Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

The Impossible Whopper: Your thoughts on plant-based burgers?

Options
18911131416

Replies

  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    edited April 2019
    Options
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    I will try one. I am skeptical though. In general I don't like food that promises to be similar in taste and texture as its intended replacement. I have eaten many veggie burgers and I like them. I am fine if it tastes different and has a different texture. I expect it and I do not want a company to do something more to the product than necessary.

    This is my general reaction, but with a fast food burger I think taste is going to be more about the other ingredients anyway. (Again, speaking as someone who doesn't really care for fast food and has it a couple times a year, when on road trips.) As an aside, I enjoy a plain ground beef patty if I make it at home, but the idea of eating one of the typical fast food ones without the trimmings and bun is extremely unappealing to me -- they are greasier or fattier and definitely saltier than what I typically make.

    I think my thing with foods pretending to be other foods is that I expect a certain taste and not having it makes me feel like the food is lacking something, whereas if I simply eat it as something else I enjoy it. That's how I've been with foods like black bean based veggie burgers, and also things like cauliflower rice (I like cauliflower more than rice, usually don't want it chopped tiny but sometimes it works, but I never think of it as a rice replacement, just a way of eating cauliflower).

    That said, especially since I'm not a big fan of the meat in fast food burgers, I'd be curious how this tastes. According to at least one vegan podcast I listen to (forget which one) the Impossible burger is tasty, although they considered it rather akin to an occasional treat and not super healthy because meatless (which I think is a strawman being imposed on this conversation).

    Exactly. There are so many tasty foods in the world. I find turning one into a fake version of another to be kind of perplexing, especially in that IMO the real one often tastes better. (I get that people who are ethical vegetarians but like meat want fake meat, I guess, since they've decided that they can't ethically have what is to them a tasty food and they miss is.)

    The most pointed example I can think of is the McDonald's apple pies (those little deep-fried packets of oversweet apples, with more sugar on the outside). If I tried to think of them as an apple pie, they were pretty horrid - suffered from the comparison. If I thought of them as an apple pastry candy sort of thing, they weren't so bad.

    Also fried pies exist that do taste good and aren't from McDonalds. Sure there are a ton of calories in them, but if I'm going to eat food I want it to taste good (though recognize that sometimes it just won't taste as good as I'd like). If I'm going to eat fried apple pie it better be good.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Options
    I'm not against it if it is actually better environmentally, but I'm concerned it's mainly "greenwashing," to be honest.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Options
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    bpetrosky wrote: »
    So, the primary objections seem to be along these lines:
    • Clean eaters/food purists: Not natural, list of scary ingredients
    • Sodium fears, soy fears, etc...
    • Carnivore/keto: a vegan beef substitute implies that their sacred cows are unnecessary

    Did I miss anything?

    I don't really fit into those boxes (I defy boxes! or something :p ), though I suppose that's where "primary" comes in. I just personally don't really see the need to try it. Plus I'm assuming it costs more than beef burgers. I don't currently have anything against it mind you.

    I think it's a dollar more.

    As an atheist, I don't mind eating sacred cow. I believe beef is good for me, tastes good, and it costs less so I have no reason to eat the imitation burger. Save it for the vegans who want it. ;)

    Yeah one dollar isn't so bad. To be fair, I was thinking about locations where I personally have seen it, not Burger King. If we're talking just about Burger King I wouldn't eat the impossible whopper, but I also wouldn't eat a whopper period. I don't like cheese in most applications. Then again, I also almost never eat fast food (and when I do it's smallish local chains). Instead of becoming and staying vegetarian or vegan in high school, I swore off fast food.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Options
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    This came up on Twitter:

    The new recipe has 8g less protein but it is 31% of the DV of protein vs 27%. I haven't tried to figure out that math yet.


