People love burgers, even vegetarians and vegans want burgers. Veggie burgers, until now, all taste like overseasoned, underhydrated corrugated cardboard. Then came Ethan Brown, a 6-foot-5 vegan who sold his house and raided his family’s savings to fund a startup called Beyond Meat. Along the way he signed up Bill Gates and Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, as well as Leonardo DiCaprio as investors.
Beyond Meat is creating quite a stir. Sold nationally in supermarkets with an accelerating sales trajectory. It also went public last week in an explosive IPO, with its stock soaring by as much as 163%. Beyond Meat raised nearly $241 million and reached its $1 billion-plus unicorn valuation in large part because of the success of its Beyond Burger in replicating the taste and feel of a hamburger. To celebrate its IPO and 10th birthday, Beyond Meat offered free food at several fast-food chains.
However, the plant-based burger uses more than vegetables to re-create the taste of a classic, bleeding burger. Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger uses 22 ingredients in its attempt to re-create the taste and texture of a beef burger. Here’s what’s in a Beyond Burger:
- Water Salt
- Sunflower oil
- Vegetable glycerin
- Dried yeast
- Gum arabic
- Citrus extract (to protect quality)
- Ascorbic acid (to maintain color)
- Beet juice extract (for color)
- Acetic acid
- Succinic acid
- Pea protein isolate
- Expeller-pressed canola oil
- Refined coconut oil
- Cellulose from bamboo
- Methylcellulose
- Potato starch
- Natural flavor
- Maltodextrin
- Yeast extract
With all this stuff in it, is it healthy? Saying a food is “plant-based” does not mean it’s made with vegetables, and therefore healthy. These meat-free burgers, like many vegan food products, are full of derivative ingredients such as protein isolated from plants. These non-meat burgers lose nutrients with processing, according to dieticians. The issue is that highly processed foods are left with highly absorbable carbohydrates, and little of the important nutrients, such as fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.
The Beyond Burger has more than five times as much sodium as an unseasoned beef patty. Too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure, which increases the risks of heart disease and stroke. Beyond Burger has zero cholesterol, as opposed to the 100 milligrams of cholesterol in an 85-percent lean-beef burger. Eating a lot of cholesterol can raise LDL levels that are linked to heart disease. The Beyond Burger also has more of the essential mineral iron than a beef burger does.
But, is it healthy and sustainable? Nutritionists say absolutely not! Many of the actual ingredients are masked by their name.
Canola Oil : One tablespoon of Canola Oil contains 2,610 mg of omega-6 fatty acids and 1,279 mg omega-3 fatty acids. That’s a lot of omega-6, which causes inflammation. The omega-3 found in canola oil isn’t at all beneficial. It does not convert to EPA or DHA, the beneficial omega-3s that protect the brain, heart, and heart health.
Caramel color: This contains ammonia and sulfites and is a carcinogen.
Yeast Extract: MSG hides under many names and yeast extract is one of them. It overstimulates the nervous system, leads to the development of significant inflammation, increased blood pressure, central obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Carrageenan: A carcinogenic risk to humans associated with the occurrence of intestinal ulcerations and neoplasms
Titanium Dioxide: Yet another carcinogen. Why would someone digest an ingredient in these plant-based burgers that’s also in paint.
How did we get to the point where people think that eating a “beyond meat burger” created in a lab, with toxic ingredients – is sustainable? Consider the gas, the emissions, the resources used for this Los Angeles based fake meat product to reach someone in Michigan, Louisiana or Washington, DC
How do you know if someone is Vegan?
They’ll tell you within the first 30 seconds of meeting them