Alternative Meat Products, Panacea For Vegans?

According to data from the Plant Based Foods Association, in 2016 the sale of “vegetable meats” increased more than 15% globally (1). This is broadly good news, it means that there is an increasing supply of alternative products to meat because there is more and more demand to cover. And when one demand goes up, the other (for meat) goes down. It also seems that the projection is positive and will continue to increase in the coming years.

Although this report refers mainly to US data, it is enough to take a look at any national supermarket to see that the supply is also skyrocketing here. We started by having soy and tofu drink, and today there are vegetable burgers of various types, seitan and vegan sausages in national chains of neighborhood supers. Let’s not say in the large hypermarkets, which even have offers from various brands and even private labels.

The not-so-good part is the tendency to believe that any vegetable or “vegan” product is healthy per se. And that is not true, as we already discussed in this post. Although in that case we are talking about vegan products in general, and today we are going to focus on what we call “meat substitutes”, that is, hamburgers, sausages, nuggets, sausages and other similar vegan products.

The food industry cares little about our health. They want consumers who are satisfied with the price and the taste, and who feel that their needs are covered. A dairy company does not care to sell vegetable drinks and soy yogurts if it covers a market niche. And he will add all the sugar necessary to make them rich.

In the same way, the main meat company in the country, which a few years ago launched an advertising spot in which it made fun of vegetarians, today sells soy sausages without disheveled.

In addition, the industry knows that labeling “vegan” has healthy connotations and abuses it. That is why we find vegan sausages that are pure fat of poor quality with coloring and starch, but they go in a container in green tones with very “healthy” reminiscences.

Vegan nuggets with a ridiculous quantity (and protein quality) pre-fried in the worst quality oil, veggie burgers made mainly of rice and seasonings (which could be a side, but not the protein part of the meal) or tofu sausages with just a 12% tofu. All of them rich in salt, and with the most careful packaging.

Taking into account that as “substitutes” for meat products, these products are usually bought to make up the protein part of the menu, making sure that they really cover it would be the first step, as we have just mentioned, many times it does not happen and their protein content is low and / or poor quality.

At this point, natural tofu (or tofu flavored with spices, onion, tomato, olives…), textured soybeans, tempeh or of course legumes continue to win by a landslide.

To this day, although there are exceptions, the advice is still to make these products at home. Hamburgers and precooked sausages are just that, a precooked one, with a more or less high content of “filling” ingredients (fats, starches, flours…) and in many cases quite a few additives. They are fine for a hurry, but not for frequent consumption.

In the same way that the general population is not advised to consume hamburgers, sausages or sausages, if not fresh meat, neither do we advise the vegetarian population to systematically consume these products, if not tofu, soybeans or legumes.

That does not mean that there is not a healthy and well-formulated product, surely there must be, among so many offers. But if we generalize the reality is not that.

So do n’t buy without looking at the ingredient list, no matter how big the “vegan” symbol is on the pretty part of the package. Let us continue to be the critical and demanding consumers that we have always been, that they do not buy from us so easily.

References

1. US Plant Based Foods Industry Tops $5 Billion in Annual Sales. PRWeb. Retrieved on September 27, 2017, from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/03/prweb14121969.htm