    Beats me who created this, but I just checked the BK site, and it doesn't seem to give the DV for protein (labels do not). If you google it you do get a feature (not sure where from, the address is google + search related terms) that shows a nutrition label, but the one for the Whopper (regular one) has 56% for protein. The DV for protein is apparently only 50 g.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Options
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    This came up on Twitter:

    The new recipe has 8g less protein but it is 31% of the DV of protein vs 27%. I haven't tried to figure out that math yet.


    Beats me who created this, but I just checked the BK site, and it doesn't seem to give the DV for protein (labels do not). If you google it you do get a feature (not sure where from, the address is google + search related terms) that shows a nutrition label, but the one for the Whopper (regular one) has 56% for protein. The DV for protein is apparently only 50 g.

    It's actually directly from their website (save for the circling of course). Here's the link.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Options
    aokoye wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    This came up on Twitter:

    The new recipe has 8g less protein but it is 31% of the DV of protein vs 27%. I haven't tried to figure out that math yet.


    Beats me who created this, but I just checked the BK site, and it doesn't seem to give the DV for protein (labels do not). If you google it you do get a feature (not sure where from, the address is google + search related terms) that shows a nutrition label, but the one for the Whopper (regular one) has 56% for protein. The DV for protein is apparently only 50 g.

    It's actually directly from their website (save for the circling of course). Here's the link.

    Thanks. Yeah, there's an error.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    Options
    aokoye wrote: »
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    bpetrosky wrote: »
    So, the primary objections seem to be along these lines:
    • Clean eaters/food purists: Not natural, list of scary ingredients
    • Sodium fears, soy fears, etc...
    • Carnivore/keto: a vegan beef substitute implies that their sacred cows are unnecessary

    Did I miss anything?

    I don't really fit into those boxes (I defy boxes! or something :p ), though I suppose that's where "primary" comes in. I just personally don't really see the need to try it. Plus I'm assuming it costs more than beef burgers. I don't currently have anything against it mind you.

    I think it's a dollar more.

    As an atheist, I don't mind eating sacred cow. I believe beef is good for me, tastes good, and it costs less so I have no reason to eat the imitation burger. Save it for the vegans who want it. ;)

    Yeah one dollar isn't so bad. To be fair, I was thinking about locations where I personally have seen it, not Burger King. If we're talking just about Burger King I wouldn't eat the impossible whopper, but I also wouldn't eat a whopper period. I don't like cheese in most applications. Then again, I also almost never eat fast food (and when I do it's smallish local chains). Instead of becoming and staying vegetarian or vegan in high school, I swore off fast food.

    This is just me being anal, but you're the second person in this thread to mention cheese as a negative about Whoppers, but Whoppers don't come with cheese. They're my favorite fast food burger and one of the reasons is the lack of cheese (not that I don't like cheese, I just think this particular burger benefits from not having it).

    I get that you're not interested in fast food, though. :)
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    edited April 2019
    Options
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    And they have a mission.... oddly ominous. Lol


    Of course they have a mission. Every venture does and sometimes lists their mission statement on their website. They wouldn't have created it if they didn't want to accomplish something with it. If it was up to them, no one would ever eat meat again. That's irrelevant, though. Does it taste good? Does it serve a purpose? Does it provide an option? That's what's important.

    I forgot the sarcastic winky face
    ;)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Options
    swirlybee wrote: »
    I've tried the Impossible Burger at three places now - Umami Burger, Fat Burger, and Carl's Jr. So far, Umami Burger was the best and the only one that was indistinguishable from a real burger. Fat Burger tasted and looked more like ground chicken or ground pork. I tried Carl's Jr twice and the second time it made me nauseous about halfway through. I thought I read somewhere that it has to be cooked a certain way in order for it taste like real beef.

    Carl's Jr is the Beyond Burger, not the Impossible Burger. To me, the products have distinct differences. Between the two, I prefer the Impossible Burger.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
    Options
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    To me it comes down to why would I eat an imitation burger, that costs more and does not have the same nutrition as beef, when i could eat and enjoy the beef patty? I can see no reason at all.

    Eat a varied diet, problem solved.