Vegan food: The west vs India

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I get that it's a meme, but what's the problem? I'm vegetarian/flirt with veganism; it's purely for moral/ethical/environmental reasons.
Indian food is delicious. An Impossible burger on a pretzel bun dripping with grilled onions, avocado, vegan aioli and mustard with a side of steak fries? That's also delicious, in my opinion.
Meat is delicious, and that's not at all incompatible with my reasoning for being vegetarian.
- You started a certified veganism struggle session, good job.
  
  Yeah, it seems that "your meme is kinda gatekeepy" is a pretty good way to start some "spirited discussions."
- For real. I was raised on slop, now that I'm a vegetarian, it doesn't mean I don't like the foods I grew up eating.
  I guess the point is that we don't need to rely on expensive substitutes made by the same corps that own slaughterhouses to make tasty, nutritious vegan food
- I'd argue that the fake meat stuff has hurt veganism to at least some extent because it's marketed so heavily and people think it's the only way to eat vegan. You can see how prominent the ”all vegan food is processed” and ”it's too expensive to be vegan” arguments have become, even in this thread.
- Aioli is naturally vegan. Classically, it's just garlic paste and oil. Flavoring mayo with garlic is not supposed to be called aioli.
  Try making the proper kind. You'll be impressed.
- The problem is that you're still fixated on the form and experience of meat. A full mindset change is more robust.
  It's like how fake leather can help replace and reduce real leather usage, but if the trend of desiring leather died out in the first place, the whole problem is dropped altogether
  
  I don't want to stop eating meat, I want to stop the exploitation and suffering of animals.
  While I want to stop the exploitation of animals more than I want to eat meat, if there is a path that allows me to do both, I will have a preference for that path.
  The same goes for leather. It's use isn't worth what has to be done to create it, but it is a fantastic material with a lot of versatility that's better than near all alternatives in plenty of applications. Fake leather and synthetic leather are wonderful innovations because we can enjoy the benefits without the negatives, and that's something to be encouraged rather than avoided.
  
  I get it but this is an emotional appeal. I'm just trying to explain the logic of what was being said here
  I like the fake meat stuff too, and often try to make it myself even though I've never had meat on purpose in my life and actually throw up if I do accidentally. I just like the kitchen chemistry aspect of it I guess
  I'm not saying we should stop making vegan alternatives to meat. I'm saying people should stop desiring meat or meat alternatives. Because logically that desire of meat is the cause of both meat and meat alternatives. Like how the cure to nicotine addiction isn't nicotine patches alone
  
  not entirely, as leather is still a wildly useful fabric and material for many uses which synthetic leather can serve(to a greater or lesser extent, granted), but only in specific cases can meat not be replaced/not replaced effectively
  
  You think leather is a desire?
  You think people kill animals to obtain leather because it's cool?
  Leather has many purposes and advantages, it's economically and practically sane to use it or mimick its features, even with fake leather.
  A desire, he said... Sometimes I don't get people anymore.
- Nothing against people who prefer meat substitutes. But I do think they should be brave and just abandon meat altogether. If you keep relying on meat substitutes, you haven't let go of meat entirely, I found it easy to get back to meat eating.
  
  You're chatting out your ass, this is like saying lesbians shouldn't use dildos in case they go back to fucking men
  Complete ignorance of the thing you're talking about
  
  That is not at all what this is like, completely ignorant metaphor
  Imagine someone addicted to eating their poop. Perhaps they are reforming their ways, and for some time they take half measures like eating smelly chili. Eventually they realize their unhealthy fixation isn't really overcome by this, so they move onto food that doesn't resemble poop, like a salad maybe
  
  No, their metaphor was not ignorant at all.
  Animal products have good taste for most people. The issue with them is not their taste, or the actual act of consumption of them, it's the fact that their production necessarily involves the torture and killing of sapient beings.
  If you can have "meat" without such effects (so, those fake vegan "meats"), then there is nothing wrong with it at all (I still prefer most of the time my rice, beans, tofu and TSP if only due to the cost but again, nothing wrong with it, quite the contrary).
  
