Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[James2014]

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.

The problem isn't that it's formed to look like meat, but rather that it's formed to taste like meat. To achieve this the foods are usually high in salt and contain msg.

Daiya "vean cheese" also contains MSG. Doesn't matter if it's naturally derived or not, MSG is bad for you. Just like many other things you shouldn't eat. Just like say tobacco, or death cap mushrooms. Both of those are 100% natural too.

As for MSG and artificial flavors-- I've never heard of vegan foods being full of garbage.

Well now you have.

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.

Well the packet can say "flavour enhancer 621" or "yeast extract" and either way it means MSG.

Firstly, The evidence that MSG is actually harmful to most people is very poor.

As the study say "This review prevents a critical review of the available literature related to the possible role of MSG in the so-called ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’ and in eliciting asthmatic bronchospasm, urticaria, angio-oedema, and rhinitis. Despite concerns raised by early reports, decades of research have failed to demonstrate a clear and consistent relationship between MSG ingestion and the development of these conditions."

Secondly MSG is also in many meat products for example sausages

"Ingredients
Pork (53%),Water ,Pork Fat ,Cereal ,Salt ,Permitted Preservative E221 ,Dextrose ,Flavour Enhancer E621 ,Colour (Carmine) ,Spice Extract ,Antioxidant E301"
What is E621? MSG!

Lastly, vegan cheeses are horrible and most vegans that I know wouldn't eat them. Never the less MSG is not bad for you, and vegan chees can be good source of protein for those who enjoy it.