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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Eggs and Beyond

If you're a fan of real food, you may be concerned to discover there is yet another fake food making its debut. "Beyond Eggs" is an artificial egg product made from plants. Don't expect anything beautiful. It is a powdered substance made from peas and beans and a bunch of other "awesome" vegetables. The firm marketing this product is Hampton Creek, a start-up company funded by bazillionaire Bill Gates and PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel. Let's just call it tech-food.

As I write this, I'm enjoying a bowl of egg drop soup made with chicken bone broth, thinly sliced green onions and a lovely yellow farm-fresh egg-- a.k.a. real food. Before long, Hampton Creek is planning to unveil a new scrambled-egg substitute promising to be just like my whipped up farm egg...in their dreams!

So why do we need an egg substitute? "Beyond Eggs" is supposed to be so much better because it "takes animals out of the equation." Frankly, without animals, my egg drop soup doesn't exist. I like animals in the equation, along with the majority of Americans and probably a good part of the rest of the world. Hampton Creek's founder, Josh Tetrick, say's the animal food industry is broken-- and he's right. But the answer to the problem is not powdered plant food, it's the responsible and humane handling of the animals that we use for food. You will find humane treatment of animals on family farms all around the world, just not in CAFO industrial meat plants.

From an article about this wonderful new food in MailOnline,
"[The] idea was to find a mix of easy-to-grow plants that, when mixed together in the right way, replicate the taste, nutritional values and cooking properties of an egg."
And they're already in talks with major food manufacturers around the world to replace eggs in supermarket products with their alternative fake egg powder. One more reason to avoid processed food.

But my question is, will this product really have ALL the nutritional values of an egg? Will it have choline? Will it have saturated fat (gasp)? Saturated fat is an important nutrient required by the body and yet is only found in meat products. Is it going to have all the minerals found in eggs? What about vitamin A? There is a significant difference between the vitamin A found in eggs and meat (retinol) and the vitamin A found in plants (beta carotene). Primarily, beta carotene is NOT true vitamin A. It is a precursor that must be converted by the body into vitamin A. However, for many people, the body is not efficient enough to produce adequate vitamin A levels from beta carotene.

So once again, we have fake food manufacturers misleading the public into believing that they can create a drop-in replacement for a natural food. You may be saying, "But, Cathy, it IS a natural product because it's made from natural foods like peas and beans!" My answer-- hogwash! An argument could be made that every chemical is natural because it comes from naturally occurring molecules. A process that turns a plant--any plant--into a white powder that behaves like eggs is not remotely natural.

I'm not surprised that the world of "science" is working so hard to re-imagine our food. That's what they do. What gets me in the craw is that a market such as Whole Foods, which is supposed to be all about whole foods and healthy eating, will be promoting it! What's THAT about?!

With the likes of Bill Gates behind this effort, you can expect it to be thoroughly and lavishly advertised in the most beneficial light possible. But don't be fooled. Companies are in business to make a profit, not to benefit mankind. I'm not saying all businesses are bad because their goal is to make a profit-- I'm all about profit. That's what makes economies grow. What I'm saying is... buyer beware!

We must be thinkers and questioners. And we must be constantly vigilant. And we must stop being saps, believing everything we hear in an advertisement.

Beyond eggs? I'll pass, thank you. I like the eggs exactly the way they are. Thank you, Lord, for beautiful eggs and for the chickens that produce them.


Image credit:  techcrunch.com

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