Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The, "Impossible Burger"?

Sacrilege.

Especially for a cattleman.

We started selling the impossible patty at my restaurant as a vegetarian option about a year ago. It sells well. I prefer beef, greatly, but I will admit I was quite surprised and impressed with what they have achieved in mimicking a beef burger. Texture, flavor, appearance…. It isn’t bad. I would eat one over other things I have tasted and liked less.

It should be illegal.

Especially to call it "burger".


It is a "Mechanically formed, heat treated and sterilized pea protein meal patty."

Artificially colored and flavored....and worse for you and the planet than beef.



Enjoy your virtue signal sandwich.

5 Reasons to Avoid Fake Meat (and What to Eat Instead)
by CARRIE FORREST, MPH IN NUTRITION | NOV 25, 2019 (updated: 6/5/21)
This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.
Is fake meat really healthier for you than real meat? Learn these 5 reasons to avoid fake meat and what foods you should be eating instead.

friends with burgers and fries
Fake meat is a plant-based alternative to real meat, made from plant sources of protein like soy or pea protein isolate. Publicly debuted just in the last several years, fake meat is quickly gaining popularity among those looking to reduce their meat consumption.

Fake meat is sold in patty form or in packages similar to real meat and can be found in most major grocery stores nationwide, including specialty grocery stores like Whole Foods.

Fake meat has even been introduced as a plant-based alternative at major restaurant chains like Burger King and Subway.

Fake meat is meant to offer vegans, vegetarians, and other non-meat eaters a “life-like” meat alternative. The creators of various fake meat companies want to offer a non-meat burger that looks, bleeds, cooks, and tastes like real meat.

The creators of fake meat want to present an easy swap to a meatless lifestyle, even ensuring that fake meat is sold alongside real meat in the pre-packaged meat section of the grocery store.

Fake meat also offers a similar macronutrient ratio to real meat, advertising 20 grams of plant protein per serving as an answer to the perennial “vegetarian protein” debate (a 4 ounce serving of beef offers about 21 grams of protein, for comparison). Everything about fake meat is intended to serve as a replacement for real meat.

Contents hide
1 Brands
2 Nutrition Debate
3 5 Reasons to Avoid Fake Meat
4 What to Eat Instead
5 Conclusions
Brands
As of 2019, there are two major fake meat brands competing in the marketplace. These is the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Meat burger which are both sold in major retailers and restaurants nationwide.

Fake meat is a burgeoning industry, with several other brands likely to make their appearance in the near future. Even major meat producers like Tyson are planning to launch plant-based alternatives.

Burgers grilling on a barbecue
Nutrition Debate
The healthfulness of fake meat is heavily debated. Proponents claim it offers a healthier version of meat due to its slightly lower caloric load, while opponents are skeptical of its processed ingredients.

A serving of fake meat has around 250 calories, a minor decrease compared to the 290 calories in a serving of real meat. Aside from this slight caloric difference, fake meat and real meat have similar macronutrient ratios.

Given that the caloric difference is a mere forty calories, proposing fake meat as healthier than real meat based on caloric load alone is not valid. This caloric difference doesn’t even account for the caloric load of lean beef, which comes in at only 200 calories.

Moreover, caloric load is not an indicator of a food’s healthfulness. Instead, a food’s healthfulness can be determined by its nutrient density. 250 calories of processed food does very different things to your body than 250 calories of whole food. Fake meat is not a nutrient-dense food; in fact, it contains ingredients that can actively harm your health.

While real ground beef will supply you with necessary bioavailable B vitamins, iron, zinc, selenium, cholesterol, and saturated fat, Beyond Meat offers none of these vital nutrients except for iron (in the form of non-heme iron, the less bioavailable version of iron). The Impossible Burger offers high levels of certain B vitamins, though these nutrients are synthetically added during production.

You would be so much better off eating a homemade lentil burger or a grass-fed burger instead of the fake stuff.

See my recipe for Air Fryer Hamburgers made without breadcrumbs.

burgers on a platter
5 Reasons to Avoid Fake Meat
While I understand the environmental and ethical reasons around moving away from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), the bottom line is that fake meat is not the answer.

