Reality Vs Advert: The Impossible Whopper

So sure, it's $2 Whopper Wednesday all month and you can get the Impossible Burger rather than whole-grain beef.
So, which image is the ad and which was my lunch?


So, which should you pick?

Beyond’s own study found that a Beyond Burger generates 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than a regular one, and Impossible’s found an 89 percent reduction. ref

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[Impossible burger isn't good for you] Those products are not good for ... humans. Blood type O is not supposed to eat gluten.
... Coconut oil is not good for O tho, There are also other ingredients not good for O in there, like potato

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What's wrong with a beef burger anyway?

...dietary cholesterol and saturated fat, high in sodium, contains hormones, may contain Salmonella, E. coli, Yersinia, mad-cow

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What was in that impossible whopper? ref1, ref2

well, modern humans have been living off "meat" and preserving things with salt for about 200,000 years; so its probably not that big of a deal ;-)

my recent ancestors (3 generators back at least) lived off salt as a preservative, eggs and bacon every day, pork fat and alchohol into their late 80's/90's...
So clearly the only problem today is that we are now eating too much sugar instead of turning it into booze!

it is a roll of the genetic dice, much like the slim trim beautiful people that get the good life "just because"

I tried one. Wont happen again.

I'll take the beef.

I'm a fan of impossible. I can't stand the taste of beyond beef though.

Taikage said:

I'm a fan of impossible. I can't stand the taste of beyond beef though.

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Haven't tried Beyond Beef yet. TBH, I can't swear they didn't make a mistake and actually give me beef in the impossible whopper (sounds vaguely reminiscent as to whether the moon landing was faked ; -). This is just light years ahead of the old days.

I did snag a $2 Beyond Beef coupon... perhaps I'll try their chicken nuggets or one of the "pork" products (have to see what's actually in the store)..

I would rather have the chicken sandwich at Chik-Fil-A.

HRTKD said:

I would rather have the chicken sandwich at Chik-Fil-A.

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Make mine grilled.

svetz said:

Haven't tried Beyond Beef yet. TBH, I can't swear they didn't make a mistake and actually give me beef in the impossible whopper (sounds vaguely reminiscent as to whether the moon landing was faked ; -). This is just light years ahead of the old days.

I did snag a $2 Beyond Beef coupon... perhaps I'll try their chicken nuggets or one of the "pork" products (have to see what's actually in the store)..

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I thought that the first time I had an impossible burger as well. I've been buying the 1lb impossible packs at the grocery for a little over a year now. It's cheaper than high quality free range beef if you get it on sale.

The impossible breakfast sausage is also really good.

Not a fan of the Impossible Whopper, but equally not a fan of the normal beef Whopper.
Lets be honest, both types of fast food burger are at best mediocre. Tried Beyond Meat chickenless nuggets a few weeks ago, I think they were as tasty/mediocre as regular chicken nuggets.

One of the best burgers I've had was an Impossible burger from a local bar & grill in Portland. Big fat juicy patty, cooked perfect, crispy fried onions, spicy bbq sauce from scratch. It was epic. I am not the type of person to normally like meat substitutes, veggie burgers, etc, Impossible and maybe Beyond Meat are game changers for me. I wont use it in place of beef for everything, but for burgers, and tacos, and a few other things, I will happily use it in place of beef most of the time.

There was a time with the Whopper tasted better, or maybe I was just younger and did not know better.

If I'm getting burgers at a fast food joint, it will likely be 5 Guys

Ive never been a fan of Burger King and quite frankly, will probably never eat there. I never see cars parked in the parking lot, nor in the drive thru, but yet somehow, we have 4 in a town of 130k people? I dont get it.

Never tried any beyond meat, but maybe one day! Can never beat an In-N-Out burger. Extra Toasted bun, with Well-Done fries please!

(please don't attack me) I am a vegan - and I'm happy I have the impossible whopper option when my family needs to stop for fast food on a road trip or something like that. I think it tastes much better than a Beyond burger. Not a huge fan of the fries though - much prefer the ones at Wendy's!

Isaac-1 said:

There was a time with the Whopper tasted better, or maybe I was just younger and did not know better.

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I had this realization/question too (applies to most fast food). Went a bunch years without eating it, tried it a few times, and was like "wow, this used to taste and look way better when I was a kid, quality has gone down hill" and then realized the quality was probably always this poor, I was just a kid and coudln't tell the difference/didnt care. One thing that does live up to my memories as a kid are the French Fries.

The_Kobayashi_Vroom said:

I think it tastes much better than a Beyond burger.

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Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the Beyond Meat burgers, something about the taste is just a little off and its a bit too salty (tasting) for me.


If you haven't tried an impossible burger from somewhere other than BK yet, do it, they can be downright gourmet from a real burger place or a good vg/veg joint that can cook a burger.

