- Office. "Drinking urine can have negative health consequences"
A couple of weeks ago a well-known hamburger chain managed to viralize a campaign to publicize its new meatless burgers. They chose Ávila, a famous city as "capital of the ribeye", as a place to offer the vegetable version of their most iconic hamburger to people who came to one of their fast food restaurants. The result was surprising: nobody noticed the difference!
The news has caused a stir but, like it or not, the vegetable "hamburgers" are here to stay . I quote the word "hamburger" because last April the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament voted to ban the use of names such as "hamburger", "steak", "sausage", "escalope" and "burger" in products That are not meat. Instead they propose to call them "vegetarian records" from Europe.
But really, who cares about the name? Call discs or hamburgers, the so-called "vegetable meat" is an unstoppable trend. Its presence has transcended vegetarian restaurants or with an ecological profile. Now, in the menus of popular sandwich franchises, hamburgers or even sushi , we find the magic words: "Beyond" or "Heura" . These are some of the most widespread alternatives to meat that we can find today in Spain, either in restaurants or in supermarkets.
Beyond Meat: the investment to the "beyond" of Bill Gates
Cooking since 2013 and coming from Los Angeles, this meat substitute from soy protein and pea protein has landed in Spain this year. From the "Beyond Chicken" - chicken legs without chicken - to the recent "Beyond Burger", in the United States the "Beyond" option is already a regular part of the conversation and in Spain, in a very short time, it has achieved a remarkable Market penetration The texture and flavor are really well achieved and in a blind tasting these products are also difficult to differentiate from their meat equivalents . At least I confess that I have not been able to do it.
Heura: the bet 'made in' Barcelona
There is life beyond California. Foods for Tomorrow, based in Barcelona, also develops alternatives to chicken from soybeans. The mechanism is as follows: first, they extract the protein from the soy beans until a protein concentrate is obtained. Then mix it with water until you get a dough that undergoes an extrusion process, something similar to what is done with cookies. Finally, through changes in pressure and temperature, the structure of the Heura is obtained, which is similar to chicken. Just skip ... and voila! A factor in favor of Heura, in addition to its local origin, is that it also has in its catalog some presentations made from olive oil
Quorn or when hunger sharpens wit
During the Second World War in Germany the meninges began to squeeze exploring new ways to get something out of their mouths. Both thought that they ended up obtaining fungal biomass from the cultivation of filamentous fungi and was used as a dietary supplement. Later, without "the rush of war", in Germany they continued investigating which fungus could be the most profitable for this purpose. Among 3,000 candidates, the fungus chosen was Fusarium venenatum . In this case the training process is really amazing. The fungus is grown in tanks or barrels of 150,000 liters of capacity where it ferments. In the fermentation process the fungus eats sugar - sugar as a "fuel" comes out very cheaply - and thanks to a complicated technological process, about 300-350 kg of biomass are obtained per hour. What advantages does the Quorn have? Among its nutritional advantages is that it has no cholesterol, is low in saturated fat and yet it is rich in fiber . In addition, 44% of Quorn are proteins, or rather, mycoproteins. Among its economic advantages, the good news is that the patent expired in 2010 and can now be marketed by anyone. Any disadvantages? Yes, the taste and texture of Quorn is less achieved than that of Heura or Beyond Meat.
Vegetable meat: fashion or proposal necessary?
The reality, and although what I am going to say sounds regular, is that we have the cows farting above our means . And be careful because it is not only the emissions of the cows that contribute to the planet. It is important to keep in mind that the water and resources needed to produce a kilo of veal are much larger than those needed to produce a kilo of these vegetable alternatives. Personally, I think that t-bone steaks or chicken nuggets , as we have known them, are far from disappearing. But I also believe that these alternatives, which do not respond to a nutritional need but a social and cultural one, will be increasingly diverse and will gain more followers. In any case, remember, we will always have legumes.
CONSULTING ROOM
Send your questions to papel@elmundo.es and @Papel_EM
In recent days I have seen in the media that Madonna promotes urine therapy (drinking the urine itself). Is it true that there may be some benefit to it?
Not only is there no demonstrated benefit in drinking the urine itself, but ingesting waste products can have negative health consequences. Although many people still think that the urinary tract is sterile, it has actually been proven with very sensitive diagnostic tests that house diverse microbiomes and therefore the urine may contain bacteria. In short, drinking urine can cause an infection or reinfection. By the way, long before Madonna, unfortunately in Spain the orinotherapy was popularized years ago by the naturopath and TV presenter Txumari Alfaro, who has received and continues to receive numerous criticisms from the scientific community due to his promotion of various pseudotherapies.
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