Plant-based meat is everywhere. You can buy chicken nuggets made from soy in your local grocery store. Or you can eat a burger made from a combination of pea protein, soy, and vegetable starch from a fast food chain. While I see more and more vegans get excited about these mock meats I always ask myself these questions:

• If meat is so bad for our bodies and the planet, then why do vegans want to eat plant-based meat?
• If fruits and vegetables are the best foods for our bodies and for the environment, then why do vegans celebrate the creations of plant-based meat?
• Are vegans concerned about the ingredients used in various plant-based meats?

Plant-Based Meat: Why Do Vegans Crave It?

Even though I primarily eat meat (real/regular meat) I do watch videos about what vegans eat. It’s because I’m curious and I also need to do research for my blog posts. When I watch what vegans eat in a day a good portion of them eat unprocessed or lightly-processed fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds, but I’m seeing more vegans eating mock meats. They’ll eat fake sausage and eggs for breakfast. Follow it up with a fake burger for lunch. And dinner will be another fake meat paired with some vegetables and grains.

Yet, most vegans are so for ethic reasons. They think it’s wrong to kill animals and eat them. That humans are meant to eat fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. So when I see them craving these mock meats and get excited to eat it I question why? If meat is so bad for humanity then why eat the mock meats? I understand meat is tasty, which is why I love it, but taste shouldn’t trump ethics.

Plant-Based Meat: Are Vegans Concerned About The Ingredients In These Foods?

Another thing that confuses me about some vegans loving the plant-based meat is how they overlook the ingredients in the food. Here’s the list for the Impossible Burger:

• Protein from soy and potatoes
• Flavor from heme (the molecule that makes meat taste, well, meaty)
• Fat from coconut and sunflower oils make it sizzle on the griddle
• Binders, methylcellulose and food starch, hold it together so you can make anything you want — meatballs, kebabs, patties, and more.

Soy is not good to humans unless you ferment it due to the phytoestrogens. That’s what Asians usually do before eating it. On top of that there isn’t that much protein from potatoes. One medium potato has 4.3 grams of protein (all which can’t be digested by humans). That’s the same amount of protein in 1 ounce / 28 grams of ground beef.

While using coconut oil in the mock meat is fine, the company is also using sunflower oil which can cause inflammation in our bodies. Finally, to keep the “meat” from falling apart it’s full of binders. Regular, unprocessed meat doesn’t need binders and doesn’t have them. And the fats in regular meat are healthy and also keeps us full longer.

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