Both health and ethics reasons. Healthwise coconut oil has even higher saturated fat levels than palm oil does, but both are quite high.
Ethics wise coconut is similarly not sustainable, at least not in terms of being yet another monoculture. I would say it’s arguably not vegan because of the harm that comes to animals and their habitats because of the coconut industry.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/by-the-way-doctor-is-palm-oil-good-for-you
Yup, to be honest I’m surprised that Butler’s has zero direct competition. To the best of my knowledge there is no other whole-bean single-ingrediant meat substitute, all of the other closest competitors are tvp-based.
That’s where the soy curls come in. TVP would be a nice addition, but I lean more in favor of a whole-foods approach. TVP = chemically stripped soy, mostly protein. Soy curls are the whole beans boiled and reformed into a surprizingly incredible and versatile meat alternative.
As a vegan it might be strange and interesting to try to replicate the “authentic” Texas Red recipes. No beans, no tomato. The basic recipe would be an almost purely pepper-based stock, probably use both Beyond Ground and diced Beyond Steak. If I recall, the most original known chili recipe called for a substantial amount of added pig fat. I’m not big on high-fat foods in the first place, so to me it’s dubious whether to even include an alternative. But if I did, the most comparable choice would be coconut oil, but I avoid coconut/palm oil to the best of my ability, so probably a bit of added avocado oil would work best, though it’s worth noting that Beyond products are already high in one or the other of these (avocado Beyond is best). Spices don’t need to change.
But then, is that really superior chili? Sorry but midwestern bean and tomato/pepper extravaganza chili is way better, and will continue to be my main. But with some added crumbled soy curls? Gonna have to try that soon.
Would you care to elaborate on what you feel like when you try living on plants? What do you tend to eat? How long does it take before you start feeling like shit?
Judging by your last comment about it “not hitting the same” my initial thought is that the issue might not even be nutritional, possibly more psychological/subjective.
Veganic agriculture is already a thing, and it works fine.
This is the thing that really bothers me about the cauliflower substitutions - that it’s being used as a substitute for foods that are meant to offer macronutrients. Cauliflower on it’s own has extremely low calories. It’s meant to be eaten for it’s micronutrients and unique plant compounds. It does not provide enough macros to sustain a person, so if someone were eating a lot of cauliflower in place of their macro-sources they would be putting themselves into a starvation state.
However if any forms of fat and oil are used in it’s preparation, then it might no longer even have the weight loss benefit that might come from that.
I love tofu, I don’t love cooking it (unless it’s scrambled).
Now soy curls? There’s an award winning ingredient.
Speaking of things people are better without, I wish everyone would stop using Medium. There’s so many better alternatives - Write Freely, Wordpress, Ghost, just to name a few.