Meat eaters live a lie

[yewberry]

(LiveScience title, not mine)


Meat Eaters Live a Lie

By LiveScience Staff

posted: 17 July 2008 01:36 pm ET

While a big, juicy steak may indeed be culinary nirvana for many, your taste for beef could be based in part on expectation rather than reality.

On the assumption that meat is associated with social power in some peoples' minds, researchers rated study participants on what they call a Social Power Value Endorsement measure, to determine their preferences for meat and their cultural perceptions of it. Participants were then told they would taste either a beef sausage roll or a vegetarian roll. You can guess where this is headed.

...

"Participants who ate the vegetarian alternative did not rate the taste and aroma less favorably than those who ate the beef product," the researchers report in August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. "Instead, what influenced taste evaluation was what they thought they had eaten and whether that food symbolized values that they personally supported."

http://www.livescience.com/health/080717-meat-eaters.html

Strange study. Some odd comments, too.

[Chan790]

1. I knew this already...

I frequently feed people Boca burger and tell them it's beef.

Never been caught.

[yewberry]

2. Really?

Wow, that's interesting. I guess I expect that meat analogues aren't going to be very meat-like, so people will know the difference.

I was surprised both by the researchers lying about what people were getting and by the fact that people didn't catch on.

[Chan790]

3. They're not.

People just don't question it...if you put enough pickles, ketchup and mustard on them they taste the same. If you were eating them plain, you'd be able to tell...but who eats burgers plain?

I got fooled myself recently...I was in a restaurant and ordered a Boca burger (with other stuff on it. One of those fancy burgers)...took one bite and sent it back saying that they had served me meat...I turned out to be wrong.

[nankerphelge]

4. The imitations...

are getting good enough that any flavor a meat-eater misses is available in a non-meat alternative.

[Juneboarder]

6. I don't know...

burgers and bacon. They cannot truly be immitated. Nothing like that animal fat to cure a craving every so often.

[nankerphelge]

14. You haven't had the right imitation yet then...

they aren't all created equal. Some aren't any good. Some will fool any meat eater.

[Juneboarder]

5. You can't fool me!!

I am not vegan by any stretch here, but rarely eat meat and even more rarely eat beef. I am not a fan of the steak, but I'll tell you what...

I LOVE MY BURGERS!!!

No Boca Burger could ever pass my taste buds for the real thang!

Sorry, I just had to let you know my two cents because I'm a truly the burger aficionado.

:patriot:

[Ignis]

7. Morality >>> appetite.

Most of us who frequent this forum have made the decision that the humane treatment of animals trumps our taste buds.

People make similar decisions regarding their eating habits every day, but rarely think to put the decision in the same logical framework as vegetarianism.

Have you ever avoided eating meat from an endangered animal?
Have you ever opted for lighter fare because you're watching your weight?
Have you ever picked Brand A over Brand X because it's less full of carcinogens?
Have you ever skipped a second helping because you'll get indigestion later?

These are all decisions where you were able to pick the "better" option logically, rather than simply being ruled by your appetite.

Flesh taken from the bodies of still-living human babies might be the most delicious meal in the world, but I think I could control my taste buds. Don't you?

Good luck. :hi:

[Juneboarder]

8. Thanks for the luck..

I probably need it!! :)

Like I said earlier, I'm not too big a fan of meat, but the cravings are definitely within me.

I have never avoided eating meat from an endangered animal mainly because the only meat I eat is pork, some beef, and chicken if you want to lump that in with meat.
I have opted for a lighter fare because of weight watching, but that only lasts so long :)
I personally don't know how to pick out the carcinogens in my food at the store, so I buy what looks like the healthiest.
Skip a second helping??? HA!!! Never!!! :)

We don't eat our kind, so babies might be a little bit of a poor comparison. How about those in the food chain eating those below them? That's seen in nature all the time. We are above those other animals, so I really have a hard time comparing my eating bacon and burgers to eating babies.

[Ignis]

9. I never compared bacon to babies.

I said you make choices everyday when you eat.

For those of us who practice a vegetarian lifestyle and/or diet, we've made the choice that the animal suffering, human health problems, and environmental damage of meat eating are morally indefensible consequences for eating animal flesh "cuz it tastes good."

You probably don't eat monkeys. You probably don't eat horses. You probably don't eat cats. Those are all dietary choices you've made from an aesthetic, ethical, or nutritional perspective.

We've just chosen not to eat the flesh of any animal--human or otherwise.

Even tasty, tasty babies. :)

[Juneboarder]

10. I still think

that you need to make your point without bringing in human babies. I mean seriously... this is a vegetarian website not a non-cannibal website. I don't know anyone that is a cannibal... do you?

[LeftyMom]

11. I will not make a dirty joke. I will not make a dirty joke. I will not make a dirty joke.

I will not...

flvegan!

I have no willpower. :hide:

[Ignis]

12. You're not helping!

I'm having to bite my cheeks as it is.

:blush::rofl:

[Ignis]

13. So disregard the final line of my post and respond to the rest.

Assuming, of course, that you're here to engage in serious discussion.

I'll try to be less mischievous, if that's your hurdle. Mea culpa.

[Juneboarder]

15. I'm not sure of what you want me to say...

I still agree with my original post that a regular beef burger is no comparison to a Boca Burger.

Plain and simple.

That's my view and I am entitled to have such; I'm not forcing it on you; just made a comment. Sorry if I offended you in any way Ignis; not my intention at all. You really, truly, lost me when you brought human babies into the picture. Hope you have a great day!

:hi:

[Ignis]

16. Oh, I'm not easily offended. Just chattin'.

But we can stop the conversation if you'd prefer.

Good luck.

[Juneboarder]

17. I don't mind conversation at all, but you said to disregard the last portion of your post

and respond to the rest. There was nothing else to respond to. Thanks for the conversation, hope you have a great week ahead!!

One week closer to NOT having our pResident Bush in office!!!

[Ignis]

18. Hmm, okay.

It seemed to me that you made the initial argument "I eat meat because it tastes good," and I made an argument that morality trumps appetite.

I'm simply proposing that you disregard my references to human baby flesh, but consider the remainder of my argument.

If you just came here to say "meat tastes good," then I guess we're done. But you can't have come to the Veggie forum just to say that, can you?

:shrug:

[stuntcat]

19. (about the babies)

Since eating meat is worse on the environment than driving 2 hummers at once it is kinda like eating babies. We're completely screwing their future anyway :) Being baked and gnawed would be better then seeing the rest of this century.. maybe that sounds crazy but remember before y'all die that I said it :hi: