Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by adrian_mrd on Thursday May 06, 2021 @11:01PM (#27071599)

Whilst the environmental and animal welfare benefits of many of the ‘fake’ meats (Beyond, Impossible, Vegetarian Butcher, etc) are noble and important, in the spirit of ‘full’ lifecycle analysis, it is important to also consider just how processed (ultra processed) these products are and the potential impacts this has in the human health domain.

And the research on ultra processed foods is rather clear, they are ‘bad’ for human health in large quantities.

Some alternatives that are better for the environment AND for human health include: pulled oats from Finland, and fake cheese products made from beans (rather than tree nuts).

Edit: Added… simple tip, read the ingredient list and count the number of ingredients used.

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by gnicholas on Thursday May 06, 2021 @11:09PM (#27071674)

I'd be curious to know which ingredients are the most worrisome. I don't eat much Beyond or Impossible at this point, but I could see myself eating a lot in the future if they made lower-fat options (more like ground turkey than ground beef).

But I don't want to eat something that is made out of unhealthy ingredients. What should I look out for?

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by adrian_mrd on Thursday May 06, 2021 @11:27PM (#27071803)

Three good reads to start:

1. Primer on ultra processed foods: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-are-ultra-processed...

2. NOVA “the food classification that categorises foods according to the extent and purpose of food processing, rather than in terms of nutrients” [PDF]: http://archive.wphna.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/WN-2016-...

3. ‘Ultra-processed foods and added sugars in the US diet: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study’: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/3/e009892

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by lambdaba on Friday May 07, 2021 @01:31AM (#27072537)

Seed oils. See Dr. Cate Shanahan.

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by toper-centage on Friday May 07, 2021 @02:06AM (#27072762)

Better than animal fat

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by uh-quan on Friday May 07, 2021 @09:52AM (#27075846)

Animal fats are great. One of the staples of healthy human diets for hundreds of thousands of years.

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by lambdaba on Friday May 07, 2021 @02:18AM (#27072849)

That's just wrong. Inform yourself on the history of where the saturated fat scare comes from and the disastrous consequences on global health.

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by tootie on Thursday May 06, 2021 @11:21PM (#27071770)

All your food started in the heart of a star. What's a few more steps.

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by garmaine on Friday May 07, 2021 @01:58AM (#27072723)

The few more steps heavily denatures proteins, potentially creating novel structures in the processing which can have significantly negative effects on humans—cancer or prion catalysts, for example.

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Re:Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018) by dguaraglia on Thursday May 06, 2021 @11:07PM (#27071658)

Let's not overlook the fact that most cows raised in massive farms are fed a horrible diet and most beef based products - even raw beef - are also processed and have additives.

I'm not saying that Beyond Burger is better or worse, but that pretending all beef is healthy is kind of silly.

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