Yesterday, I made a trip to the grocery to buy some necessary items to replenish my barren cupboards and starving refrigerator shelves. I happened to walk through the frozen food section. I usually don’t buy anything in this section, but a few things caught my eye. Potato and broccoli pancakes. I cooked them last night and they were delicious. I highly recommend them because they are apparently healthy too. Anyway, everything was fine until I saw these veggie burgers that were made to look like hamburgers. For some reason, I felt sick to my stomach at this site. Not because they were veggie burgers, but because they were made to look like real hamburgers. This utterly confused me. I know tofu can be prepared to reflect different animals (ie: tofurkey), which is fine with me. However, my observation was of a different nature. Why is a veggie burger trying to be a hamburger? Shouldn’t a veggie burger be a veggie burger? Are people only choosing to eat the veggie looking hamburgers because they taste or look like real hamburgers? I guess that would make at least some sense. However, I’m not familiar with any other culture that prepares (molds) one food into another food because it is healthier. I would much rather eat a regular veggie burger, or god forbid vegetables that were prepared to not mimic meat. If you dislike eating meat, than why would you want to eat a food that mimics it? Of course, this could all just be a huge marketing ploy to gently woo people off meat onto something supposedly healthier. It’s like the training wheels theory of healthy eating. I’m not necessarily opposed to this, but just feel somewhat confused. Anyway, I can go a few weeks on a vegetarian diet (eating non hamburger looking veggie burgers), but a craving starts to set in for a nice juicy cheeseburger. I won’t be shopping in the frozen foods section when that craving sets in.