I like them better than imitation meat, honestly. I haven’t tried the impossible burger, but I have tried a burger with a beyond meat patty and, man, I dunno. It does come pretty close to tasting like meat, but it tastes kind of off. I think vegan burgers taste best when they don’t try to imitate meat and instead try to do their own thing like make a patty out of beans and beet and stuff.

One benefit of these pre-made meat analogues is they’re made from extracted proteins (soy or peas), so there’s no oligosaccharides and fibers from legumes that ferment and cause gassiness. Personally, I get really bloated from beans and just legumes in general, and stay bloated for a long time. I stay bloated for like three days. I can’t eat them more often than twice a week at best because of it. Some people are lactose intolerant, some are gluten intolerant, some are allergic to pineapples or whatever, I guess I just get really bloated, blame it on my gut flora or something.

Another benefit is they’re already fortified with B vitamins (if you look at the full ingredients list), so good for the masses of people that don’t or can’t pay attention to this stuff.

On the other hand, these are processed foods by definition, so not as fresh as a home made meal. That’s a solid negative.

Do you have a nice recipe? Mine tend to be either really dry or straight up fall apart.

What’s the scary part? The oils and maltodextrin?