Why do Vegans Try to Imitate Meat?

Why do vegans try to imitate meat? What’s going on?

Isn’t meat disgusting to a vegan?

So hate it, then go and imitate it?

Well not really . . .

If you’ve ever wondered why imitation meat flies off the supermarket shelves, or whether vegans are total hypocrites for eating vegan meats, then this article’s for you.

Table of Contents

Don’t Vegans Think Meat is Disgusting?

The number of people who switch to a vegan lifestyle is increasing all the time and it’s populated with a huge variety of people, all with different backgrounds. And different motives for becoming vegan.

Many people who go vegan actually love, or used to love, the taste of meat.

They decide to become vegan to consciously stop eating meat, not because they hate it, but because they hate the suffering it causes.

Or they want to be healthier, so they make the switch.

Others want to contribute to the efforts to save the planet and decide to go vegan for the environment.

So, the three most common reasons for becoming vegan are:

because of the systemic cruelty to animals involved in the meat/dairy/leather industry
for health
for the environment

But there’s another group of vegans who never liked meat in the first place, they grew up not eating meat or who just decided that meat is foul or disgusting in some way or other, and it’s this fourth group of people who you probably won’t catch eating imitation meat.

You probably won’t catch the health conscious vegan eating imitation meat too often either, but maybe on occasion they will eat it.

Giving up something you love eating is never easy, but having a vegan replacement can help to make it easier. You can cut out the cruelty without missing the foods you grew up with or enjoyed before going vegan.

What’s the Point of Imitation Meat?

Imitation or fake meat has a worthy reason for existence!

What is it?

That it helps people to enjoy a similar way of eating as they used to before, while retracting their support for the meat industry.

Think of somebody who has family memories of eating cottage pie on a cold winter’s day. It’s much easier to switch the ingredients of the cottage pie than it is to say they must never eat cottage pie again.

The same’s true for a burger – or any other type of imitation meat come to that. For somebody who loves going out for a burger, they can still do that, they just have to opt for the vegan burger and voila, they’ve stopped supporting the meat industry.

7 Reasons Why Vegans Eat Fake Meat

Transitioning to vegan is so much easier if you can swap out your meat meals with vegan comparisons.
If you like the taste of meat but don’t want to support the cruelty of the industry, eating fake meats can be a solution.
The look of the vegan meat is familiar and therefore comforting, safe feeling.
By cooking imitation meat you don’t have to learn to cook new things. You can just keep on cooking the same dishes but with vegan meat instead of animal meat.
Fake meat provides the equivalent convenience food for vegans as non-vegans.
Food is emotional. We all have a lot of memories linked to what we eat, both good and bad. For many, they can carry on invoking their memories with their new vegan versions of the traditional food.
Why not? The disgusting aspect of meat is the suffering involved in it. Once this isn’t an issue, there’s nothing to be disgusted about.

Final Thoughts on Why Vegans Try to Imitate Meat

Going vegan may have many reasons behind it, but the number one reason to become vegan is to take a stand against the abuse of animal lives.

But when you’ve spent your life eating meat, only to discover that you can no longer support where it comes from, why wouldn’t you re-create it without that unwanted side to it?

If you go vegan for your health, you’re more likely to discover a whole foods plant based diet and not eat the imitation meats. But that’s not because they look like meat, it’s because imitation meat is a processed food. And processed foods are not the healthiest choices.

That’s not to say all vegan meat is unhealthy. It’s just that all processed foods, vegan or not, are less healthy choices than whole foods.