1/n A quick tweetstorm about why I think Beyond Meat ($BYND) and Impossible Foods are the trans fat purveyors of our generation.

2/ Let’s start with Beyond Meat. For those that don’t know, $BYND’s flagship product is their Beyond Burger - a pea-protein product that’s supposed to replace the standard ground beef patty.

3/ Take a look at their ingredient list.

When you eat a $BYND burger, you’re effectively getting a giant dose of canola oil (terrible for you) and isolated pea protein. With a side of wood fiber, additives and unnatural ingredients.

4/ My main concern here is the heavy concentration of canola oil, as vegetable oils are terrible for you + cause all sorts of health problems (see link).

https://chriskresser.com/how-industrial-seed-oils-are-making-us-sick/

5/ When you eat a $BYND burger, you’re effectively consuming a pea protein and canola oil smoothie.

Deconstructed, nobody thinks this is good for you. Put it in patty form, and people will apparently consider it healthy. Nuts.

6/ The Impossible Burger ingredients are different: their most controversial ingredient is Soy Leghemoglobin. To make this ingredient, Impossible genetically engineers a yeast bacterium to produce a protein (soy leghemoglobin) that gives their burger more of a “meaty” taste.

7/ The jury is out on how safe this ingredient is (Nassim Taleb notably has concerns on GMOs), but I’d consider myself skeptical.

In general, I think unwise to mess with the complex system of human biology by introducing large qts of foreign ingredients http://www.econtalk.org/nassim-nicholas-taleb-on-the-precautionary-principle-and-genetically-modified-organisms/

8/ My larger concern on both of these burgers is that - at minimum - they are HIGHLY processed products with lots of stuff that doesn't lead to healthier humans: vegetable oils, soy, protein isolates, additives, all non-organic. They are not real foods. (cough, Soylent).

9/ Not only that, but I’m concerned any time I see a nutrient-dense food (like meat) being replaced by a highly processed variant. Historically, that hasn’t done good things for human health.

10/ The human body is an incredibly complex system, about which we still know very little. Complexity research cautions against introducing new things into a complex + related system, because it can have unintended consequences.

11/ All told, neither Impossible nor $BYND deliver on the health message they tout, and they’re not things I’d plan to incorporate into my diet.

I'd consider them fake food and - as long as there's not a starvation scenario - would stay far away.

fin/ I'm testing out doing some tweetstorms since my writing has fallen off.

Tomorrow, assuming I don't get taken out by an intnernet rage mob, I'll dig into the health of $BYND and Impossible's businesses.