AIBU to ask if Quorn is healthy or unhealthy....

[loveyouradvice]

I've a 15 year old DD who wants to be veggie...and adores Quorn. We're cooking lots with it and seems surprisingly versatile ... love Bolognese sauce made with it

But friends have told us to find out what's really in it and that we should avoid it if we want to eat healthily

I'd just thought low-fat mushroomy thing - seems brilliant invention

Whats so bad about it?

I like the burgers, they are pretty tasty. Mince is ok, a bit rubbery, and it repeats on me a bit. I sometimes make chilli with it and its fine in that. I do eat meat but find Quorn a good lower calorie alternative.
I thought it was fungus, grown in big sterile vats.

Those saying it's a mushroom thing, I know it's a type of fungus but it's closer to penicillin (mild) than a mushroom 😷

I often wonder if it is behind the rise in antibiotic resistance.

Also if you're allergic to penicillin etc eating Quorn may cause you to have a reaction, such as diarrhoea etc

It's a mould rather than a mushroom, of a type that humans don't generally eat. Developed by a chemical and paint company and grown in industrial vats.
I wouldn;t eat it.

Saying that Quorn is like mushrooms is like saying that humans are like jellyfish.

@Dwangela, that is interesting. Do you mind if I ask how you know?
I'm asking because although I'm not allergic to penicillin I am to other antibiotics.
I've tried Quorn several times and end up rather unwell afterwards (and definitely not just my rubbish cooking skills!).

Used to give me terrible wind.

Oh wow I never knew that about the penicillin link - no wonder it makes me poorly eating it.

I avoid it mainly due to it making me sick, if you can eat it I don’t think it’s any better or worse for you then any other food.

The mould that is quorn- Fusarium venenatum- is a type of mildew, more closely related to the black mould found growing on damp walls in buildings than a mushroom.

I would hesitate to even call it a food,

Be careful. Its not food as such, grown in a lab, and you can suddenly get allergic.

I think Quorn is healthy. It's mostly mycoprotein (90+%) with a little egg, sugar, firming agents and malt extract.

It is lower in calories than most of the types of meat that it replaces and lower in fat.

Some people have abdominal pain from the mycoprotein but if your family don't then it's fine! I was veggie from 13 to 24 and relied on the stuff as it's easy to do a veggie version of most meat based meals with it. Obviously it's a good idea to vary meals and have other veggie protein sources (e.g. cheese if she is continuing to eat dairy, eggs, nuts, soya/tofu) too.

Quorn all fine far as I know (and yes! To the cocktail sausages! And the gammon roast was so good the dog stole some off the counter. Really nice).

Soya though, I wouldn't go for. Not more than once a month. It messes with your hormones. Enough that drinking soya milk is a help to menopausal hot flushes. That means Linda McCartney and most own brand fake meat is out for me

It's heavily processed. I buy and use it occasionally but my local council won't recycle the black trays it comes in so I'm tending to avoid it.

I have the quorn pieces 2 or 3 times a week and have never had any problems with them and I'm allergic to penicillin.

@TheMasterNotMargarita I remember doing a bit about it in food science and how it's a mould similar to antibiotics as opposed to mushrooms. So many people have bad reactions to it and it's for the same reason!

It's a fungus.

It is safe to eat.

It is healthier than most meats.

"Closer to penicillin" doesn't mean much.

Margarine is one molecule away from being plastic but people still eat it without issue

We have it once in a while, as dd1 is veggie, but I also use soy mince, and do vegetable based meals without any meat substitutes. Everything in moderation is often the best approach. Never noticed any Ill effects from quorn, but I wouldn't want to have it more than once a week or so, as it is very artificial.

If you have a mould allergy you should avoid Quorn, in one test about 5% of the population had an adverse reaction.
you could also develop an allergy if you have a reaction to another mould and then eat Quorn.

www.care2.com/greenliving/the-fake-meat-making-people-sick.html

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/quorn-labelling-changes-mould-main-ingredient-vegetarian-mycoprotein-a7935791.html

The only issue I have is that Quorn can have high sodium levels. I'm not sure if it is high in all products though

I'm allergic to penicillin (so penicillium mould) and not allergic to Quorn so it must vary.

I believe it's healthy, though I'm sceptical whether it's really any better than chicken or beef. Some people may be allergic or intolerant to it but that goes for any food.

It's made from a fungus growing in a vat of liquid. If that makes you squeamish, consider that beer, wine, and Marmite are made by funguses growing in liquid.

Seems like a lot of the information on the net is very biased. Quorn themselves will of course promote it, and on the other side a lot of the criticism is backed by Quorn's competitors.

I've had anaphylactic reactions to penicillin, eat quorn ~twice a week and haven't reacted yet.

I say yet, as my list of allergies is long and I can be fine with something one day and crippled by it the next (I'm looking at you, avocados).

Personally, I think that intensive farming of animals (and subsequent antibiotic use to prevent/treat infection) for meat has much more of an impact on antibiotic resistance than a bit of fungus grown in a tank Dwangela.

Linda McCartney range, Tofu in all forms but particularly 'Tofoo' for first time tofuers who don't want to be bothered with pressing the tofu etc and Gosh burgers are all also brilliant

It’s shite, I’m a veggie. It makes me wheezy.

There are lots of soya alternatives which taste very very similar and which are made from wheat & soya OP. for example, the VegiDeli brand which is mostly wheat or the various supermarket own brands.