Range

There is now (almost) a complete range of products that satisfy anyone’s need for a burger. From Very Good Butcher, Beyond Meat to Memphis Meats,  you soon will be able to choose from plant-based burger, a veggie burger that cooks and bleeds like meat, to a real meat burger with no factory farms or slaughterhouses.

There is also a complete range of reactions to these options.

The whole foods, plant-based (WFPB) crowd generally follows the Michael Pollan quote that anything that is made in a plant “unhealthy.”

The vegan crowd believes that anything that is not made from an animal is on the menu.

The meat-eaters can range from “I don’t want to know how this gets to my plate.” To the many other forms of cognitive dissonance when it comes to the impact of choosing to eat meat. There is no debate about the impact and it affects everyone.

What I think.

When Memphis Meats is commercially available at a reasonable cost, your choice will no longer effect anyone but you.

It will be a personal choice.

I don’t agree with the whole foods people who think you should NEVER, EVER eat anything that is processed or can’t make yourself. But, that is my choice.

Why?

The continuum of health is personal.

If you have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes then yes, I would recommend a whole, food, plant-based diet. There is enough evidence to show that you can prevent, treat, and reverse these conditions with a WFPB diet.

If you are fit and healthy then the occasional Beyond Meat burger is not going to do too much damage. Yes, they are higher in saturated fat, but not as high as any animal product. Beyond Meat, doesn’t rely on antibiotics and hormones. They don’t require the 1800 gallons of water that 1 pound of beef requires. You could give up showering for an entire year and not save as much water as giving up a pound of beef.

While I don’t eat it. I can’t even cook a Beyond Meat burger at home, I think they smell is too much like meat. I am definitely not the target market for Beyond Meat. I will eat a Very Good Burger from the Very Good Butchers. There are lots of plant-based options, but these ones really are very good.

When Memphis Meats, a lab-cultured, real meat product is commercially available the choice to eat meat, or not, really does become personal. Instead of having global ramifications.

Want to know more about Memphis Meats? I recommend watching Meat the Future to learn the story of a vegan, cardiologist who quits his job at the Mayo Clinic to change the future of meat.

The good news is that the range of options to choose from is growing every day. For now, your choice has an impact on the world and you are making a difference with every plant-based choice.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla