Nah, there are definitely some vegetarian and vegan foods (especially when we’re talking ultraprocessed foods) that are worse for the environment and worse for your health than just plain meat or cheese.
Genuinely which ones? Everything I can think of is better than meat. Largely because the cows eat a lot of food in the first place with most of it being wasted.
It’s been a good long while since I made my comparisons but i believe Quorn was worse than chicken (but not as bad as beef obviously). In Sweden we also have Anamma which used to be very good, but at some point they removed their classic formulations and suddenly added like 30% sugar to everything (and doubled the price for good measure). Not sure if they’ve walked that back by now, hopefully they have.
No, it’s the ultraprocessed stuff that can be pretty bad. But I think a lot of things have happened in the past decade during which there was also a huge focus on sustainability, so I think the market is better now than it used to be. I’m not up to speed anymore.
In the UK there’s a sweet maker called Candy Kittens. They make, like, vegan Haribo (only better) that tastes really really nice.
They’ve started making their own vegan peanut M&M’s. Instead of chocolate they use a shit ton of palm oil.
It’s “ethically sourced” palm oil, but that’s still a sour thought after you’ve devoured a whole bag of tasty sweet treats in one sitting. It’s still increasing the market capacity for palm oil, which in turn increases demand to destroy habitats eg orangutans in Indonesia and other SE Asian islands.
Cocoa is vegan. Chocolate is usually made with milk products to make it more palatable. The chocolate in peanut M&M’s has milk in it, so they are not vegan.
Except these days milk is largely substituted with palm oil recipes, which is much cheaper, but creates a worse product (often described as waxy) while the industry producing it is tearing down virgin forests for farm land.
Nah, there are definitely some vegetarian and vegan foods (especially when we’re talking ultraprocessed foods) that are worse for the environment and worse for your health than just plain meat or cheese.
Genuinely which ones? Everything I can think of is better than meat. Largely because the cows eat a lot of food in the first place with most of it being wasted.
It’s been a good long while since I made my comparisons but i believe Quorn was worse than chicken (but not as bad as beef obviously). In Sweden we also have Anamma which used to be very good, but at some point they removed their classic formulations and suddenly added like 30% sugar to everything (and doubled the price for good measure). Not sure if they’ve walked that back by now, hopefully they have.
Oh you are talking about fake meat stuff, I was thinking of normal ingredients.
No, it’s the ultraprocessed stuff that can be pretty bad. But I think a lot of things have happened in the past decade during which there was also a huge focus on sustainability, so I think the market is better now than it used to be. I’m not up to speed anymore.
In the UK there’s a sweet maker called Candy Kittens. They make, like, vegan Haribo (only better) that tastes really really nice.
They’ve started making their own vegan peanut M&M’s. Instead of chocolate they use a shit ton of palm oil.
It’s “ethically sourced” palm oil, but that’s still a sour thought after you’ve devoured a whole bag of tasty sweet treats in one sitting. It’s still increasing the market capacity for palm oil, which in turn increases demand to destroy habitats eg orangutans in Indonesia and other SE Asian islands.
TL;DR palm oil is vegan.
Wait isn’t chocolate vegan though? Why substitute chocolate with palm oil?
Cocoa is vegan. Chocolate is usually made with milk products to make it more palatable. The chocolate in peanut M&M’s has milk in it, so they are not vegan.
Except these days milk is largely substituted with palm oil recipes, which is much cheaper, but creates a worse product (often described as waxy) while the industry producing it is tearing down virgin forests for farm land.
Ah, OK. I basically only eat dark chocolate so I forgot that “candy” usually is non-vegan.
Surely they meant the sugar in the chocolate, not the cocoa. But they could have been specific.
Not sugar, but milk products are typically used to turn cocoa into chocolate.