fast food – Jughandle’s Fat Farm

Impossible Whopper comparison, side by side with the Classic Whopper

Burger King recently released, nationally, what they call the “Impossible Whopper” sandwich. In a nutshell, it is a Whopper sandwich with a vegetable based patty that replaces the char broiled beef patty on a classic Whopper.

I decided to do an Impossible Whopper Comparison, side by side with the Classic Whopper. A difficult task, but someone needed to do it.

Burger King describes the IW as follows:

Our Impossible™ WHOPPER® Sandwich features a savory flame-grilled patty made from plants topped with juicy tomatoes, fresh lettuce, creamy mayonnaise, ketchup, crunchy pickles, and sliced white onions on a soft sesame seed bun. 100% WHOPPER®, 0% Beef.

My Back Story

I was on the track team at Auburn University in the early ’70s. I trained 8 to 10 hours a day either running or lifting weights, burning 8-10,000 calories a day. I lived at the athletic dorm and ate my meals at the dinning table. With the exception of steaks, we could eat as much as we could as long as it was in less than 15 mins.

The food was good but 2 hours after eating I was hungry again. A few of us would inevitably mosey on over to the local Burger King around 8 or 9 pm. My standard order would be 5 whoppers, 2 orders of large fries and a large orange. Yep, that would be at least 5,000 calories.

My point is that I am a Whopper expert and have eaten hundreds, if not thousands in my life time.

The Buns are the same

As advertised, and no surprise, the buns are identical. As far as that goes, the sandwiches are both Whoppers with the exception of the patty.

Let’s get down to the meat of the matter

The Meat Patty is

charbroiled and tends to be slightly undercooked. Fortunately for me, that is the way I like it. There is a firm texture to the patty, consistent with beef. The noticeable feature of the Burger King Beef Patty is the charbroiled flavor. You know that flavor and can associate the flavor with the smell of flame broiled beef.

The Plant Patty is

underwhelming. Yes, as much as I wanted this thing to taste exactly like a Whopper, it was without surprise, that it did not.

Why Not?

For several reasons:

The texture was mushy and if picked up without the bun for support, it would fall apart.
The taste just wasn’t there. I’m assuming the veggie patty was flame roasted too, but I’m only guessing because there was no charbroiled flavor. This point alone was the deal breaker for me.
The combined flavor was bland. With the meat patty the flavors combine to be better than the parts. The meat enhances the flavors of the mayo, tomato, lettuce, onion and pickle. Those flavors work together to create a truly good sandwich.
The Plant Based Patty, not so much. All the individual flavors are still there, but it does nothing to enhance the the end combo. I think it is the acid in the beef that makes the difference. Maybe a little lemon juice, or vinegar would brighten the flavors. But as it stands, the Impossible Whopper, is aptly named and compares to eating a whopper after removing the beef patty.

Do you think you are green? Thinking about trying to be green? It is a nice concept but how many of us are really willing to do what is necessary to turn this planet around? Here are a few of the major problems we face that MUST be dealt with immediately to even save the planet let alone turn it “green” again.

Farmers, I didn’t start this blog site to get all warm and fuzzy and tree hugging, but damn, I’m turning up some serious problems that are starting to worry me. Let me know if I’m going over the deep end or if I haven’t even begun to see the tip of the iceberg yet. – Jughandle

1. Rice

Rice is the major calorie source for half of the world’s population, but growing rice accounts for one-third of the planet’s annual freshwater use, according to Oxfam. Luckily, a new farming method known as System of Rice Intensification has been developed that enables farmers to produce up to 50 percent more rice with less water. Oxfam is working to get rice-producing countries to convert 25 percent of their rice cultivation to SRI by 2025.

via 12 foods that are bad for the planet: Rice | MNN – Mother Nature Network.

2. Genetically modified foods

As with human health risks, it’s unlikely that all the potential environmental harms of genetically modified foods have been identified, but here are some of the main concerns about GMOs.

Lower level of biodiversity: By making a crop resistant to a certain pest, the food sources for other animals could be removed. Also, the addition of foreign genes to plants could be toxic and endanger the animals that consume the plant.
Spread of altered genes: Novel genes placed in crops won’t necessarily stay in designated agricultural fields. The genes can easily spread via pollen and share their altered genes with non-genetically modified plants.
Creation of new diseases: Some GM foods are modified using bacteria and viruses, which means they could adapt and create new diseases.

3. Sugar

More than 145 millions tons of sugar are produced in 121 countries each year, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and production on such a scale takes its toll on the Earth. Sugar may be responsible for more biodiversity loss than any other crop, according to a 2004 WWF “Sugar and the Environment” report, due to its habitat destruction, its intensive use of water and pesticides, and the polluted wastewater discharged during the production process.

