By "may", I meant "is" according to your definition. I am just skeptical of the standard process medical researchers use to determine this stuff (NHST), so used the term "may" as I would regarding anything else.
No it isn't [1]. But both processed meat and excessive consumption red meats have been linked to cancer in some studies [2]. This has also been refuted. [3]
you're 3rd link comes from a person who is so anti-plants its laughable. Almost all of her posts are pro-meat. It seems her livelihood now depends on it.
I didn't cherry pick - they were top result for the query, but neither did I read the sites more widely - It's which I included the search suggestion for alternative sources.
That is interesting but I don't think that it would be healthy for people to eat beef burgers as their primary source of nutrition either. What annoys me about the fake meat is that in the dystopian future soymeat was supposed to be everywhere and cheaper where real meat was a sought after expensive delicacy but due to government subsidies and hding the costs of environmental externalities real meat remains much cheaper than the fake meats in general. Just saying.
If humans were forced to start eating "dystopian future soymeat" and stop eating meat, I'm sure it would become far cheaper as it becomes more readily available. As it stands currently, most humans do eat meat so it is cheaper than a heavily researched niche alternative which has taken years to become remotely comparable to real meat.
The economics/politics of it is a different issue. I am concerned about the danger of tricking people's minds into thinking the body has consumed something with nutritional value other than it really has. Humans have been consuming beef for a long time.
> I am concerned about the danger of tricking people's minds into thinking the body has consumed something with nutritional value other than it really has.
I think you're overreacting here. Impossible Burgers are slightly different, nutritionally speaking, from regular burgers, but it's not like one is 100% carbohydrates and the other is pure protein. They're relatively similar.
Who said that? If beef is part of your healthy diet though, you shouldn't assume you can just swap out a normal burger for an impossible burger.
But my main concern is the aspect of "tricking" the brain into thinking it is consuming beef by mimicking the texture and taste (which is their goal) but instead consuming something with different nutritional value. Just seems like it could be dangerous is all.
> But my main concern is the aspect of "tricking" the brain into thinking it is consuming beef by mimicking the texture and taste (which is their goal) but instead consuming something with different nutritional value.
Does the "brain" (which I am specifically using in a biological sense, because it seems like that's what you meant instead of "people in general") actually care about texture and taste when consuming food? I don't see how this could be dangerous, except if people somehow eat a dozen of these and nothing else and somehow the brain "thinks" it's gotten nutrients that it hasn't.
>"Does the "brain" (which I am specifically using in a biological sense, because it seems like that's what you meant instead of "people in general") actually care about texture and taste when consuming food?"
Yes... haven't you ever eaten food and liked/disliked the texture/taste based on what you expected?
>"I don't see how this could be dangerous, except if people somehow eat a dozen of these and nothing else and somehow the brain "thinks" it's gotten nutrients that it hasn't."
No one thought making grains (carbs) the basis for a diet would be dangerous but now we have an obesity epidemic because people don't feel full after consuming sufficient calories for their needs. Consuming too much or too little is entirely a "brain" (of course various hormones, etc that lead to cravings are involved) problem. If you feel full at the appropriate time you will never over-consume.
The "trick" is occurring when the impossible burger is indistinguishable to your senses from a real burger.
You are not changing anything about the nutritional value, but your body will release leptin, insulin, salivia, etc as if it did have the nutritional value of a burger. This is bound to lead to some kind of problem, the only question is how big.
Take it to the extreme of something that is totally undigestible cardboard with zero nutritional value, but is impossible to distinguish via any senses from a beef patty. Do you not think consuming this will cause issues for people?
Are leptin, insulin, etc released because of what the brain "thinks" you are eating, or are they released as a response to what actually goes into your body?
Aspartame tastes sweet and one could easily imagine the brain "thinking" it is sugar- and yet aspartame consumption does not produce an insulin response.
How did you arrive at a conclusion that this "tricking" is actually happening, when it seems there are proven cases where it does not?
Aspartame doesnt taste anything like sugar to me...
And at this point, from what I've read, the impossible burger is not capable of tricking the person. But look up "anticipatory insulin/whatever release":
>"Currently, anticipatory or cephalic phase insulin release (CPIR) is defined as insulin release which occurs prior to nutrient absorption in response to sensory stimulation of the oral cavity by the taste of food or food ingestion. In humans, the response is typically characterized by a rise in plasma insulin levels that occurs independently of increases in blood glucose, peaking within 4 minutes after sensory stimulation and returning to baseline by 8–10 minutes post stimulation"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056926/
This stuff has no cholesterol and (a small amount of) carbs while also containing way more salt, thiamine (vitamin B1), and folate (vitamin B9): https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beef-products/6205/2
http://livablefutureblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/impo...
FYI, both folate and thiamine over-consumption may be linked to cancer:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29529163
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4178204/
So while it is fine for people to eat it for "pleasure", it may be dangerous to trick the mind into thinking it is consuming a real burger.