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?

15791011

Replies

  • Posts: 12,019 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »

    In that we can do it (like we can take fat out of coconuts and olives and avocados to make oil and skim off cream and make butter and so on), and evolution of our brains and societies is why we can do it, we evolved to do that as much as we evolved to do anything.

    The way you are talking about evolution seems confused to me still -- you seem to think that evolution is directed to result in a certain diet and certain actions, but not others. As noted with the design concept, that's a religious view and is fine, but I'm not aware of any religion that holds that humans must eat meat (which doesn't mean they don't exist, but I am not aware of any).

    I dont want to debate semantics or personal beliefs, or lack of belief.
  • Posts: 12,019 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    If I can digest it and use it for fuel and nutrients I was designed to eat it. Any claim that one way of eating is better than another outside of an individual level is nonsense propaganda and in this case keto propaganda.

    Why is it necessary for keto to need all the extra sauce? If it works for some people for health benefits and weight loss why isn't that enough? Why does it need to be backed by evolution too? This is at near cartoon levels of absurdity.

    This makes little sense. I can eat bark, poison, air and dirt too. As I've said repeatedly, just because it is there does not mean that I should eat it. That should apply to all people regardless of keto vegan, SAD diet or whatever.

    And why bring up keto and move the goal posts?
  • Posts: 3,562 Member
    edited April 2019
    OK... can't believe I did this, but this back & forth about the nutritional difference made me curious and I figured others might be as well. I was looking to make a simple, side-by-side comparison, which was not so easy. Ended up taking the nutrition breakdown from Impossible Burger's website, and filled in the comparable USDA info by hand, rounded for easy comparison. Can't guarantee it's not error-free. The USDA calculator I used didn't provide the % daily value for the 4 oz serving size, and I certainly wasn't going to any more trouble.


    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size4 oz. (113g)
    Amount per serving

    New Recipe Impossible Burger USDA 85% Ground Beef (raw)

    Calories240 243
    % Daily Value*
    Total Fat14g 18% 17g
    Saturated Fat8g 40% 6.5g
    Trans Fat0g 1g
    Cholesterol0mg 0% 77g
    Sodium370mg 16% 75g
    Total Carbohydrate9g 3% 0g
    Dietary Fiber3g 11% 0g
    Total Sugars<1g 0g
    Includes<1g Added Sugars 1%
    Protein19g 31% 21g
    Vitamin D0mcg 0% 0mcg
    Calcium170mg 15% 17mg
    Iron4.2mg 25% 2mg
    Potassium610mg 15% 333mg
    Thiamin28.2mg 2350% 0mg
    Riboflavin0.4mg 30% 0mg
    Niacin5.3mg 35% 5mg
    Vitamin B60.4mg 25% 0mg
    Folate115mcg DFE 30% 7mcg
    Vitamin B123mcg 130% 2.5mcg
    Phosphorus180mg 15% 194mg
    Zinc5.5mg 50% 5mg
    * The % Daily Value tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

    Edited to add: Sorry- it didn't turn out right at all. It squished all of the data together & I'm not going to go back & redo it. The numbers are still there for comparison. If someone can/wants to do it better, have at it :)
  • Posts: 3,562 Member
    MikePTY wrote: »
    @try2again I got you

    Beef --- Impossible Burger
    Calories 243 --- 240
    Fat 17g --- 14g
    Sat Fat 6.5g --- 8g
    Carbs 0g --- 9g
    Fiber 0g --- 3g
    Protein 21g --- 19g
    Sodium 66mg --- 370mg
    Cholesterol 77mg --- 0mg
    Potassium 333mg --- 610mg
    Calcium 17mg --- 170mg
    Iron 2.36mg --- 4.2mg
    Magnesium 20mg --- 0mg
    Phosphorus 193mg --- 180mg
    Zinc 5.06mg --- 5.5mg
    Vitamin C 0mg --- 0mg
    Thiamin 0.047mg --- 28.2mg
    Riboflavin 0.171mg --- 0.4mg
    Niacin 5.253mg --- 5.3mg
    Vitamin B-6 0.391mg --- 0.4mg
    Folate 7ug --- 115mcg
    Vitamin B12 2.45ug --- 3mcg
    Vitamin A 5ug --- 0
    Vitamin E 0.19mg --- 0
    Vitamin D 0.1ug --- 0
    Vitamin K 1.5ug --- 0

    Its hard to argue looking at that that beef is more nutritionally complete than the impossible burger. They are more or less the same. The vitamins at the end that beef has are in such minuscule quantities that they could also be in the impossible burger just not required to be listed by the manufacturer. Beef would certainly not be considered a source of them.

    Worth noting that this is comparison to 85/15 beef, which is a pretty decent quality ground beef. If you were to look at the ground beef that is used by fast food places, it is much more likely to be higher fat content (such as a 70/30), and also have lower nutrient concentration.

