There are many non-meat alternatives that are designed to closely imitate meat and many non-vegetarians might wonder why.  Marketing is one good reason: faux-meat products appeal to meat-lover and vegetarian alike due to their alleged health benefits. If you can have the food you love at a lower health cost, why wouldn't you?  

Another reason is more ethical. Many people stop eating meat for moral reasons rather than dietary ones. They may seek to reduce animal suffering by boycotting meat products or wish to reduce the meat industry's large environmental impact. Livestock production is responsible for 18% of total greenhouse gases, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). However, they may still miss the taste of meat. Therefore pseudo-meat is a nice fill-in.

Finally, "there are associated feelings and memories that go with certain foods," says Thomas Banks, BBC Learning English producer and 15-year vegetarian. "I didn't grow up a vegetarian and sometimes I miss my family's cooking. Replica meat allows me to have a good home-cooked meal that's just like mum used to make." Who can argue with that?

词汇表 substitute 替代物

stand-in 顶替品

similar 相似的

equivalent 等同（的东西）

surrogate 替代的

resemble 看起来像，与…相似

duplicate 复制品

replicated 被复制的

indistinguishable 难以分辨的

【Why some vegetarian foods imitate meat 为什么素食要追求“肉相”】相关文章：

★ Why do we like different tastes? 为什么我们喜欢不同的口味？

★ Barrier, hurdle, impediment, hindrance 四个表示“障碍”单词的区别

★ Chinwag 闲谈-英语点津

★ Pull something out of the hat 突施妙计

★ In one ear and out the other 左耳进，右耳出

★ Take part in, join in, participate, attend 四个表示“参加”的单词或短语

★ Two-thirds of Great Barrier Reef damaged in 'unprecedented' bleaching 三分之二的大堡礁珊瑚群遭受“史无前例”的白化危机

★ Turn a blind eye 视而不见

★ Tasmanian devil milk fights superbugs 袋獾乳汁可对抗“超级细菌”

★ World's longest tunnel and a strange kind of race 世界最长铁路隧道，扛羊毛袋比赛