If it tastes good I really don't care especially if the price is better and its nutritious.

For me, the substitutes helped me getting started with vegan foods, since i was able to still make familiar dishes. That gave me the confidence to try more and more things which are fully vegan to begin with. It's hard to change your diet instantly to completely different foods in one swoop, and it hightens the chance that you shock your guts and feel bad doing it. Which gets people to bounce off a vegan diet. So they are great for that. But even when I mostly eat self cooked stuff today, sometimes I still buy me a pair of beyond patties or something like that.

So they definitely have a place, especially for people who change their diet later in life. I also have a friend who lived vegetarian and later vegan their whole life. And they doesn't like the substitutes that much.

Why does consensus matter? Eat what you like as long as it’s ethical

Though keep in mind ethical is not always clear. Impossible meat tastes the way it does because of soy leghemoglobin. The funders of the research into this wanted it to market asap so to do this impossible did a lot of animal testing to more rapidly receive fda approval (which still happened suspiciously fast)

That said at this point no animals are involved. To avoid it because of a personal sense of ethics would logically also imply a lot of headaches in your life about medical treatments and medications (not even touching on gelcaps and gelatin based wound dressings, ugh)

Also fwiw impossible and several other companies like oatly are trying to shift the consensus away from being seen as “vegan”, instead trying to be seen as a healthier option or whatever. In the case of impossible the ceo has basically said that being seen as vegan food is actively detrimental to sales, but he’s also a gross fratbro capitalist

And while impossible tastes “meatier” because of soy leghemoglobin isolated soy protein is doing the heavy lifting tbh. Beyond is basically the same without the proprietary leghemoglobin, instead using more plant based stuff like beet juice and pea protein (actually soy free). Stuff like Chunk is newer and based on culturing and fermenting soy to give a more steak like texture and taste (though chunk is Israeli which brings up a whole different ethical issue)

That all aside if you really like bolognese and decide to make some with beyond meat and daiya parm you’re still saving an animal so nice, why not

Boss!

RIP to the KFC plabt based sandwich and Poulet Rouge's veggie chicken strips.

Is there a consensus? I find that the texture and flavor varies greatly between brands and types of substitutes. My advice is: You do you. If you like a particular substitute, eat it. If not, don’t.

Keep an eye on the sodium levels since a lot of “meatless” products are full of salt. Also be aware that “plant based” on the label doesn’t always mean egg-free or dairy-free. Quorn nuggets are made with egg whites for example.

Not vegan but working on reducing meat intake.

All fake meats I've tried are ultraprocessed disappointments. Things like bean burger (mimics shape but not flavour) are generally good. Would rather cock just vegetarian recipes.

YMMV

Each to their own on this. My mrs hates fake meat as it often tastes too meaty, but I love a plant based kebab or a THIS chicken and gravy sandwich

Ultraprocessed absolutely. But then so are lots of sauces and desserts nonvegans eat without making the point thats used against plantbased meat