  No, their metaphor was not ignorant at all.
  I was half-joking, but yes it was ignorant? Lesbians don't choose their sexuality, but people do choose to be vegan. There is an ignorance of sexuality and diet there. Also, people do try going vegan, eat some fake meat and cheese, and eventually go back to eating meat because they still crave meat in itself. This does happen. This is also related to those people who sneak in or revert to eating meat because of some cultural or family tradition, or peer pressure from friends. One vegan I knew who was going on for 25 years ate a steak to impress his business friends instead of speaking up to say he didn't want to eat at a meat-only restaurant. Take a look at my other comments here, I am speaking about this topic at the social level, not how individuals like the taste of meat or fake meat.
  there is nothing wrong with it at all
  Yeah I know, I have been saying that. This is not a moral argument. This is a rational one, and one perhaps from a medical or public health perspective: the cultural desire to obtain "meat" as a thing in itself is the cause for the demand of meat or meat alternatives. It's great that under capitalism that solutions can be provided via the market and supply-and-demand, whatever, but it doesn't address the reason why there is a demand in the first place.
  How I know it's a cultivated desire: it doesn't exist across cultures. Hell it doesn't exist within the western fake meat market itself: how much fake seafood do you see engineered out there? Or exotic meats ie objects perfectly engineered to mimic dog, cat, or even human meat? I'm sure human taste buds can enjoy long pork, real or fake. Yet basically no one is asking for this right?
  
  how much fake seafood do you see engineered out there?
  Crab sticks are usually fake, but generally, fish is harder to immigrate accurately than other meats, and there's less demand for it since people in the west don't generally eat tons of fish anyway.
  Less demand for real fish means less demand for imitation fish, though there is apparently a company somewhere making lab grown salmon and tuna.
  
  Keep it civil please.
  
  🥰
  
  @Civility@hexbear.net
  
  You first
  
  Bravery has nothing to do with it. It tastes good, and there's no harm to any animals. So why not eat it? Denial for the sake of denial is not a virtue.
  If you keep relying on meat substitutes, you haven't let go of meat entirely, and it would be easy to get back to meat eating.
  That's like saying that if you enjoy shooting people in video games, then you're one step away from shooting people in real life. I've been eating fake meats for almost a decade now, and I've never been tempted to eat real meat.
  I know how horrible and senseless factory farming is, and I have images of the slaughtered seared into my memory from vegan documentaries. Why would I go back to that when I can have substitutes that are just as good, if not better?
  
  Good job but not everyone has the mental fortitude you have displayed. I know plenty of people who tried going vegan, ate the fake meat and egg stuff, and just went back to the real stuff for the taste
  Anyways it's not about the individual level, it's more the social ie the social ingraining to have the form and experience of meat contributes to the "culture" and demand of meat
  
  The fake stuff (and cultivated meat for that matter) are getting closer to parity every year. You don't go back to something "for the taste", if the alternative you switched to offers a near identical experience.
  
  Okay but we aren't there yet and the vegans who I know who have broken their mental attachment to this meat "culture" have not even been tempted to go back once compared to those others
  
  Do you think that you could've gotten those people converted to an Indian diet, and they would've remained vegan? Getting people to go vegan in the first place is extremely difficult. Try getting them to go vegan and replace their diet with Indian food.
  
  Yeah, if they were Indian. The culture around meat is different than in the West eg. some people only eat meat on a certain day or weekend. Even then, the approach is that meat is disgusting and needs to be cooked and spiced thoroughly before consuming anyhow. And there is already a long and popular tradition of simple alternatives to meat dishes like using potatoes or paneer (or "soy paneer" aka tofu to make it vegan)
  Again, my point is that it is not about the individual but the social ingraining and pressure around meat as a category in itself for individuals
  
  Meat is generally spiced more heavily in warm climates because it spoils faster and hot spices both preserves meat by killing bacteria and disguise a certain degree of spoilage.
  I would be surprised if the trend towards hot spices in a country that is generally both warm and humid is because of a difference in palette rather than the reasons above.
  
