Is is cheating to eat "vegetarian sausage"?

When I started this, I was only trying to see if a vegetarian diet could provide the "Ooh-Aah" factor we love in food. As it turns out, incredibly rich, scrumptious vegetarian meals are easy. Just add cheese. It hurts me to look at that wonderful Calzone and feel my ateries clogging up. That calzone was heaven on earth. But my father's recent adventures in the cardiac zone have caused me to re-evaluate my culinary efforts toward meatlessness.

At the outset, I promised no tofu (because I don't like it). I wanted to use only whole foods. I thought that vegetarian "meat" was cheating. You know, the "vegetarian" breakfast sausage, the "meatless" steak tips, the "vegetarian" andouille sausage for gumbo? I thought if you don't eat meat, then why in the world would you eat something that tastes like meat? My father's health situation caused me to rethink this. For someone who needs to make lifestyle changes, but does not really want to give up the things he loves, this could be an option. We tried one of those vegetarian sausage patties this morning. Compared to a real sausage patty, the vegetarian patty had 18 fewer calories and 4 fewer grams of fat. Carbs and fiber were about the same. It's doubtful that anyone would mistake the vegetarian patty for the real thing, but the calorie and fat savings make it a fairly attractive option. We tried MorningStar Farms. Here's a link to a coupon if you'd like to try it yourself.