[bena]

You already do. Oreos are technically vegan. Margarine is already a plant-based butter substitute.

The Impossible Whopper is no better or worse for you than a regular Whopper by any metric.

It is pretty easy to be a fat vegetarian today.

[Karawebnetwork]

As someone who cut meat out of her diet, I can attest to that.

On days when we have time to cook, we make good, healthy meals. However, unhealthy alternatives are always present and very tempting.

The curfew has been hard for me and I have resumed my bad habits. I ate plant-based burgers, non-dairy ice cream, cookies and cakes almost every day. Most fast-food restaurants near me will ship from apps and offer meat-free alternatives for the same price.

Plant-based food is not necessarily healthier. It is simply meat-free.

[vlod]

Plant-based food generally means whole grain, minimally or unrefined. The things you mention wouldn't fall under that category, just vegetarian junk food.

[Karawebnetwork]

I have never seen this, but it might be a difference in regulations between countries. Whole grain and unrefined are two different labels that are not related to the fact that the food is plant-based.

- Harvey uses Lightlife burgers which are made with pea protein.

- A&W uses Beyond Meat which is made using beans along with beet juice for the coloring.

- Oggi's frozen pizzas made with Beyond Meat, cauliflower as the crust and vegan mozzarella (coconut milk).

- Coconut Bliss makes ice cream is using coconut milk.

- Cookies and bars made of fermented vegan proteins contains hemp, quinoa sprouts, alfalfa, spirulina, mung bean sprouts.

Those are all plant-based alternatives and are advertised as such. They are vegan junk food since they avoid animal products such as eggs and dairy.

An example of vegetarian junk food would be Quest's spinach & mushroom pizzas which use no meat at all but will use animal cheese.

[vlod]

Not an authoritative source just a fyi, the forksoverknives [0] (informative film if you've not seen it) site:

- Whole foods describes natural foods that are not heavily processed. That means whole, unrefined, or minimally refined ingredients. - Plant-based means food that comes from plants and doesn’t include animal ingredients such as meat, milk, eggs, or honey.

I've mostly seen the term 'plant-based' to differentiate between stuff you probably shouldn't be eating (all vegrtarian: french-fries, potato-chips, oreos, beyond meat (heavily processed [1]), non meat pizza with real-milk cheese) to stuff you should be eating: fresh-fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts etc.

i.e. if what your eating tastes REALLY good, made by a robot, comes out of a box with lots of fat/oil, salt, sugar, then it's mostly likely not in the range of plant-based diet (AFAIK). Technically ketchup is a vegetable [2]! :)

Note: I'm not criticizing you for eating any of this, that's your choice, I think that a lot of evil corps are probably mis-labeling these products as pseudo healthy (and maybe they are compared to the original versions), but whether one should be inserting them into your body is subject to opinion.

[0] https://www.forksoverknives.com/how-tos/plant-based-primer-b...

[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/impossible-and-beyond-ho...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup_as_a_vegetable

[Karawebnetwork]

Oh, by all mean it is unhealthy food. The nutritional labels are quite clear that they contain too much fat, sugar and calories.

But they are still plant-based and do not contain any animal products.

I eat a vegan diet for one single reason and that is to avoid voting with my wallet for the continuation of factory farming. I do not care about any other parts of the vegan philosophy and/or lifestyle.

Those items are plant-based products and do not claim anything else. I do agree that they are not part of a healthy plant-based diet but that is a different topic altogether.