The Vegan Thread

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre­e/2019/mar/26/the-furore-over-the-fish-e­ating-vegan-influencer-is-a-warning-to-u­s-all

Confirms so many of my suspicions about "health based" and "dieting" (ie. weight loss) vegan "influencers". Do they actually give a shit about animal welfare? Did they ever, really?

I'm sure you're right, I just thought it might be a venue in continuity to where we've been before, and it's not wildly off-central. If you or someone else know of a better place to meet, I'd be perfectly open to going there. Not aiming for a meal for the ages, to be honest, just good company.

I think the thing with youtube is that idiots look up to these people like some kind of demigod, and then can't quite comprehend when they turn out to be real people... no one's perfect, but don't spout BS about veganism, to then denounce it because you became ill because you weren't eating right... I think Tim Shieff is the perfect candidate for this... drinking your own piss and thinking the world is flat is a non-starter in my book... plus no one likes a sellout right?

Generally when there's a news story about 'vegan' parents damaging their children/getting in trouble with social services, etc. it is because the parents are rather unhinged and fadding about with some ridiculously limited diet or other bizarre beliefs that have about as much to do with veganism as Godzilla with a blancmange. This seems to have been another case like that (minus children, fortunately).

Exactly this. He has had the ultimate punishment I could deal him - unfollowing on IG.

I love how Fiona Oakes has lashed out

That'll show him... I bet you're not the only one though! He's always been a bit weird... I can remember him saying once that he didn't get sunburnt because he's never worn sunglasses... go figure!

https://twitter.com/peta/status/1111342954801696768

Eats and Easts

OK, so kl and I are going to be at Cook Daily (near London Fields, just off Westgate Street) from 6pm on Wednesday April the 10th. (There's a no reservations policy, which means we may have to wait.)

https://www.cookdaily.co.uk/

The Chesham Arms is conveniently close, so we aim to proceed there for drinks afterwards. As it entirely coincidentally happens to be a Wednesday, I'll bump the Easts thread, too.

List:

1) kl
2) Oliver Schick
3)

Do join us!

Recently discovered sainsburys hot cross buns, the bog standard packs of 6 from the bakery section, are vegan. Not bad for standard shop bought ones either.

What’s the chocolate protein powder of choice in these parts?
Priority to anything £30 or less for 1kg.
Never liked huel tbh.

I'm a fan of Vega

nice one oliver. I can't say for sure I will join but it is on my radar if stars align

Great, hope you can make it, Jonny!

Vegansmart if you can get it.

@dumps @Simba
Can I ask about texture? My wife is very fussy about the grainy texture of a lot of vegan protein powders.
What are these like?

I had one (I think PhD protein) where that was a definite problem. Vega had been OK in that regard. Making a slightly small dose and /or leaving it to stand for longer definitely helps.

In our experience the hemp-based ones are the main offenders when it comes to gritty texture..

Bulk Powders have a 30% sale on atm.
They do a chocolate peanut if that's good enough? It's obviously a little bit grainy, but everyone I've known to sample it said it was delish

They just won a reward as best plant based protein powder, partly because it’s so smooth and partly because (it’s made for vegans so) it has a lot of nutrients and not just protein.

I'm going to try and get some to try then. Smoothness is top priority. is it hard to find in the UK then?

I really like the pea protein from pulsin. It's not flavoured, but I just add a scoop of cocoa powder if I want chocolate. It's really smooth and creamy, without any weird aftertaste. I got the brown rice one last time when I ran out, and I am not loving it 😅

So here you start to see the sort of corporate tie-in that this 'engineered faux meat' will produce more and more of:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/02/burger-king-vegan-whopper-meat-free-impossible-launch

Whether that's a good thing or not is up for debate, but I personally think the reason why it attracts so much investment is because the marketing potential, and probably the potential for oligopolies, is huge. From what I've read, these are industrial products that smaller producers will find it harder to replicate. Obviously, just because this one company appears to be first on the market on a fairly large scale doesn't mean they'll eventually make the running, but they've certainly at least stolen a march.

Jury's still out in my brain for these sort of things.

Can't they all just eat organic tofu ffs

Precisely because it can be engineered using different ingredients, my guess is that there will be much more space for variety and products from smaller companies.
A lot of the available ones right now are actually small from an industrial point of view when you compare with for example dairy and meat companies. If a few grow to a size where they can compare with that, there will still be lots and lots of space for smaller companies, just like there is today.

Those US based companies have a very clear strategy, they don’t want a percent of the meat market, they want to be the entire market and completely push meat from the product isles.
I support that.

In the long run I’m curious as to how it’s going to play out though. When people no longer eat meat, maybe they don’t like the alternatives either? At least my son doesn’t. He actually prefers his organic tofu @dubkev ;)

Might be a stupid question but are those actually "healthy" despite the different processes they go through to smell/look/taste like meat? I did try the Impossible one when in the US for work and could genuinely not have told you the difference.