Article

2012-02-20 Science & Technology

Maastricht University lab produces bogus bovine.

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Posted by Besoeker 2012-02-20 06:45|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 It's not going to happen in any viable way.

Animals are insanely complex biochemical machines that produce equally complex tissues. And digestion of such tissues is designed to both take maximum value from them, yet discard chemicals that would be otherwise toxic.

While we can subsist for a while on minimal micro-nutrients, the bodies of people who eat this stuff for any length of time will adapt to find it inedible and loathsome to the taste.

I would relegate this idea to the category of "space food", an all-pill diet they used to imagine was the future back in the 1960s.

"But it has the MDA of protein, carbohydrate, and fats, so you *should* be able to live on it."

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-02-20 09:05|| 2012-02-20 09:05|| Front Page Top

#2 ..the bodies of people who eat this stuff for any length of time will adapt to find it inedible and loathsome to the taste.

Meat as we know it by taste is largely the result of 20th Century animal breeding and refrigeration. Tender and rare is very modern. Most of what people got as meat for most of history was local and eaten immediately or salted or seasoned heavily - and still is in most of the world. There's an entire business to supply cable channels under the guise of entertainment with the various means both local and international on how to cover the taste of meat.

Don't forget Vegans seem to more or less subsist without it. Every Vegan is not lacking in vitamins or nutrients.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-02-20 10:38|| 2012-02-20 10:38|| Front Page Top

#3 "...but it has electrolytes..."

Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

Posted by M. Murcek 2012-02-20 10:56|| 2012-02-20 10:56|| Front Page Top

#4 Actually Vegans DO lack vitamins or nutrients unless extremely careful about what they eat. A minor deficiency can take years to show. Man is an omnivore, the body usually tells you when it needs something if you care to listen.

Posted by tipover 2012-02-20 12:47|| 2012-02-20 12:47|| Front Page Top

#5 ...yes I understand the point, but those who do pay attention to the vitamin and nutrient content of their diet can make it happen. And yes, those sharp teeth in the front are for something more than grinding grain and veggies and more on the lines of ripping and shredding.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-02-20 12:59|| 2012-02-20 12:59|| Front Page Top

#6 It's often more subtle than that. For example, only recently was it learned that raw food does not equal cooked food as far as useable nutrition goes. People who subsist on only raw food (a fad diet) are very prone to develop malnutrition. This is because cooking makes far more nutrients available, and far easier to digest.

Meat contains a huge number of important nutrients, and it is now known that even if adults are vegetarians, they should feed their children meat at least until their teenage years or they may develop physical problems in their later years. Fairly new research.

However, this is a different subject than what I was driving at. Artificial meat almost certainly does not contain the same nutritional value as real meat. Yes, it can have the same amount of protein and fat, but it will lack trace amounts of hormones, and likely minerals, as well as who knows what our bodies are attuned to receive via meat.

So my suspicion is that this could very well taste like meat at first. But after consuming it a few times, it will start to taste worse and worse. The opposite phenomenon, of nutritious and useful food tasting better and better, is well known.

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-02-20 13:18|| 2012-02-20 13:18|| Front Page Top

#7 I thought Taco Bell had completed that project years ago.

Posted by Super Hose 2012-02-20 13:21|| 2012-02-20 13:21|| Front Page Top

#8 I was thinking along the lines if Mac Donald's and Wendy's.

Also Omnivores and Carnivores are generally more intelligent. After all-- how much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a blade of grass?

Posted by CrazyFool 2012-02-20 13:46|| 2012-02-20 13:46|| Front Page Top

#9 Super Hose is definitely in the running for Snark O' The Day.™ ;-p

Posted by Barbara 2012-02-20 18:11|| 2012-02-20 18:11|| Front Page Top

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