The damage to human health from this ultra-processed food could possibly do the same harm or even more harm than factory-farmed meat.

Fake meat cannot replace nutrient-dense real meat. Here are five reasons to reach for your real burger or a bean burger instead.

1. It is ultra-processed
Fake meat is not a whole food. It is a processed conglomeration of already-processed ingredients.

The major ingredient in the Beyond Meat burger is pea protein isolate, a form of protein that involves stripping and processing the nutrients from peas to isolate its protein content.

The Impossible Burger boasts a protein source of soy protein concentrate–another form of protein made from processing a whole food. See more reasons why processed soy may be dangerous.

2. It may not be gluten-free
Other than the large portion of the population underdiagnosed with Celiac disease, even more may have non-Celiac gluten intolerance or sensitivity.

Gluten is a major common allergen and can present problems even for those who can technically tolerate it. A gluten-free diet is optimal for most people so consuming processed foods like fake meat is not ideal.

Just because a food does not contain gluten-containing ingredients does not mean it is gluten-free. If it is processed on shared equipment with products containing gluten, it likely has trace amounts of gluten.

Consuming fake meat could be downright dangerous for those with serious gluten sensitivities, as there is no brand of fake meat that is certified gluten-free at this point.

3. Fake meat is not real food
Fake meat is unrecognizable to our bodies. Heavily processed ingredients like pea protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, canola oil, natural flavors, potassium chloride, dextrose, and synthetic vitamins are not usable by our bodies.

We’re not evolved to properly digest and obtain nutrients from these processed ingredients and chemicals. Whole foods offer bioavailable nutrients that work synergistically in your body. For all of these reasons, fake meats are one of the worst foods for the environment.

Stick with a diet rich in whole, real foods from the earth and the pasture to supply your body with the nutrients and fuel it deserves.

See my list of clean eating foods.

friends at a table with pizza and burgers
4. Fake meat does not have good nutrition value
Fake meat cannot compete with real meat in terms of nutrition. Fake meat is high in sodium, containing at least 16% of your daily requirements (the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Meat burger sodium content.)

Real meat contains only 4% of your daily value of sodium, in comparison. Fake meat is low in overall nutrition. The Beyond Meat burger offers almost no vitamins and minerals, while the nutrients in the Impossible Burger are synthetic.

5. It might make you sick
Our bodies cannot function optimally when we feed them heavily processed, nutrient-stripped foods instead of real, nutrient-dense foods. We are designed to eat plants and meat, not factory-processed products.

Your immune system may take a beating from the gut-harming ingredients like soy, pea protein, canola oil, dextrose, natural flavors, and sunflower lecithin found in these fake meat products.

You’re even more at risk if you have allergies to any of these ingredients. Not to mention that none of the ingredients are certified organic or non-GMO, so you may be burdening your system with toxins.

What to Eat Instead
Instead of falling for marketing and fear-mongering, continue to prioritize real, whole foods in your diet. Here are some healthy options for including meat in your diet.

1. Choose to continue including real meat in your diet
Consumed in moderate amounts, real meat is a healthy choice in a well-rounded diet. If you want meat, choose grass-fed, grass-finished, and preferably organic.

Grass-fed and pasture-raised animals offer superior levels of nutrients and a better Omega-3/Omega-6 fatty acid ratio. Factory farming is good for no one, so support farmers who treat their animals ethically and raise them with proper nutrition and eco-friendly practices in mind.

Pork and chicken skewers on a platter with dipping sauces
2. Opt for plant-based protein instead
While fake meat is marketed as plant-based protein, there’s very little in terms of real plants in those products. If you want a true plant-based option, try a homemade lentil burger or a bean burger!

Even the frozen ones are less processed than fake meat. Or, you can make your own very easily. Bean burgers offer nutrients, fiber, and protein.

3. Consider including only poultry and fish
Depending on your reasons for wanting to decrease or eliminate meat consumption, you may be fine with consuming poultry and fish while forgoing red meat.

