A major shift is occurring in how the public views, ingests, and interacts with professional sports stars versus how they were viewed before. To elaborate, the casual fan, for some reason or another, feels more connected to the athlete than in times past. Without delving too deep into this (you can read further here), one possible cause for a trend towards increased scrutiny of our sports celebrities is that sports gambling is growing in popularity as it’s legalization expands. The day-to-day well-being of the best player on any given team, has more impact on the bottom line of the fan who may have bet on (or against) that squad.
Long gone are the days where a fan might find it “cool” that their favorite player was out drunk the night before and still showed up to score in double figures to beat a team with a losing record. A fan in 2021 is calculating the stats, the point differentials, the PER…basically the modern fan feels incentivized to scrutinize every minor choice an athlete is making. Some fans may be convinced they work for us too! We even care what our athletes are eating.
The science is out there, what you put into your body, corresponds with what you’ll eventually get out of it. The pros have teams of highly trained and highly educated (and highly paid) sports nutrition experts, trainers and personal chefs at their disposal to capitalize on every cutting edge discovery. But now new innovations in organic sciences have made it so you can eat like your favorite players too.
Many sports stars are following a trend in “addition by subtraction” and incorporating that into their training regiments. In order to maintain healthy playing weights, and reduce mid-season burnout, the best athletes are drastically reducing their carbs intake, cutting excess alcohol, skipping dessert and some are even dropping meats altogether! The challenge in the past has been that these athletes actually require more in terms of raw nutrition than the average American (who already consumes more than the average global citizen). Now brands like Impossible & Beyond Meat are giving athletes and everyday consumers the options they need to make the right lifestyle choices for their lives.
They’ve developed groundbreaking ways to simulate the look and feel of meats (and other animal based foods) in order to “pass them off” as meat. Beyond Meat has been on the market for some time, while back in July 2019, the FDA approved grocery sales for Impossible Burgers. And the results? Brilliant!
Not only do these “fake meats” pass the eye test, they pass the feel test, the taste test, and MOST importantly they pass the I-don’t-want-to-learn-anything-new-please-don’t-complicate-hamburgers test! Both Beyond Meat and Impossible’s fake meats offer a great weight-to-protein ratio that rivals beef without the excess saturated fats and other things that in excess, can lead to health issues and affect an athlete’s desired performance. The key selling point is, they’re as easy to make as their “real” counterparts. If you love to make burgers, no, if you’re just good at making burgers, no, if you have ever made a burger, you can’t screw this up!
You can season* these as you would some lean ground beef, toss in any add-ins and cheeses (dairy or non) as you would to spice some some ground lamb or keep it meat-and-cheese pure as you might some ground bison. As long as you don’t overcook, they’ll come out right. There is a difference in taste/consistency between the brands so it would be best to try both and see what works for you and your family’s palette. There is a slight aftertaste to the “bleeding burger” especially when cooked too far past medium but, it blends when eaten as a complete burger.
Preparation notes:
- Your diet will dictate if the end result is all-vegan or a blend.
- Experiment with lactose-free or dairy-free cheeses as your diet dictates.
- *These are packaged with sodium so, be mindful of added salts (table salt, cheese, condiments(especially those on low-sodium diets).
- Read packaging instructions carefully if you’re unsure and always cook food to a safe internal temperature.
- Enjoy!
