered. It was red inside, and I thought the juice running out of it was blood on my plate. It even tasted like beef (or at least what I remembered beef to taste like — it had been awhile). My dining companion said, “Maybe it’s that new kind of veggie burger.” And sure enough, it was indeed.

In short order, the variety of veggie burgers at all the restaurants I frequented, including the vegan restaurants, got replaced by these “beefy” beef-substitutes. Garden burgers and black bean burgers fell off the menu (they have since returned, thankfully!). At the time, though I’ve now adjusted, they were too realistic for my taste.

This article in Food & Wine provides some historical context. Faux or “mock” meat has a history that pre-dates the latest plant-based meat trend by hundreds of years, in the 10th to 13th C, in Buddhist monasteries in dynastic China. Because of the Buddhist prohibition against taking a life, it effectively requires vegetarianism. The imitation meats were meant to help people with this transition. If you’ve ever eaten in a Buddhist or Buddhist-inspired Asian restaurant, you will have encountered these products long before Beyond and Impossible burgers showed up on the grill.

But it’s only recently that these sorts of products have had “convincing” tastes and textures. As described on the Gardein Supreme Plant-Based Burger (in the US these are marketed as “Ultimate plant-based burger”) packaging: “A delicious plant-based burger experience. When it comes to burgers, sacrifice is never on the menu. That is why we created the Supreme plant-based burger: juicy plant-based patties that look, cook, smell and satisfy like real meat.” The photo on this post features the one I had for dinner last night.

Some people wonder why the push for realism. If vegans are so opposed to meat, then why seek foods that provide a meat-like experience?

In support of those in favour of improving the likeness, consider:

• Most vegans are ethically opposed to animal suffering and exploitation, and for that reason they choose not to support industries, such as the meat industry, where its rampant. They still like the taste, even miss it, and so cruelty- and exploitation-free products that taste like the “real deal” allow them to continue eating the things they like.
• Some people follow a plant-based diet for health reasons and think that plant-based alternatives are healthier. Keep in mind that it’s not always the case that a plant-based option has less saturated fat or fewer calories or less sodium than a meat option. But I like what this Bon Appétit article, “How Healthy are fake meats like Impossible and Beyond, Really?” notes, quoting Penn State food scientist; John Coupland: “…remember that ‘the point of comparison is a sausage, not a carrot!”
• Whether someone is seeking a very similar meat-substitute or not, they might simply enjoy the taste of these things. For example, I love the Gardein f’sh filets. I don’t love them because they taste like fish, though maybe they do (it’s been awhile and if they taste like fish it’s not the high-end kind, it’s more like the fish sticks or frozen breaded-filet kind that aren’t really “fishy”). I like having more protein-dense vegan options available to me as a change from tofu and legumes. Variety is good and need not be available only to those who eat animal products.
• I also have to agree with Ali Francis, the author of the Bon Appétit article, when she says, “avoiding the slaughter of animals, mentally and emotionally, feels like some kind of health benefit too.” If we can enjoy something delicious without it involving animal slaughter, that seems like a health-positive.
• It’s well-known that the environmental impact of the beef industry is severe. So a global reduction in the consumption of cow meat would have a positive effect on the environment. But people love their meat. A study last summer in Future Foods concludes that “Plant-based dietary alternatives to animal products are better for the environment and for human health when compared with the animal products they are designed to replace.” The researchers maintain that when the alternatives are “specifically formulated to replicate the taste, texture, and overall eating experience of animal products’, they are a much more effective way of reducing demand for meat and dairy than simply encouraging people to cook vegetarian whole foods.”

I take this last consideration to make a really important point: even for those people who recognize that a plant-based diet has environmental benefits (or, to the first point, is less cruel and exploitative), it can be difficult to make such a drastic dietary change. As the Buddhists of the past recognized, offering suitable substitutes can ease the transition. Similarly, if more and more realistic plant-based alternatives are available, with the goal of being virtually indistinguishable in taste, texture, and nutritional profile from “the real thing,” that could make it more attainable for the ethically-motivated eater who struggles in the face of a good burger.

Now, if you are already vegan and have developed an “ick factor” that makes your stomach roll over when you see blood, the pea-protein burger that’s coloured with beet juice and appears to bleed into the bun may not be for you. It still serves a good purpose though, and on balance it’s great to have more choices and variety, even if some of it approximates foods that some of us have serious moral qualms about in their original form.

Omnivores who stand firm on the view that, faced with a choice between real meat and an indistinguishable substitute (which is, let us say, at least as nutritionally sound) they would insist on the version that comes from a dead animal are on questionable ground. It’s hard to understand how that one fact about a menu item could make it better. So I am all for the companies that are developing good meal alternatives that fill the void some people experience after giving up meat, and that offer tasty options for those of us who don’t miss animal products but do appreciate variety.

How do you feel about meat- poultry- or seafood-alternatives that try to be as much like the originals as possible?