Turkey or chicken burgers can be super tasty and nutritious. You can also opt for fish patties if land animals aren’t your style.

Conclusions
Fake meat may seem like a dream come true for meat-conscious eaters, but it falls short of the hype. It is a processed product that is nutritionally inferior to real meat. Processed meats will likely continue to gain steam and be made widely available, though its high price point may stop it from being a realistic alternative for most Americans.

Even if price isn’t a big concern for you, you’re better off investing your money in ethically-raised grass-fed real meat. Your overall health will fare better with real meat or true plant-based alternatives like bean burgers.

Fake Meat No Substitute For Real Food

September 20, 2019

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Your Medical Information Isn’t as Private as You Think
In an effort to compete on taste, meat-free alternatives are being made with excessive amounts of salt, according to new Australian research.

Two and a half million Australians are gobbling up meat-free alternatives such as falafels, vegan pies, meat-free bacon and sausages, but health officials have sounded alarms regarding the salt-laden products, according to Business Insider Australia.

fakemeat
Of nearly 200 meat-free products available in Australia, some had as much as half the recommended salt intake in a single-serving, putting Australians at greater risk of heart attacks, kidney disease and stroke, officials said.

In the U.S., Burger King’s new Impossible Whopper bills itself as 100% whopper, 0% beef. The “burger” is actually an Impossible patty made mostly of soy protein, potato protein, coconut oil, sunflower oil and heme, derived from genetically engineered (GE) yeast.

Highly processed, the Impossible Burger is nothing more than fake food, and certainly not the solution to a sustainable food system.

For your best health and to save the planet, skip the fake meat alternatives and opt for real food that’s being raised the right way — namely grass fed biodynamic meats.

While grass fed meat is considered a niche market today, prior to the 1950s, all cattle were grass fed. Grass farming rejuvenates the soil, produces high-quality food and is a remedy for the many environmental problems caused by factory farms.

Burger King has said it’s not marketing the Impossible Burger to appease vegans and vegetarians, but for those who wish to cut down on their consumption of meat. And the burger chain is certainly not the only one hopping on the fake gravy train. Fake meat items are on the menus at White Castle, McDonald’s, Hard Rock Café, Kentucky Fried Chicken, The Cheesecake Factory, Red Robin, TGI Fridays, Qdoba, Del Taco and more.

Impossible Foods aims to produce vegan alternatives for all traditional animal foods, and the company is already developing vegan dairy and other types of meat, including poultry, pork and fish.

Meat substitutes are not new, and neither are the fake meat controversies. Quorn, a fungus-based ferment that hit the U.S. market in 2002, was originally developed by Imperial Chemical Industries, one of the largest chemical companies in the U.K. The fungus used to make Quorn is Fusarium venenatum —Latin for "venomous."

Since its inception, a number of studies have raised concerns about Quorn's safety, especially in people with food or mold allergies. The Center for Science in the Public Interest continues to maintain an adverse report collection site for Quorn-related illnesses, which include nausea, cramps or diarrhea, vomiting, anaphylactic reactions and death.

A primary ingredient in the Impossible Burger is genetically engineered soy leghemoglobin, which releases a heme-like protein when broken down. This protein is what gives the plant-based patty its meat-like look, taste and texture and makes the patty "bleed" when cooked.

The genetically engineered soy protein contains high levels of the herbicide glyphosate — as the consumer advocacy group Moms Across America (MAA) found out when they tested the Impossible Burger.

Rather than acknowledging that glyphosate in their food could be a problem, Impossible Foods engaged in a smear campaign against MAA, calling it an “anti-science, fundamentalist group that cynically peddles a toxic brew of medical misinformation.”

That would be fine with me Barry.


Peas are great animal feed. Not bad for human too.


Not worth a schit formed and pressed and doused in chemicals.

The thread is young

But pecos pete or saddleboots sam can say “by God I have never ate a burger, never ate at a burger king, never heard of one, and wouldn’t step foot in one if ya paid me a $1000”


Give it another page or 2

Popular with the soy-boys.