Community | March 05, 2010 | 31 comments

Why Eating Meat-Shaped Vegetarian Food Is Like Having Sex with a Blow-up Doll

source: http://www.alternet.org/food/145895/why_eating_meat-shaped_vegetarian_food_is_like_having_se...

Image
unimatrix0
It's not meat, but it looks like meat.

It's not meat, but it tastes like meat.

It's not meat, but the more it looks and tastes and feels like meat, the more eating it is like having sex with rubber blow-up dolls: Both are the simulacra of primal adventures for which we are born and built. For very different reasons, in each case we choose the version without flesh and blood.

http://www.alternet.org/food/145895/why_eating_meat-shaped_vegetarian_food_is_li...
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    Community,   Green,   Current Tonight,   Webmash,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Vegan,  Vegetarian,  animal exploitation,  Meat
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31 comments // Why Eating Meat-Shaped Vegetarian Food Is Like Having Sex with a Blow-up Doll

  • Atlantis77
    • 0
      Atlantis77  

    • I'd much rather eat a product like MorningStar Farms makes than the disgusting animal foods I used to eat. No matter if it has a few processed ingredients. It is ten times healthier for you. Detractors here have written in ignorance, so I pity them. The animals will get their revenge when the meat eater inevitably suffers later in life from colon cancer, diverticulitus, heart disease, and loss of sex drive.

    • 2 years ago
  • ii386
  • nursediesel
    • 0
      nursediesel  

    • Great article. Has a lot of good thoughts and comparisions. Thanks for the site.
      Now I'll feel bad grilling vegie burgers for my sisters this summer! Oh, well....I always thought if it resembled a meat product it was easier to lure kids away from all the meat... But my kids always loved their fruits and veggies....and legumes....

    • 2 years ago
  • Madhatter244
    • 0
      Madhatter244  

    • Id rather eat Bacon...

      Ingredients of Veggie Bacon:

      EGG WHITES, SOYBEAN OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, TEXTURED SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, WHEAT GLUTEN, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (CORN GLUTEN, WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY), CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF GLYCERIN, SALT, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, SODIUM CITRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SUGAR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, TORULA YEAST, CARAMEL COLOR, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, NATURAL SMOKE FLAVOR, MALIC ACID, GUAR GUM, YEAST EXTRACT, LOCUST BEAN AND GUAR GUM, SODIUM SULFITE, CARRAGEENAN, RED #3, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, NIACINAMIDE, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, NONFAT DRY MILK, YELLOW #6, VITAMIN B1 [THIAMIN MONONITRATE], VITAMIN B6 [PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE], VITAMIN B2 [RIBOFLAVIN], CITRIC ACID, CYANOCOBALAMIN.

    • 2 years ago
  • lordsbassman
  • nursediesel
  • existentialist
  • EthicalVegan
    • +1
      EthicalVegan  
    • Madhatter244:

      And as a vegan, that tremendously, embarrassingly long list of ingredients (mostly chemicals) is why I don't eat Morningstar Farms products, if I were "only" a vegetarian. Morningstar Farms never appealed to me because of all that crap in there.

      But I sure as hell won't eat a pig, either. But I have so many other -- GOOD -- choices, I don't need to eat "meat substitutes," anyway.

    • 2 years ago
  • existentialist
    • 0
      existentialist  
    • EthicalVegan:

      I am all about fewer ingredients, processed less, just because simpler food normally tastes better to me. That being said, a long list of ingredients doesn't mean a food is unhealthy or unsafe in anyway. I could probably trump that list of ingredients making a dish of vegetable korma, especially counting all the spices in the masala. Also, you were sure to add the point that the list was "mostly chemicals" in what I can only assume was an attempt at Foxian fear tactics. You neglect the fact that salt, sugar and even water are chemicals. Many chemicals, even those synthesized in a lab, are harmlessly produced and harmless to ingest. With that in mind, my challenge to you, is to tell me which, if any, of the ingredients in MSF bacon are dangerous in anyway to myself or the environment?

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • -1
      tommic  

    • I've tried these fake man made tofu meats, they have no taste at all only the spices or herbs that cook with them give them any flavor. I am no vegan but if I was I would never eat this crap. I'll never try them again.

    • 2 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • EthicalVegan
  • EmperorThan
  • ii386
  • zras
    • -1
      zras  

    • this is almost like lesbians that use double-sided dildos. if you're trying to be a vegetarian why eat something that resembles meat? someone is confused.

    • 2 years ago
  • CarolineS
  • outtheinside
    • +3
      outtheinside  

    • "For very different reasons, in each case we choose the version without flesh and blood. "

      umm.. i'm not so sure for most people using a blowup doll that it's a "choice".

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
  • readyforthefloor
  • bailey78
    • -2
      bailey78  

    • I know I don't eat the way I should and I have tried some of this fake meat. I think it taste either like cardboard or just plain nasty. The wife an I went vegetarian for a while. Some of it was pretty easy some of it was HELL!

    • 2 years ago
  • Atalanda_Cameron
  • bailey78
  • Atalanda_Cameron
  • bailey78
  • EthicalVegan
    • +4
      EthicalVegan  

    • [Vegan Alert: Even though unimatrix0 made it clear these are vegetarian foods, Morningstar Farms products are not vegan, as they have egg whites in them... that's just in case you're new to veganism.]

      Unimatrix0, the only reason I don't make a big deal over vegan foods looking like actual meat products is because if it gets someone to try the item, like it, and then get bolder with other vegan options, then that's a potentially good thing. Personally, I've got so many other choices, that those "blow-up dolls" food items mean little to me anymore.

      Thanks for posting this.

    • 2 years ago
  • lordsbassman
  • existentialist
    • +1
      existentialist  

    • I guess that is a fair comparison, but not necessarily a negative one. I eat Morningstar Farms and Boca mostly because I am too busy or too lazy to cook non-fake meat vegetarian meals. The problem I have with companies like Morningstar Farm is they are more concerned with making their products taste like real meat than making it taste good. Though, I do love that bacon pictured! I can easily eat a box of that! In reality, if you are a vegetarian and you find a vegetarian food you like, eat it! What does it matter if it simulates a meat product? I am a vegetarian, but I am not above saying meat tastes damn good, that is why I hope they perfect lab grown meat soon!

    • 2 years ago
  • indecisiveh
    • 0
      indecisiveh  

    • Sometimes morning star's are just tasty. If you used a different example I might agree, but morning star is tasty even if you aren't vegertarian

    • 2 years ago
  • GreenNewEarth
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