With the awful state of the meat industry’s outright animal abuse, it’s not surprising that more and more people are turning vegetarian. And with meat substitutes having come such a long way, the choice to not eat meat seems easier than ever.

One Redditor’s vegetarian daughter kept taking heat from her grandad about her Impossible™ Beef. Then her grandma’s meat mix-up saw to it that the whole family ended up eating it by mistake. Now they’re asking Reddit if they’re the jerk for laughing at their parents over the blunder.       

More info: Reddit

Vegetarian teen always took heat from extended family for not eating meat

Image credits: cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo)

Family was staying with grandparents for two weeks and brought along some Impossible™ beef for their daughter

Image credits: freepik / freepik(not the actual photo)

When the parent went to defrost the meat substitute, it was nowhere to be found

Image credits: Beautiful-Leek-502

It turned out the grandmother had cooked it by mistake and served it to the whole family

OP begins their story by telling the community that they and their family were vacationing at their parents’ home for two weeks. They add that their daughter is vegetarian, so they brought along some Impossible™ beef. Apparently, their extended family always gave the daughter uphill for not eating meat, even though she’s been vegetarian for a decade. 

One day, OP went to the freezer to take out their daughter’s meat substitute so they could let it thaw for that evening’s dinner, but it was nowhere to be found. OP adds that their mother has cataracts, so she must have used the Impossible™ beef on one of two occasions that week, either to make meatloaf or tacos.

OP thought this was hilarious and poked fun at the grandad for eating the meat, since he always called it gross. The grandad was furious and said someone could have gotten sick from eating the fake meat, even though he ate it with no ill effect. The grandad then banned Impossible™ products from the home, so the granddaughter had a mushroom burger instead. 

The parent told the grandad he was overreacting, but he said the family could stay in a hotel because of the ‘mean trick’ the parent had played on everyone. Now OP is asking Reddit if they were the jerk for laughing at the non-meat mix-up.

From what OP tells Redditors in their post, the grandad thinks ‘fake’ meat could be a health hazard, but what’s the truth around plant-based alternatives to popular animal products?

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / pexels (not the actual photo)

While the macronutrient profiles of real beef and Impossible™ ground beef are comparable, their levels of processing are not. Because it doesn’t occur in nature, plant-based beef is highly processed, comprised of a variety of plant ingredients, colorings, extracts and preservatives to mimic the aroma, taste, and texture of real beef.

For instance, the Impossible™ Burger contains soy protein, an ingredient called soy leghemoglobin (or heme) that mimics the “bleed” of a real burger, coconut and sunflower oils, methylcellulose, yeast extract, food starch, cultured dextrose, and more. It also contains higher levels of sodium than regular meat. So, if your aim is to eat less processed foods, real beef is the way to go. 

In her article for Healthline, Rachael Ajmera writes that the heme in the Impossible™ Burger is perhaps its most controversial ingredient, since it’s engineered by adding soy protein to genetically engineered yeast, and GMO ingredients aren’t great for the environment.

With the hopes to mimic hamburgers also comes a comparable amount of saturated fat. Because diets higher in saturated fat are associated with increased rates of both heart disease and premature death, they may not be the type to go for if your gastronomic ambitions are purely health-related. 

In his article for The New York Post, Steve Cuozzo writes that Beyond Meat, which is the No. 1 retail seller worldwide of plant-based meat substitutes, announced in August of 2023 that it lost $53 million in the second quarter of 2023 as its US revenue fell 40 percent. 

This sort of thing doesn’t bode well for faux meat producers who may be feeling the pinch after the initial hype – something the grandad in OP’s story would no doubt be happy about.

What would you have done if you’d found yourself in OP’s shoes? Do you think the grandad was overreacting? Let us know your opinion in the comments!

Redditors weighed in in the comments, saying that the parent was definitely not the jerk and that the grandparents were probably just upset that they bamboozled themselves

Image credits: BULBFISH / pexels (not the actual photo)

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