Just stop eating fast food.

Beef is only an environmental "concern" when it is produced in the factory method. Support businesses that buy grass fed, regenerative farmed beef and it will reduce green house emitions.

"Regenerative agriculture, i.e. the capture of atmospheric carbon dioxide by growing plants that move that carbon dioxide into the soil, is pretty nearly the only currently-functioning technology available for drawing down greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere, mostly through the cultivation and nurturing of forests and permanent perennial pastures and grasslands."

noenegdod said:

Just stop eating fast food.

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Good advice on many levels, but not that simple.
Fast food is far from the only industry that uses beef from cows raised in factory farms. The vast majority of meat raised in the United States comes from factory farms (~99% of US raised meat, 70% of meat worldwide, are the numbers I found with a quick google search). Of the Grass Fed beef that we do have, ~70-80% comes from overseas.

Raising cattle on the scale that we do, takes a lot of land, a lot of water, is a contributor to human caused climate change, and (at scale) is morally indefensible from an animal welfare/basic decency point of view.

Buying from small ranchs/ranchers, that choose more humane and healthy methods of raising livestock, and in ways that are less exploitative/detrimental to the land, environment and/or climate, is a step in the right direction. And the added cost of this meat naturally leads to a reduction in consumption for most people which is good. But I'm skeptical of the claims that cattle raised in any way at scale could be a net positive. But I've no particular expertise in the area, and I'd love if it were true (it just sounds too good to be realistic).

There are lots of devils in lots of details. Consuming less meat, specifically less beef and red meat, choosing meat that is raised in more sustainable, less intensive, and more humane ways when you do it meat, and choosing products that are local to your region (and make sense to produce in your region) when possible, are simple things that can transcend lots of those devil's in the details.

Dzl said:

Good advice on many levels, but not that simple.

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From the perspective of health, it is that simple. That was what was in my head when I made that statement. Not clear, I know.

Dzl said:

Fast food is far from the only industry that uses beef from cows raised in factory farms. The vast majority of meat raised in the United States comes from factory farms (~99% of US raised meat, 70% of meat worldwide, are the numbers I found with a quick google search). Of the Grass Fed beef that we do have, ~70-80% comes from overseas.

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For sure, but that is a culture thing. We have a "system" in place and the people involved in the system do not want to see it go. They are familiar and comfortable with it and most importantly, they make money at it so change for them is unacceptable.

Dzl said:

Raising cattle on the scale that we do, takes a lot of land, a lot of water, is a contributor to human caused climate change, and (at scale) is morally indefensible from an animal welfare/basic decency point of view.

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Agree 100% and emphatically with the bolded portion.

I have no evidence I am going to quote, This is personal belief and "gut feeling":

When I look at a monocrop farm growing corn, soy and what ever else is being subsidized to feed to cattle in feed lots and consider the fuel and fertilizer and effort that is poured into that effort to produce and transport that feed to the feedlot. Contrast that with that same land that is managed and cattle herded to simulate the natural migration on the land. No fuel or fertilizer required.

Dzl said:

Buying from small ranchs/ranchers, that choose more humane and healthy methods of raising livestock, and in ways that are less exploitative/detrimental to the land, environment and/or climate, is a step in the right direction. And the added cost of this meat naturally leads to a reduction in consumption for most people which is good. But I'm skeptical of the claims that cattle raised in any way at scale could be a net positive. But I've no particular expertise in the area, and I'd love if it were true (it just sounds too good to be realistic).

There are lots of devils in lots of details. Consuming less meat, specifically less beef and red meat, choosing meat that is raised in more sustainable, less intensive, and more humane ways when you do it meat, and choosing products that are local to your region (and make sense to produce in your region) when possible, are simple things that can transcend lots of those devil's in the details.

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Personally I do not think we should be eating less meat. Red meat included. Herbivores that are allowed live as they would in nature are a tremendous source of nutrients, far better than any of the garbage vegetable we have available today was grown using fertilizers and pesticides.

Personal opinion: I would rather live in a world where the diet was made up of high quality foods and population was not allowed to exceed supply than live in a world where gross food production was the requirement, regardless of quality, to support a population that is multiplying unnaturally. In other terms. I would rather have a few healthy people than masses of sick, fat and nearly deads.

I listened to this guy for the first time while I was typing and the basic concept is there. I have no idea if it can feed the world population. Dont really care if it can or not. It is the right thing to do and the population should adjust:

The argument against the suggestion in the video is usually something like this:


But as the guy in the video describes in the first video, the devil is in the details. You have to manage the land correctly. You cant just turn the cattle loose on one plot of land, observe what went wrong and declare it is a failure. Proponents for and opponents against are guilt of setting up experiments and making arguments that support their biases almost always fail to do the right thing in the face of an outcome that is counter to their desired outcome.

