Vegetarians consume more ultra-processed food than those who regularly eat meat, study finds
This is the problem with so much of the vegetarian offerings in Canada and the US; they try to mimic meat. In contrast, when my wife and I visited Israel in 2016, every meal was meat-free and the food was both delicious and healthy. We had no Beyond Meat burgers!
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Yeah, as a general rule I don’t like any food attempting to masquerade as another food. I don’t want to eat cheze or Beyond Burgers or soy milk “ice cream” or chocolate cake with weird healthy ingredients added to it.
If you’re dairy-free I’ll serve raspberry sorbet for dessert. If you’re vegetarian let’s make something for dinner that simply doesn’t contain meat.
And for the love of God don’t try to make chocolate cake healthy. If I wanted a healthy dessert I’d get a fruit cup.
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I’ve had carob muffins and chocolate avocado mousse: I enjoyed them, but yeah, they aren’t as good as rich chocolate desserts made with butter, cream, sugar, caramel, nuts, eggs, dried fruit (with one evil, dirty, smelly, nasty, putrid, disgusting, short-sheeting, dolphin-clubbing exception 
), liqueur, etc.
If they just stuck to beans & rice, there would be no problem
if you are serving someone, that is fine.
My wife can’t have lactose and misses ice cream and cheeses and buys the phony stuff for herself.
Fair enough… just don’t ask me to eat the fake stuff.
I have a niece with a lot of dietary restrictions. We just let her buy her own food when she gets here, and she cooks for herself.
One of them is not meat, though, but she did ask us exactly what all the ingredients of the brine and moisturizing cream (for lack of better word) that we put under the skin. She was satisfied and ate it. We would not have changed it up, and she’d have to eat other food.
Shorter story: I am not a restaurant.
I felt this way for a long time, as most simulated meat is gross to me. Just make a black bean burger if you don’t want a meat one. However, I’ve changed my opinion a little as some of the newer fake meat burgers like the impossible burger are actually tasty. Most of the fake meat is still gross.
They are tasty but not very healthy.
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I generally agree with the sentiment, but times are changing. An impossible whopper is GOOD, man. I’m less a fan of the beyond burgers, but they’re also adequate. They’re not a regular in my diet, but they’re a nice treat once in a while.
I also have a favorite deluxe hot dog restaurant and I prefer the veggie hot dogs there. They’re less greasy and less filling, so I don’t feel bloated after I eat them. Those I would never mistake as meat, they’re just a vehicle for the toppings. For a plain hot dog, there is no substitute.
Your post immediately too me to this:
and
I actually like black bean burgers. But they don’t taste like meat.
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Same. And I don’t need a black bean burger to taste like meat. I just enjoy it for what it is.
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Yes, me too
Chili’s used to have a really great one. This was a while ago so no idea if they still have it.
A local vegan place makes “pulled pork” using jackfruit. It is surprisingly good!!!
Isn’t normal ice cream and cheese ultra processed food?
Uh, “normal”?
Guessing that the huge-quantity ones are, since they need to be able to stay on a shelf.
But, general advice is: choose wisely (and pay more) to get higher-quality food.
And, hey, don’t eat so damned much! (Deaf ears on my son, who says he’s moving out on 1/1/2025).