The Impossible Whopper. Burger King’s new meatless burger. As advertised, the ingredients are plant based and it tastes just like a regular Whopper. Have you had one yet? Before you do, read what is in the thing.

         Burger King gets these burgers from a company called Impossible Foods. It used to be Impossible Burger, but now they have added an Impossible Pork line, as well. Imagine, an Impossible Breaded Pork Tenderloin. Quite the fund raiser food! But, yes, the ingredients in the Impossible Whopper;

         The main ingredient is something called heme. This is a molecule found in every living thing on the planet, whether it is meat or plant. It is needed for life and every human or animal craves it. It is found in greatest abundance in meat. But, the folks at Impossible have found a way to extract this molecule from plants. This is taken from the roots of soy plants and then injected into genetically engineered yeast. The yeast then goes through the fermentation process which creates more of the heme. This creates a reddish substance which, when mixed with the other ingredients and then fried or broiled on grilled, will ooze out looking just like bleeding meat! The potato juices in the concoction add the sizzling sound that is all part of the cooking experience. Other ingredients include water, textured wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, natural flavors, 2 percent or less of: leghemoglobin (soy), yeast extract, salt, konjac gum, xanthan gum, soy protein isolate, vitamin E, vitamin C, thiamin (vitamin B1), zinc, niacin, vitamin B6, riboflavin (vitamin B2), and vitamin B12. The Impossible Foods’ website points out that none of these ingredients are meat based, so green house emissions (this is flatulent emissions from cows and pigs) will be reduced when we get away from needing to eat flatulent animals. Folks, I am not making this up.

         So, being a thoughtful and caring pastor type, I bought an Impossible Whopper from Burger King. The first time was from a Burger King on the way to a city hospital. I have stopped there a few times before on my way to a hospital. On the road, need to eat, how bad can a hamburger be? From this particular Burger King, a hamburger can be pretty nasty. As advertised, the Impossible Whopper tasted just like the real thing there. Nasty. But as I thought about this the other day, I decided to go to the local Burger King and try their version. On Wednesday I went to Burger King and bought the Impossible Whopper. As far as the bun and cheese and pickle and lettuce and tomato and the mystery condiments, it did taste like a regular Whopper. But the patty itself…..no, it did not taste like the real thing. Close, but not there. Probably needed more heme. You can see for yourself, but remember the ingredients you are eating. I took the bullet so you don’t have too.

         I buy groceries for myself and I have seen the veggie meats in the frozen foods, but I have never had the urge to purchase them. However, last week, as I went through the Healthy Choice and other ‘healthy’ foods, I came across something that said it was Korean inspired beef. My mind doesn’t quite function like the minds of normal people. My first thought was that at that particular stockyard where that cow spent its last days, there were Koreans going from pen to pen speaking to the cattle in an attempt to inspire them to produce better meat. What else could Korean inspired beef mean? I bought a box. When I got home, I looked it up online. Apparently, Korean inspired beef is an American concoction that was inspired by a Korean dish. All kinds of veggies were in it (which I love), although it was a little heavy on the kale, and some very small pieces of beef (which could have been Impossible Beef, for all I know) and some kind of sauce. Not bad, really. I might get another box someday, like the day after I eat my next Impossible Whopper.

         I am still alive, so these sneaky foods (one type of food masquerading as another type of food) don’t kill you. At least not right away. If you are opposed to eating meat, knock yourself out. If you were to check out my food stocks, you would find more vegetable foods and meat foods. Just a preference. But I really don’t want fake meat or even inspired meat. I want my hamburgers to be meat and my veggies to look and taste like veggies. It is entirely possible that I am stupid. According to presidential candidate Bloomberg, since I grew up on a farm, I probably am stupid. But still, I like my food to be real food.

         Most people are like that, I believe. But we are certainly willing to dress up our religion to make something that is not Christianity feel like Christianity. We check our horoscopes, we refrain from reading Scripture we don’t like, we forget our prayer time, we accept non-Biblical teachings in our denominations and our traditions. We do not want to offend the world but we accept their offensive behavior toward us. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says this;

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

         The appearance of godliness. Is that what we want? Is that what the world needs? What are we accomplishing when we go along to get along?

         An Impossible Whopper will never be a real Whopper. But it might get accepted by some. Please, do not accept a watered down version of Christianity. It isn’t real. And when you live your life as a watered down Christian, you are not real, either.