While I'm all for replicating the flavors of non-plant based foods, adding an addictive substance to a non-addictive food is problematic. If corporations are allowed to do this with vegan cheese, I'm sure it won't stop there.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Sorry what addictive substance are you referring to?
Casein, a protein found in mammals milk. When it's broken down in the body it turns into casomorphins, which are capable of passing into your brain and attaching to your morphine receptors. For babies this is a good thing because it can help stimulate a desire to consume milk, but in adults it's totally unnecessary and creates a desire to consume not out of hunger.
The best comparison would be caffeine additives in drinks, or tiny amounts of cocaine in the original Coca-cola recipe.
I had no idea! But I've also never really had any issues overeating so tbh I'm not so worried about eating plant casein when it hits the market.
I low key have a huge fascination for cheese making, it's almost magic how people are able to make such utterly different things through a process that is roughly similar.
I welcome an ethical survival of the culture.
Yeah, hopefully the plant-based version won't be addictive.
plant based capitalism
I'll take it over Animal based capitalism any day
These formulations are dairy-identical on a molecular level but without allergens or other unfavorable attributes.
I don't think the article mentioned it and I'm not really familiar with the science, so I'm somewhat confused about this comment in the article. Does this mean that people who are allergic to casein itself can eat their new formula, or is this just a weird way of saying people who are allergic to lactose and similar things can eat products with this casein?
The article is science journalism at its worst. As a person with a background in biochemistry I can't tell you what they mean from the article. A plant based source of casein is likely to be a homolog, not the same thing, and there's no way they're actually making something "molecularly identical" to cheese. What they mean, I think, is that a plant-based casein source should be able to make cheese-like foods behave more like cheese in terms of mouth feel and melting properties. Then because they're writing sensationally they have to say bullshit like "nolecularly identical" for some reason.
I don't know what the crossreactivity would be for plant based caseins. If you have a serious CMP allergy you might want to get help from an allergist before trying this stuff.
Thanks for the response! I figured it was mostly trying to sensationalize it like you said but I just wanted to double check! I know someone with a pretty bad casein allergy so I’ll make sure to have them get help from an allergist beforehand if they want to try this.