Renewed fascination with vegetarianism and veganism has spawned the latest trend toward meat-free eating, and with that, the latest generation of commercially available “plant-based meat” products. There is, however, something disingenuous about the current vegetarian and vegan craze, when those “plant-based meat” products look, taste and feel just like the very products they are meant to replace.

Embracing a vegetarian or vegan diet means embracing a dietary culture that precisely sets itself apart from one that includes meat. Thus, it is the consumer’s fundamental conceptualization of meat (real or fake) as the pre-eminent protein source that requires examination and reshaping if the current trend toward vegetarianism and veganism is to last.

Heightened social consciousness with respect to animal welfare, personal health and the large carbon footprint produced by the livestock farming industry are valid arguments in support of a meat-free diet. These same points, however, have also placed meat lovers in a moral quandary.

Cognitive dissonance theory posits that conflicting beliefs, thoughts, attitudes and behaviours that a person has on a particular matter will spur an effort by the individual to mitigate those tensions. Here, plant-based meat products seem to assuage the tension between thoughts of “I shouldn’t eat meat; it’s bad for animals, the environment and me” and “I love meat, the way it looks, feels and tastes; it’s the quintessential protein source.”

Plant-based meat products appear to be a specifically Western phenomenon. Their popularity demonstrates Westerners’ resolve to finally shake their meat habit, but the commercial success of these products reveals the consumer’s persistent reluctance and resistance to give up meat. After all, consumers demand not just meat-free products, but products that are essentially meat’s doppelgängers.

The faux meat manufacturers readily oblige and use every trick in the food chemistry kit to create plant-based products that are so meat-like that they could be mistaken for the real thing. Duly touted as synthetic wonders, these plant-based meat offerings are scrutinized for being overly processed and questionably healthy, seeing that the “plant” in “plant-based” has all but faded into obscurity.

Social psychology suggests that enduring attitude change necessitates changes to that attitude’s underlying structure, namely its cognitive, affective (emotional) and behavioural components. As replicas of real meat, plant-based meat only serves to reaffirm the consumer’s conceptualization of meat as the foremost dietary protein source. A sincere and sustained embrace of a vegetarian or vegan diet requires a severance of deeply held notions about meat’s status as a pre-eminent food source.

Individuals who are sincere about embracing a vegetarian or vegan diet will find golden resources among fellow citizens who have followed genuinely vegetarian and vegan diets for years, if not generations, without the use of any highly processed, plant-based meat products.