Thousands of acres of the Florida Everglades have been compromised after years of sugar cane farming — subtropical forests became lifeless marshland after excessive fertilizer runoff and irrigation drainage. Waters around the Great Barrier Reef are also suffering due to the large quantities of pesticides and sediment from sugar farms.

4. Meat

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, if every American substituted one meal of chicken with vegetarian food, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off U.S. roads. Here are some of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization’s findings on meat and the environment:

18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock — more than from transportation.
70 percent of previously forested land in the Amazon was cleared to pasture cattle.
The world’s largest source of water pollution is the livestock sector.
Livestock are responsible for a third of the nitrogen and phosphorus in U.S. freshwater resources.
Livestock account for about 20 percent of land animals, and the 30 percent of Earth’s land they occupy was once inhabited by wildlife.

5. Fast food

Fast food is hurting more than just our waistlines. A typical fast-food meal often comes with overly packaged food, straws and plasticware, and an assortment of individually wrapped condiments. According to Californians Against Waste, less than 35 percent of fast-food waste is diverted from landfills even though most of it is recyclable paper and cardboard. So it’s no surprise that litter characterization studies have identified fast-food restaurants as the primary source of urban litter.

But it’s not just the packaging that’s a problem. A recent Hong Kong study found that a fast-food restaurant making four hamburgers emits the same amount of volatile organic compounds as driving a car 1,000 miles. If you calculate the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger, you’re in for a real shock: The greenhouse gas emissions arising each year from the production and consumption of cheeseburgers is roughly the amount emitted by 6.5 million to 19.6 million SUVs.

6. Foods that contain palm oil

Palm oil is found in an estimated 10 percent of U.S. groceries — it’s in chips, crackers, candy, margarine, cereals and canned goods. About 40 millions tons of palm oil, which is considered the cheapest cooking oil in the world, is produced each year, and 85 percent of it comes from Indonesia and Malaysia. In these countries, 30 square miles of forests are felled daily, and palm oil plantations account for the highest rates of deforestation in the world. When the rain forests disappear, so does almost all of the wildlife, including orangutans, tigers, bears and other endangered species.

7. Packaged and processed food

The majority of the food you’ll find in the grocery store is processed and packaged, which is bad news for the planet. Processed food contains multiple chemicals and often involves energy-intensive production processes. Plus, all that packaging typically ends up in a landfill, where plastic poisons the environment and can take thousands of years to break down. In fact, in 2006 the U.S. generated 14 million tons of plastic through packages and containers alone, according to the EPA. Unfortunately, even those eco-friendly packaged items made from cardboard are coated in a thin layer of plastic. The solution? Buy local, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and buy foods like rice, oats and pasta from the bulk bins.

8. Many non-organic foods

Organic produce is grown without pesticides, which keeps chemicals from entering the water supply and helps prevent soil erosion. Organic farming also uses fewer resources than traditional farming. According to a study by The Rodale Institute, organic farming practices use 30 percent less energy and water than regular growing. In fact, a study by David Pimentel, a professor at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, found that growing corn and soybeans organically produced the same yields as conventional farming and used 33 percent less fuel. However, not all produce needs to be bought organic.

9. Some seafood

Fishery analysts at the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization report that 70 percent of the world’s fisheries are fully or overly exploited, depleted or in a state of collapse. Fish like bluefin tuna and Atlantic salmon are severely overfished, and environmental groups are working to get them endangered species status. The overfishing of a particular species doesn’t damage that population alone — it can have serious effects further up the food chain and decrease biodiversity. Check out the Environmental Defense Fund’s seafood eco-ratings to determine what fish is safe for both you and our oceans.

10. White bread

It’s well known that whole grain and wheat breads are more nutritious than white bread, but brown breads are also less harmful to the environment. Wheat flour must be refined and go through a series of alteration processes to make white bread, but whole wheat flour spends less time in production. Any ingredient that requires extensive refining requires more energy and resources and has a greater impact on the planet.

11. High-fructose corn syrup foods

High-fructose corn syrup is one of the most environmentally damaging ingredients for a variety of reasons. Firstly, corn is grown as a monoculture, meaning the land is used solely for corn and not rotated, which depletes soil nutrients, contributes to erosion and requires more pesticides and fertilizer. The use of such chemicals contributes to problems like the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, an area of the ocean where nothing can live because the water is starved of oxygen, and atrazine, a common herbicide used on corn crops, has been shown to turn male frogs into hermaphrodites. Milling and chemically altering corn to produce high-fructose corn syrup is also an energy-intensive practice.

12. Much non-local food

Many people eat local for the freshness or to support the community, but the most widely touted benefit of local food is that it reduces fossil fuel consumption. According to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the average fresh food items on your dinner table travel 1,500 miles to get there. Although there’s disagreement over whether “food miles” are the best measure of a food’s carbon footprint, buying food at your local farmers market is one way to guarantee that your food hasn’t traveled too far to get to your plate.