Where did September and then October go to?    In September we’re blessed with a beautiful month.  So will the arrival of cold be a big shock?   January seems about right for the arrival of the first cold.  In preparation for the cold, I have been moving my geraniums inside so I can enjoy them in the winter.  My windows get a bit crowded, but it’s worth it when the snow is blowing and the red and pink geranium flowers are against the white background.

The latest thing we seem to be inundated with is plant based food.  The fast food places seem to be trying to outdo each other with their offerings.  For a long time veggie burgers have been available for vegetarians.  Now they are making plant based food which then has something added to make it taste like meat!  Veggies are used (I guess ground up or something). Then other things are added by some manufactures.  I don’t know which companies do what.

This is a list of some of the things used by some companies to make plant based food: pea or say protein, methyl cellulose and maltodextrin, and liquid egg substitutes out of mung bean protein isolate and gellan gum.  I tried to do a bit of research on methyl cellulose and maltodextrin.  There is a lot of information out there.  They both seem to be safe as approved by government bodies.  They are both white powders made from various ingredients that have been ground up.  They seem to be used to hold things like burgers together and thicken them.  The problem that I see is that some of them contain gluten which some people can’t have.  Some of them are no good if you are diabetic.  Mung bean protein isolate might help to improve insulin response and aid in the reduction of fat accumulation.

This is what I found when I looked up gellan gum:

Gellan gum is a water-soluble anionic polysaccharide produced by Pseudomonas elodea, which is composed of a repeating unit of monomers, tetrasaccharide, that are two residues of D-glucose and one of each residues of D-glucuronic acid and L-rhamnose.”

I don’t think I could put this into my own words!

If you are interested in trying some of the latest food fads, I suggest you do your own research if you have any food allergies or concerns. I personally make a burger with ground beef and very finely minced onions.  Always tastes good and I don’t have to worry about what is in it.  Some would say that the beef is the problem!  Nothing is a problem if you don’t eat it to excess.  I will enjoy my one burger every so often and let others get into the latest food fads.

If you are interested, you can go to the different fast food web sites and see a list of what if in their plant based burgers.

 

 

 

About the Author

Linda Calder is a retired teacher. She likes to write and enjoys spending time with her family. She also enjoys going on cruises, taking pictures and scrapbooking.