So would you eat this burger?

I was out and about the other day and had the radio on in my car. It was a talk show and the topic was Vegetarians and Vegans and why they have made the choice to be so.

The host seemed to be having difficulty in understanding why people would chose not to eat any meats but most who rang in were those who had made the choice.

Typically, most who give up meat say it is because of animal cruelty. In my case, after having spent five years doing product development of meat products, I simply grew to dislike the texture of all meats and have not eaten any in more than 20 years.

The show was very clear on the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan, and many restauraunts don’t really understand it and will usually simply present a plate of vegetables.

Vegetarians will not eat meat of any type – including poultry and seafood. Vegans will not eat any animal products at all, including dairy and eggs, in some people this also extends to honey as well.

Vegos and especially Vegans have to be good at managing their nutrient intake as removing meat from the diet does have an impact, particularly with iron and the B Group of vitamins. If carefully managed, it has been found that a vegetarian (or mostly vegetarian) diet is actually  beneficial to health. It is also well recognised that a vegetarian diet is more environmentally friendly, and a vegan diet is even more so.

The only real problem with vegetarian food to most meat eaters is that there is little taste or texture to the food, especiall with the meat substitutes which are now readily available – as an example the sausages  and lentil burgers do not really match meat.

So the latest news from the USA of a company which has developed a vegetarian pattie which has the same texture as a medium rare burger will be great news to the meat eaters.

The “Impossible Burger” contains a plant based molecule called heme, which is remarkably like the similar heme found in meat and so gives a distinct meaty flavour to the pattie.

Although not yet available in Australia, keep an eye out for it and other similar meaty type vegetarian products.