  I can't really answer the question of why, but the sample set of people I know who switch to vegetarianism and veganism bears out that the ones who rely in fake meats much more frequently switch back than those who focus on learning to cook foods that don't imitate meat.
  On the counterargument, I did miss cheese quite a bit, and learning to culture my own vegan cheeses hasn't led to buying animal milk cheeses again, so ymmv
  
  Your anecdote is meaningless as your sample size is not statistically significant.
  
  It wasn't meaningless, and I went out of my way to make clear the sample size wasn't statistically significant.
  The point was that the parent comment implied there was no reason to start eating meat again after making a moral choice not to. My anecdote shows that some people do anyway, therefore there must be a reason.
  That in my experience they tended to be the people who relied on meat substitutes was presented as an observation of interest, not as hard evidence of universal truth.
  
  Who cares for bravery? Avoiding meat is avoiding meat. Crazy strawman.
  
  So your whole point is a slippery slope fallacy. Gotcha.
  
  Nothing against people who prefer meat substitutes. But I do think they should be brave and just abandon meat altogether.
  Looking at someone not eating meat: you should stop eating meat.
  
  Being called stupid and criticizing my decisions kept me from "being brave"
  Like "You're not good enough until you are this much" bullshit. If that's the attitude, then fuck no. Why do I wanna go even further into things if y'all are assholes right off the bat. Like, no. fuck you. If it's this complicated then I am going to do what has been a life of hassle free eating. My guilt is very easily wiped away like that.
  
  I’m vegan and I eat plenty of fake meat. I’m vegan because I think it’s right, not because I dislike meat. Don’t listen to OP. You are good enough, and any reduction in the consumption of animal products is better than no reduction.
  I went through a long period of transition before cutting out animal produce entirely, but have now been vegan for a good few years.
  
  I went through a long period of transition before cutting out animal produce entirely, but have now been vegan for a good few years.
  This is the way. It's like a relationship: if you have to force it, it's gonna be shit.
  I cut down on meat significantly in the past 3 years. I eat mostly vegetarian, fish once a week and meat every once in a while. Overall, my meat consumption decreased by about 90% which I call good enough and I don't really have the intention to change that.
  
  Yeah same here. I like fake meat. I mean, if it tastes good and has no animal parts in it, it goes into my mouth. It's not that complicated.
  
  I've been talking a bunch of shit out of annoyance. And there's a bunch of posts echoing exactly what I was complaining about.
  Even getting called a liar.
  This is the only reasonable or polite response I've seen. Missed one maybe?
  So thanks. I really shouldn't be painting the entire lifestyle with the same brush, because well here we are.
  So I'll shut up, and say thanks. And for the record, my kid still makes me get the impossible patties. She's not veg anything, so ita just cause they're good and that on its own should be good enough. Not all is lost in my removed.
  
  I don't think meat substitutes is is the major problem to worry about. In fact, perhaps they could help?
  https://plantbasednews.org/opinion/do-84-vegans-and-vegetarians-give-up-diets/
  
  If I'm at a barbecue and someone is grilling up impossible burgers, I'm not going to request they instead make a bowl of curry for me. Likewise when I grill for people.
  
  Nothing against people who prefer meat substitutes
  That's good.
  I do think they should be brave and just abandon meat altogether
  That's bad.
  Now, firstly, thank you for defining a lot of people cowards.
  Secondly, while I like indian food, I like meat more. And I liked it since forever. If I can have the delicious taste of meat in my plate without killing an animal, that's great. Fantastic! I'm eagerly waiting for lab crafted meat any day. I'm willing to pay it more than real meat, because I'm not fond of killing living beings to eat them. But if that's not yet possible, I'd still have my steak and my hamburger.
  
  18 years meatless and counting
  
  Right so, I have literally never eaten meat in my life. I was raised vegetarian. I still think plant based burger patties or sausages or whatever are delicious. Its literally just food. You gonna think that I'm "relying" on meat substitutes or "haven't let go of meat entirely" when I haven't even eaten meat before? :P
  Just let people enjoy things! Plant based "meat" doesn't hurt anyone and its a great option to add to your choices of meals.
  
  You don't make friends with ~~salad~~ that attitude.
  
  it would be easy to get back to meat eating
  If it would "be easy" for you to get back to consuming animal products, it's hard to imagine you're vegan at all.

442 comments