How many of you in this thread have been out where cattle graze, for the most part, freely? I spend a lot of time in the Rocky Mountain region in the back country of CO, WY, MT, UT, ID and AZ. Much of that area is BLM or other public land. Ranchers lease that land for grazing and there are strict rules for how many cattle are allowed in each unit. I have never felt crowded by the cattle in those areas. Sure, the cattle are there but I've never encountered more than 20 at a time. I've also never seen an area over-grazed.

Sometimes the cattle make themselves right at home where I'm camping.

HRTKD said:

How many of you in this thread have been out where cattle graze, for the most part, freely?

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I live in Calgary Alberta. Spend a lot of time in the BLM areas to the west in the Rockies. We call them PLUZ (public land use zone). Many of the areas have grazing cattle in them.

As someone that is involved in a small cattle ranch with a couple of hundred head of cattle, I can tell you the truth is much more nuanced than many of the people promoting the anti-cattle / anti-"cattle-factory" agenda would have you believe. The biggest problem is their purity standards for grass fed, sustainable, etc. cattle. What they don't tell you is there is a considerable portion of the cattle raised in the US, that anyone with an objective view would put into a gray area between "cattle-factory" and pure, sustainable, grass fed, .... Take for example grain finished cattle, which is something many ranchers do, even on the local small scale, as most people in the US prefer the taste of grain fed / grain finished cattle, to pure grass fed, which can taste more gamey. For grain finished cattle, they are moved to a cattle lot, which may be on the same property where they were raised, and trough fed grain for the last few weeks before they are sent off to be slaughtered. Alternatively if the rancher uses commercial bulk fertilizers, they tend to be not counted, or if they use modern medicines, ... The list goes on and on, until you get to the point where they can claim 99% of cattle raised in the US are factory cattle.

In our case, yes we sell most of our yearling cattle at auction to be sent off to distant feed lots, where they will be fattened up on grain before going to slaughter. There really is not much other choice for the small ranchers, the small local slaughter houses have almost all been driven out of business by federal regulations over the last 30 years, the few that remain are booked solid for many months in advance. We have a couple of head of cattle processed at a local small meat processor each year for friends and family, and right now we are having to book time slots to have individual heads of cattle processed 8-10 months out (right after Covid hit, the reservations were running 12-18 months out, so before the calf was born one already needed a reservation to have it processed) , and unless you handle your own distribution, have your own freezers, etc. there is just no way to do that on any scale that makes cattle ranching profitable, not that I consider our few hundred acres and couple of hundred head of cattle a profitable operation, at best we break even, and cover expenses, but there is a never ending cycle of financing replacement equipment, covering cost of fertilizer, as those high beef prices everyone has been seeing at the grocery store, is not reflected in price on the hoof that cattle ranchers see when they sell the unprocessed cattle.

So I grew up on a cattle / sheep ranch in Colorado, and I am a big fan of a good cheeseburger. I'm a regular at 5 Guys, Smashburger, and when I can find one, In-and-Out. God knows that at 63 years of age, I probably shouldn't like them as much as I do.

I also have two adult daughters, and they both are vegan. Not vigilante vegans, as they don't ever criticize anyone for not being vegan, and they have never tried to "convert" me. (They know that wouldn't go well) But they have answered my questions when I ask, and they have helped me understand things that I didn't before. I have always been the cook in my family, so their transition to vegan has been a real pain for me and my grilling / smoking and all the things I love to make with eggs, butter, and cheese. Geeesh.

With that all said, I've had opportunities to try things that I probably would not have ever tried if it were not for my daughters. One is the Impossible burger. I was not optimistic about it, and figured I would just choke it down and be done. But I have to admit, it was REALLY good. I've had both the Burger King Impossible Whopper, and a mostly up-scale steakhouse Impossible burger, and both were up there. Obviously a burger is significantly impacted by the other stuff in the sandwich, but I think that the "burger" part of these sandwiches was tasty and juicy, and mostly tasted like beef. I can't really put my finger on it, but the steak house Impossible even tasted somehow better than a "real" beef burger. I don't know how or why. It may have been the glass of Cabernet Sauvignon (or two) that made the difference.

The second thing I really liked was beyond sausage (the spicy version) in with my homemade spaghetti sauce. We've made that a regular when the daughters come back to Colorado and we go up to our cabin in the mountains. We hike for several miles and come back to the cabin for a nice spaghetti dinner, and man that sausage tastes good!

I don't like to think about how the transition will happen, but I do believe that we all will eventually be eating less meat. I don't think it will be because the gov't forces us to, but because the economics and health factors will push us all to go that way. I'm hoping to get my fill of cheeseburgers before that happens.

In all fairness all advertised food looks better than reality.