By Emily Heil
Cardi B just stirred the pot on vegan diets.
On Sunday, the rapper revealed to her more than 20 million Twitter followers that although she felt about meat the way she does about million-dollar deals (see the lyrics to "I Like It"), she was thinking about ditching animal products altogether, and asked for thoughts on whether plant-based meat substitutes were similar to the real thing.
"I want to go vegan but I love meat," she wrote. "Are vegan meat replacements similar to meat in taste or not really?"
I want to go vegan but I love meat.. are vegan meat replacements similar to meat in taste or not really?
— Cardi B (@iamcardib) December 12, 2021
Predictably, her query instantly prompted responses from every angle of the conversation about animal-product-free diets.
Later, she explained what had made her rethink her diet.
It seems that Cardi is less interested in the environmental benefits of eating fewer animal products and more interested in her health.
"I had a stomach virus not so long ago and I feel like my digestive system haven't been the same," the "Bodak Yellow" rapper wrote. "I been drinking probiotics and I don't see a change much. I be lookin at raw food pages a lot but that will be a huge change for me to do that."
The reaction to the rapper's tweets ranged from those congratulating her on becoming vegan-curious to those urging her not to go down the vegan path.
Some suggested she simply drop factory-farmed meats from her diet.
Plenty of people offered their suggestions for brands of meat replacements she might like to try (Impossible, Beyond, Quorn and MorningStar Farms were all mentioned). There was recipe-sharing and product promotion. Others urged her to focus more on the seasoning and preparation of the plant-based options.
One encouraging user noted that the world of meat alternatives was vast and varied, and that it could "take a minute" for her to find the ones she liked best.
Some fans urged the star to think about vegan foods not as a direct replacement for meats, but as something different.
Of course it wouldn't be Vegan Discourse without someone making the point that "meat eaters don't need to make their meat taste like veggies lol".
And it might seem that Cardi B's interest in the vegan lifestyle comes at a particularly fortuitous time – just as she is promoting her line of dairy-free, vodka-spiked whipped cream.
And although she's no cook, she recently confessed as much on a recent episode of her show "Cardi Tries", when she cooked Thanksgiving dinner alongside celebrity chef Kwame Onwuachi.
She has the recipe for building buzz down pat.
The Washington Post