    I certainly wouldn't recommend a diet of only beef burgers or only impossible burgers. But I don't see any reason from this info that beef would be a better choice than the others for this, and certainly no evidence that beef is more nutritionally complete.

    ETA: In fact looking at this, it's pretty clear that they worked to make the impossible burger as nutritionally similar to 85/15 beef as possible.


    Aw, thanks! Much easier on the eyes :)

    I wasn't trying to make any point with the 85% comparison... I just chose that because it's my personal preference (though I use 93% when texture isn't a concern). I'm not self-centered or anything ;)
  • Posts: 3,814 Member
    try2again wrote: »

    Aw, thanks! Much easier on the eyes :)

    I wasn't trying to make any point with the 85% comparison... I just chose that because it's my personal preference (though I use 93% when texture isn't a concern). I'm not self-centered or anything ;)

    It was a good choice though. Looking at the nutritional breakdown of the two, it seems pretty clear that it is the type of ground beef that they are modeling the impossible burger off of nutritionally.
  • Posts: 6,016 Member
    I tried an Impossible Burger at Dave and Busters. I liked it. I would get it agian...
  • Posts: 12,019 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »

    Again... near cartoon level absurdity. You had to know I wasn't advocating eating poison or dirt.

    I didn't move the goal posts. Even when you don't say it directly you aren't fooling anyone who has read a few of your posts. Your keto agenda is always up front these days.

    Magical imaginary keto ether...invading everything even when absent. Awesome.

    I still do not think it an absurd idea that one does not need to eat something just because it exists. We still have food choices. I choose not to eat it. Others do. Again. Great that the choice is there. Do you want to remove that choice? Why would the choice to skip that option be wrong? More for you then if i skip it. Enjoy.
  • Posts: 12,019 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »

    ??? I didn't say they have the same nutrition. I said neither is nutritionally complete, and that not being nutritionally complete is an odd reason to avoid a food. (I don't think it's odd to avoid the food for other reasons, including being squicked out, even irrationally, by the ingredients, avoiding gluten or soy, not wanting to eat fast food, whatever, assumptions about the taste.) I think the idea that the Impossible burger whopper should be avoided because it is less nutritious than a whopper makes no sense, however.

    So you weren't arguing against my point. My mistake. We'll move on then .
  • Posts: 12,019 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    OK... can't believe I did this, but this back & forth about the nutritional difference made me curious and I figured others might be as well. I was looking to make a simple, side-by-side comparison, which was not so easy. Ended up taking the nutrition breakdown from Impossible Burger's website, and filled in the comparable USDA info by hand, rounded for easy comparison. Can't guarantee it's not error-free. The USDA calculator I used didn't provide the % daily value for the 4 oz serving size, and I certainly wasn't going to any more trouble.


    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size4 oz. (113g)
    Amount per serving

    New Recipe Impossible Burger USDA 85% Ground Beef (raw)

    Calories240 243
    % Daily Value*
    Total Fat14g 18% 17g
    Saturated Fat8g 40% 6.5g
    Trans Fat0g 1g
    Cholesterol0mg 0% 77g
    Sodium370mg 16% 75g
    Total Carbohydrate9g 3% 0g
    Dietary Fiber3g 11% 0g
    Total Sugars<1g 0g
    Includes<1g Added Sugars 1%
    Protein19g 31% 21g
    Vitamin D0mcg 0% 0mcg
    Calcium170mg 15% 17mg
    Iron4.2mg 25% 2mg
    Potassium610mg 15% 333mg
    Thiamin28.2mg 2350% 0mg
    Riboflavin0.4mg 30% 0mg
    Niacin5.3mg 35% 5mg
    Vitamin B60.4mg 25% 0mg
    Folate115mcg DFE 30% 7mcg
    Vitamin B123mcg 130% 2.5mcg
    Phosphorus180mg 15% 194mg
    Zinc5.5mg 50% 5mg
    * The % Daily Value tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

    Edited to add: Sorry- it didn't turn out right at all. It squished all of the data together & I'm not going to go back & redo it. The numbers are still there for comparison. If someone can/wants to do it better, have at it :)

    Impressed by the work that took. Cheers.
  • Posts: 12,019 Member
    edited April 2019
    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.

  • Posts: 3,495 Member
    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.
  • Posts: 3,495 Member
    edited April 2019
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    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.
  • Posts: 12,344 Member
    I'm not against it if it is actually better environmentally, but I'm concerned it's mainly "greenwashing," to be honest.
  • Posts: 3,495 Member
    nvmomketo wrote: »

    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.
  • Posts: 7,887 Member
    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.
  • Posts: 3,495 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »

    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.
  • Posts: 7,887 Member
    aokoye wrote: »

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

    Thanks. Yeah, there's an error.
  • Posts: 3,562 Member
    aokoye wrote: »

    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. :)
This discussion has been closed.