By Panithan Onthaworn

 

Thai TV star Naphat “Nine” Siangsomboon has drawn criticism for promoting Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group’s plant-based meat products as an alternative to soaring pork prices.

 

Nine, best known for his starring in Netflix’s rom-com Friend Zone movie, posted on social media this week encouraging people to consume plant-based meat products from the MEAT ZERO brand of the country’s leading food conglomerate CPF as pork prices rise.

 

“Try plant-based protein instead,” Nine said. “It’s delicious, healthy, and worry-free”

 

Full story: https://www.thaienquirer.com/36409/nine-naphat-under-fire-after-promoting-cps-plant-based-meat-products/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Enquirer 2022-01-11

 

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As he is possibly being paid by CP to promote their products my question is, what wrong ?

3 minutes ago, JoePai said:

As he is possibly being paid by CP to promote their products my question is, what wrong ?

I guess it's because the poor that can't afford to eat due to soaring pork prices probably don't want to be told to consume an even more expensive plant based product instead.

 

It's another "let them eat cake" moment.

I wonder if Thais ever watched the movie "Soylent Green"???  ????

 

Also,  you do have to wonder, WHY would a plant based meat replacement product need to be MORE expensive that the meat product itself?

Question....has anyone tried these....?..... any good?

Here's an example of the local product... Strikes me as being very SALT heavy...  Also not great if a person has food allergies to either wheat or soy.

 

https://www.meatzerobrand.com/en/meat-zero-plant-based-crispy-pork/

 

 

 

 

Here's their basic ground "non-meat" version that's less salty, but still very much based on soy.

 

https://www.meatzerobrand.com/en/meat-zero-plant-based-ground-meat/

 

 

 

17 hours ago, webfact said:

“Try plant-based protein instead,” Nine said. “It’s delicious, healthy, and worry-free”

And what's the price comparison?

Plant based "meats" are unhealthy sodium laden highly processed food products...real meat is much more nutritious and healthy. This includes the products made in Thailand and US ones like "Beyond Meat" beef patties.

17 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Here's an example of the local product... Strikes me as being very SALT heavy...  Also not great if a person has food allergies to either wheat or soy.

 

https://www.meatzerobrand.com/en/meat-zero-plant-based-crispy-pork/

 

 

 

 

Here's their basic ground "non-meat" version that's less salty, but still very much based on soy.

 

https://www.meatzerobrand.com/en/meat-zero-plant-based-ground-meat/

 

 

 Nobody ever said they were making health food! ????

 

BTW- "Natural identical flavor" is that the term they use for artificial flavor in Thailand? 

57 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Plant based "meats" are unhealthy sodium laden highly processed food products...real meat is much more nutritious and healthy. This includes the products made in Thailand and US ones like "Beyond Meat" beef patties.

You are correct....

This food should not be called plant based but laboratory based food....Soy is controversial....But even Soy supporters will not give GMO soy the thumbs up....And this new plant based food is very highly processed GMO soy (plus lots of other stuff)...............Nope, not interested...

18 minutes ago, Venom said:

 Nobody ever said they were making health food! ????

 

BTW- "Natural identical flavor" is that the term they use for artificial flavor in Thailand? 

Natural flavor is a term that can mean ANYTHING....But usually means there is a healthy dose of MSG. hidden in the food..

18 hours ago, hashmodha said:

Question....has anyone tried these....?..... any good?

Taste and texture are pretty spot on. Especially when it is something that's laden with spices anyway like a burger patty. However it does have a "strange" smell, which gives it out pretty much immediately. So yes, it's quite good, but not the same.

32 minutes ago, redwood1 said:

You are correct....

This food should not be called plant based but laboratory based food....Soy is controversial....But even Soy supporters will not give GMO soy the thumbs up....And this new plant based food is very highly processed GMO soy (plus lots of other stuff)...............Nope, not interested...

Soy contains estrogen. Men wanting to maintain testosterone levels might want to stay away from it. (It's also used a lot in prison food to keep testosterone levels low = prison populations docile).

 

Also:

 

Quote

Soy, it turned out, contains estrogen-like compounds called isoflavones. And some findings suggested that these compounds could promote the growth of some cancer cells, impair female fertility and mess with thyroid function.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a20707020/is-soy-good-or-bad-for-you/

18 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I wonder if Thais ever watched the movie "Soylent Green"???  ????

 

Also,  you do have to wonder, WHY would a plant based meat replacement product need to be MORE expensive that the meat product itself?

It's the year 2022...

18 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Here's an example of the local product... Strikes me as being very SALT heavy...  Also not great if a person has food allergies to either wheat or soy.

 

https://www.meatzerobrand.com/en/meat-zero-plant-based-crispy-pork/

Yes... Moo Krob is the healthiest food you can find in Thailand (sarcasm off). There are many ways to make crispy pork, but they all involve fatty pork belly and massive amounts of SALT. Absolutely agree with the part about allergies. Good part is that people with allergies are probably the only ones reading the labels to see what's in it. The rest just take it at face value for advertised "healthier option" that "doesn't harm animals".

 

And in a way, avoiding meat or vegetarian choice of living is many times to prevent harm to animals, not really about healthier option.

I am curious to taste the KFC/Beyond product. Same as wanting to taste the Burger King/Beyond burger (can't seem to find here in Chiang Mai).

2 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

It's the year 2022...

Could run a double feature ????

22 hours ago, webfact said:

Try plant-based protein instead,” ................. “It’s delicious, healthy, and worry-free”

Not in my household - yuck!!! - only delicious "real" meat.

1 hour ago, Dumbfounded said:

Could run a double feature ????

I think this one's about pro vaxers after they've had their 7th booster ????

