Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[bennyboy]

Vegans in fact know that meat is delicious, and that's why much of the processed vegan food they eat has MSG's and artificial flavours added (and consequently carcinogens) - you wouldn't need to add these if the flavour obtained purely from unprocessed vegan foods was enough to satisfy our taste buds. That's cheating. And it's really not healthy either. So much for your cancer-causing pseudo-meat patties.

I kind of agree to a degree. I think simulated "meats" are basically vegetarian porn-- it's not the real thing, but it stimulates enough of those neurons to make it pleasurable in its own way. But the fact that vegans eat anything formed to look like meat is a pretty obvious acknowledgement that meat-eating is part of our nature, at least on an instinct level.

As for MSG and artificial flavors-- I've never heard of vegan foods being full of garbage. That seems antithetical to the "purity" of controlling your food intake. I always check ingredients on everything, and if there are chemical names, I have to look them up, and if they can be animal sourced, I have to contact the company and specifically ask if they can guarantee a vegetable source. And even after all that, I feel a little uncomfortable eating the food, because I'm not confident that the company employee who had to deal with me wasn't just telling me what I wanted to hear to make his/her day easier.

I've found many vegan products that list ALL the ingredients, and they are all natural, taste great, and are of good quality.