The Advantages of Eating Fake Meats and Meat Substitutes

Whether you're a vegetarian or just trying to eat a healthier diet, you have more meat alternatives available to you than ever. One area where demand is growing is for fake meats. Fake meats run the gamut from the more commonly recognized veggie burgers and hot dogs made of soy and tempeh to less common fake meat products like those made of texturized vegetable protein or seitan, commonly known as wheat meat. There's even a form of fake meat marketed by a company named Quorn that's made of a mycoprotein derived from a fungus.

Despite the unappealing sound of some of these fake meat products, many vegetarians find them to be a tasty and healthy alternative to traditional meat products and they're being increasingly eaten by non-vegetarians who have come to prefer the taste as well as the health benefits these meat substitutes have to offer. Here are some of the advantages to using fake meats over the real thing:

It's lower in calories and fat

When you compare the calorie and fat content of meat substitutes with the real thing, the fake meat almost always comes up the winner. One popular faux meat is a non-meat bacon creatively named “Faking Bacon”. When you compare its 100 calories to the average 250 to 300 calories per serving found in standard bacon, you can see why meat substitutes are generating interest. Even a serving of non-meat chicken tenders by Quorn has only eighty calories per serving. Pretty good when you consider chicken tenders have never been known as low calorie fare.

They're cheaper

As a generalization meat is expensive. In some cases fake meats can rival or even exceed the price of meats if you buy them already prepared as in the form of a burger or cutlet. If you make your own fake meat burgers using texturized vegetable protein which is not difficult to do, it's much less expensive than regular meat. In fact, texturized vegetable protein is one of the least expensive meat substitutes you can buy and is often added to the burgers in school cafeterias to decrease the cost. You can find a variety of recipes using texturized vegetable protein, common known as TVP on the internet.

You don't have to worry about growth hormone or antibiotics

The fact that many cattle are given growth hormone to bulk them up and are routinely given antibiotics concerns most people. This isn't a concern with fake meats. If properly prepared, you get the taste of meat without the health risks of conventional meats.

It often has a better texture

One drawback to meat is that it can be tough and gristly. Although some people like this aspect of meat, many do not. Fake meat has a texture that's tender and easier to chew. It can be prepared on the grill just like real meat so you get the chargrilled taste without all the toughness.

It's more humane

When you eat fake meats, you can feel good that you haven't harmed another living creature and this can be the best reason of all to add meat substitutes to your diet.

There's a lot of variation in the taste of fake meats depending on the company and how it's prepared. It's best to try a variety of types and brands of fake meat and experiment a bit with the preparation. With a little comparison shopping and fine tuning, you may just find you enjoy it almost as much as the real thing.