Welcome to the Eat This Not That Podcast. I'm John Hammond and this is Megan Murphy.

Hi everybody. And this week we are going to help you navigate the growing trend of plant-based foods, right?

Because this is really something that's taken on a new life. It's a hot topic.

Right? Especially if you recently McDonald's has introduced a plant-based burger.

I know Burger King introduced the Impossible Whopper recently, which I haven't tried.

I was in Burger King and actually went for a whopper but didn't go plant-based wopper.

I just had a craving for like a real whopper for some reason.

I'm probably my first wopper in like 15 years.

It was pretty tasty though.

But anyway, like it just underscores how many places are offering these plant-based paties for the burgers.

It says something to me that is a little more, this is a little more than a trend, right?

I mean, people are really becoming more open to non-meat options.

Yeah, I think not like a trend. It's just like the way things are moving

in our society for sure. I actually saw recently that Disney announced that all of their parks

would have more plant-based and vegan food offerings as well through all their quick serve and

table service restaurants. So even like the Disney parks are getting on board with it.

And it's not surprising when you look at some of the statistics. A poll from 2018 shows that while the

number of people who identify as vegetarian, 5% or vegan, 3%, hadn't changed much in the last six years.

Sales of plant-based foods increase more than 8% in 2017 alone.

I think that's the kicker for me right there. That stat is it's not that people are moving towards

being, you know, quote, vegan or quote, vegetarian per se, but we've all become a bit more aware

of some of the health concerns that may accompany eating too much meat, especially red meat in most instances. And I think for the younger generation two,

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