I was rereading the post below about vegans being depressed, or depressed folk being vegans, and I was reminded of something that happened earlier today. The other DrC and I are in the habit of watching an old YouTube episode of either America's Test Kitchen or Cook's Country (they're near-identical) as we eat lunch.
Maybe every 5th episode they'll do a vegan main dish, today it was a spaghetti "meat" sauce with no meat. They did several things to give it the appearance and (they claimed) flavor of a real meat sauce.
They added roughly ground crimini mushrooms, roughly ground chickpeas, and soy sauce, all with the aim of increasing umami flavors. They browned things and worked hard to create a no-meat dish that tasted like it had meat.
My question: why would people who reject the idea of eating meat want food that seems to have meat in it? If you've (a) had big-time heart trouble, (b) been put on an almost no meat diet to save your miserable life, and (c) you have no moral scruples about killing and eating animals, I get it, you miss the meat.
But for those who avoid meat for moral or ethical reasons, it seems crazy. I suspect most non-meat eaters are in this second category.
To them I say, if you like meat flavor, nothing does it quite like actual meat. The reason you miss the meat flavor is that we are the omnivore ape, meat is a core part of our diet. Doing what is necessary to get meat is what our heritage is all about, from the hunter-gatherer days on. Life without bacon? Be serious.
Afterthought: Read the diaries of the Lewis and Clark expedition. They lived on almost nothing except meat for two years and were remarkably healthy, even by today's standards, wildly so by the standards of the time.
