Should "Veggie Meats" Really Exist?

As a vegan, I have been operating on the fence of a grand marketing scheme. I called myself a vegan and at the same time I accepted the popular framing of the vegan food industry’s classification of vegetarian protein-based processed food as "veggie meats.” So I would eat bacon, burgers, chicken strips and nuggets, and meatballs, but these foods were not made from pigs, chickens, nor cows. I was disillusioned often calling these products by their true nomenclature in the meat world and taking out the veggie part of the description. However, the promise of it satisfying my body with the necessary proteins was appealing; it wasn’t until much later in life I learned that all of the essential proteins one needs to acquire can also come from plants, and when considering the prevention of diseases, a plant-based protein is idea because meat-based proteins can contribute to health issues. Not only was I disillusioned by the aggressive marketing campaigns among the so-called veggie meat industry, but also the foods started creating health problems for me. 

I started feeling extremely lethargic everyday even though I was getting enough hours of sleep at night. The truth is that even though I was in my 30s I felt as if I was somebody’s tired grandmother, and that’s not sexy! My quick fix solution was to start drinking coffee daily, which I loaded with caramel and so-called almond milk to dilute the coffee bean taste, which I’ve never liked even as a child, it worked initially but eventually I felt as though I had become immune to its stimulating affects—that’s when I decided to see my primary care physician. After speaking to him, I was shocked when he explained that it was normal to feel tired after working throughout the day, but in my heart I knew this could not be a “normal" way to feel. And since I substituted processed foods for whole foods I feel vibrant and am no longer suffering from tiredness 360.

So after much contemplation, a few months later, I identified that maybe I was feeling so sluggish because of my daily use of processed foods—so I stopped eating the so-called veggie meat products cold turkey, no matter how healthy they were marketed as. I had no clue as to what classified a so-called veggie meat product as good or bad, so I just gave them all up. When I would find time in my day, I began educating myself on processed foods. So foods are processed when they have been chemically modified, and in order to preserve these foods they usually contain artificial substances and refined ingredients, like preservatives, colorants, artificial flavoring and even texturants, which gives foods more texture! Processed foods typically do not have a lot of nutritional value and are high in all the things your body craves like sugar, calories, sodium, and fat but can give you major health issues if you acquire too much of it, like obesity, diabetes, cancers, and high blood pressure. Afterwards, I discovered that some of the ingredients of these veggie meats were artificial and some of them included eggs, sodium, and even sugar. Plus, even though the products typically were made from soy, a natural ingredient, if they were not verified as a non-GMO product in their labeling then they could have harmful effects on the body—in fact, most of the cultivated soy goes through genetic modification. In addition, some of the so called veggie meats had high sodium levels which could increase one's risk for heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. Last, some of the so called veggie meats I consumed were breaded and fried which increased my exposure to unhealthy oils. It took me so long to uncover the unhealthy nature of a growing healthy vegan foods market, and it all started with the way I was feeling. 

So not only are these so called veggie meats marketed to appeal to consumers whom have been conditioned to think that in order to get enough protein you must eat meat, which is not true, but also based on my experiences eating processed foods was making me not only sluggish but it also had the potential of creating a sickness in my body, this compounded with an understanding that plants alone provide one with all the necessary proteins making it unnecessary to purchase a veggie meats to accomplish this. For instance, many plant-based protein rich foods exist, like lentils, black beans, pinto beans, almonds, cashew nuts, walnuts, spirulina, hemp seeds, chai seeds, quinoa, and more. So why support an industry that misleads consumers by using the word “meat” to simply describe another processed non-meat food, and especially when that processed food could contain harmful additives that could eventually cause you to become unhealthy? It’s not necessary, especially when all the proteins you need can be found in natural and whole plant-based foods. So who really should determine what is vegan, the marketing executives or the general public? 

What has your experience been like with so-called veggie meats and what do you think of the questions posed?