5 hours ago, Venom said:

 

BTW- "Natural identical flavor" is that the term they use for artificial flavor in Thailand? 

 

Ha!  I too was wondering what the heck that term is supposed to mean.... Don't think I've ever seen that one before....

 

I always get a bit nervous at eating something with ingredients that I don't know and don't understand.

 

4 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

It's the year 2022...

WOW!  That really is one of the original movie posters for the film "Soylent Green,"  which I saw and enjoyed many years ago as a "yoot".... But had no recollection, when I mentioned it above, that the movie was foretelling a future 2022. Happy New Year!!!

 

See the Washington Post's exploration of this:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/01/09/soylent-green-2022-predictions/

 

"The general public is forced to live off products from the Soylent corporation, whose wares contain “high-energy vegetable concentrate” — and are dismissed by one elderly customer as “tasteless, odorless crud.” Its latest artificial meal is Soylent Green, a “miracle food of high-energy plankton gathered from the oceans of the world.” It proves popular enough to be rationed to a single day of sale per week, but as Thorn discovers, it’s not what it seems to be."

 

--------------------------

 

"Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me Hatcher! You've gotta tell 'em! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! We gotta stop them! Somehow!

 

• Note: the bolded line is ranked #77 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema."

 

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

To be fair, the various meat replacement products do have the advantage of typically having less fat and cholesterol that red meat, and frequent consumption of red meat has been found by the medical establishment to contribute to heart disease and various other maladies.

 

However, it seems that a common feature of many of the various meat replacement products (apart from the soy and wheat potential allergy issues) is an abundance of SALT, which can contribute to high blood pressure and other problems.

 

So, pick your risk....

 

"THURSDAY, June 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- More and more Americans are seeking out healthier, greener and more ethical alternatives to meat, but are plant-based alternatives like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat truly nutritious substitutes?

The answer is yes, according to new research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

 

It found the imitation meats to be a good source of fiber, folate and iron while containing less saturated fat than ground beef. But the researchers said they also have less protein, zinc and vitamin B12 — and lots of salt.

...

For example, if you're limiting sodium to control high blood pressure, steer clear of products that are high in salt, Harnack said.

"If you're watching saturated fat intake for heart health, read the label to make sure you're choosing a product that is low in saturated fat," she said. "A few products contain as much or nearly as much saturated fat as ground beef."

 

https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20210617/how-healthy-are-the-new-plant-based-fake-meats#1

 

 

6 hours ago, redwood1 said:

You are correct....

This food should not be called plant based but laboratory based food....Soy is controversial....But even Soy supporters will not give GMO soy the thumbs up....And this new plant based food is very highly processed GMO soy (plus lots of other stuff)...............Nope, not interested...

The nutrition profile for both is quite similar...the main difference being the high sodium content of the "plant based" protein products and the higher cholesterol content of natural meat (which is not a concern to people without metabolic syndrome). In addition, the human body has evolved over millions of years eating meat and knows how to metabolize it...the laboratory concoction its never seen before and has no idea what to do with it!

5 hours ago, huangnon said:

Soy contains estrogen. Men wanting to maintain testosterone levels might want to stay away from it. (It's also used a lot in prison food to keep testosterone levels low = prison populations docile).

There must be a lot of plant based meat eaters amongst the male farangs in Thailand if the prevalence of moobs (man tits) is anything to go by. 

How much is pork in the open air markets now?

Killing and eating animals is disgusting.

NOT off-topic. Does anybody here know where soybeans are sourced in Thailand? GMO or not?

On 1/11/2022 at 2:27 PM, hashmodha said:

Question....has anyone tried these....?..... any good?

Yep, horrible. 

It's kind of interesting... If you look at the EN homepage that CP has created for its MeatZero brand, you'll find an explanation that they acquired the technology that they're using from Japan, specifically, from a company named "Fuji Oil."  Somehow, that particular knowledge I don't find especially reassuring.

 

PLANT-TEC Innovation

"It took us more than 2 years to produce the fantastic
“plant-based meat” that tastes like real meat. To do this, we have conducted more than 2,000 experiments with hundreds of researchers and staff from CPF Food Research and Development Center. The team also partnered with a world-class plant-based products company called Fuji Oil from Japan. And that’s how MEAT ZERO has obtained the intellectual property right to the “Plant-Tec” innovation or “technique to make plant-based ingredients taste like meat”."

 

https://www.meatzerobrand.com/en/

 

Back in the home country, before I decamped to Thailand, I was at times eating so-called veggie burgers that generally didn't contain any soy or mystery ingredients as above. Instead, they were made from mixtures of regular vegan ingredients like black beans, rice, lentils, nuts and seeds, quinoa, mushrooms, carrots, etc etc.

 

You wouldn't mistake them for actual ground beef, but they were reasonably tasty and healthful on their own. Sadly, I'm not seeing much of those kind of products here.

 

https://thebeet.com/the-6-best-veggie-burgers-to-buy-that-are-actually-healthy/

 

"Everyone has a favorite plant-based burger by now, whether it's Beyond, or Impossible, or another brand, but none of these are particularly healthy, according to doctors, since they contain a variety of ingredients not grown in the ground.

 

By contrast, the good old-fashioned veggie burger is based on whole foods like lentils, mushrooms, carrots, beets, peas, and whole grains such as quinoa and brown rice. For the most part, these veggie burgers are healthier and contain less fat and more fiber per ounce, but the beef with them is that they were not as delicious.

 

A lot has changed and now companies have reformulated their veggie burgers to be satisfying and tasty, as well as juicy and robust, all from ingredients you could grow in your garden.

We taste-tested the whole crop of healthy plant-based veggie burgers to consider which ones to buy from the lineup of those loaded with clean ingredients..."

 

(more)

 

One example of that genre: