Plant-Based Doesn’t Always Mean Healthy – Especially When It Comes to Vegan “Meat”

It hasn’t been that long since the new year started and people are still thinking about their resolutions and goals for 2022. Many choose to get healthy, stop drinking or start a new hobby. vegan magazines and organizations are pushing plant-based diets, calling it the “ultimate new year’s resolution.”

But plant-based meats are often high in sodium, ultra-processed, and no healthier than the meat they imitate. Meanwhile, nearly half of consumers Think they are more nutritious. So if your resolution is related to health, you may want to reconsider switching to a plant-based diet if you’re dealing with plant-based meat.

The Impossible Burger, for example, is an impressive meatless blend of soy, potato protein, coconut, and sunflower oils. It even bleeds like the real thing. At the same time his calorie counting and saturated fat levels reflect a McDonald’s quarter pound empanada, and it has six times more sodium.

The world market for plant-based meat is expected to explode at US$85 billion in 2030. And grocery stores are taking notice, featuring a variety of burger, sausage, nugget, ground beef and seafood options, all without a trace of animal products.

What is the nutritional benefit?

According to a recent study, the nutritional benefit of plant-based foods is minimal. Researchers at the Singapore Institute for Food Innovation and Biotechnology modeled the outcome of replacing bacon, chicken, beef patties and ice cream with animal-free versions.

Diets that substituted animal products for the plant-based alternative were below daily recommendations for vitamin B12, calcium, potassium, zinc, and magnesium, and higher in sodium, sugar, and saturated fat.

even with added vitamins and mineralsHowever, these products are not nutritionally interchangeable, says Stephan van Vliet, a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Institute for Molecular Physiology. “Meat made from plants is not beef and beef is not meat from plants,” he says.

Animal sources such as meat, milk, and eggs are complete proteins, meaning they contain enough nine essential amino acids we must get from our diet every day. Plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains often lack one or more of these amino acids and should be eaten in combination.

Plant-based meat manufacturers argue that their products contain similar amounts of protein that are comparable in quality to animal protein. But focusing on protein is too “simplistic,” says van Vliet. “Food contains hundreds or thousands of compounds that are capable of affecting metabolism and human health.”

Van Vliet and colleagues compared 190 molecules on plant-based meat alternatives to grass-fed ground beef and found that 90 percent of them were different. Plant-based meat alternatives lacked certain amino acids and derivatives, such as creatine, taurine and anserine, “which can have an impact on our health and potentially on brain function as well as muscle function,” he says. .

Other metabolites such as polyphenols and antioxidants were found in greater quantity or exclusively in meats of vegetable origin. He sees plant and animal foods as complementary in our diet, where some nutrients are better obtained from animal sources and others from plants.

The term plant-based

“People opt for a plant-based burger for a variety of reasons,” says Rosie Schwartz, a Toronto-based consultant dietitian, “including reducing meat consumption.” But she argues that consumers should reconsider their reasoning if it’s for health reasons.

“Substituting something plant-based as a substitute because it’s called plant-based really leads us in the wrong direction,” says Schwartz.

According to nutritional scientists and Canada Food Guide, plant-based is the recommended way we should eat. Fill half your plate with vegetables and fruits, and the other half with whole grains and protein.

But “plant-based” also refers to anything from meat to paint to pillowcases, as long as they’re made mostly or entirely from plants, according to the Merriam–Webster Dictionary.

Just because it’s made from plants doesn’t mean it’s healthy. “I think it’s very confusing for the consumer,” says van Vliet. “It’s probably not the chicken, but everything else that comes with the chicken nugget that’s probably detrimental to our health.”

The future of plant-based meats

Until then, plant-based meat companies focused on the taste, texture, and appearance of their products. These companies targeted carnivores by creating plant-based wonders meant to look, taste and feel like the real thing.

Impossible Foods, the creator of Impossible Burger, says 90 percent of their customers are still carnivores. It’s not in the business of turning tempeh- and salad-eating veggie lovers into fake meat eaters.

“Impossible Foods’ entire mission is to create plant-based products that compete directly against animal meat,” said Esther Cohn, communications manager for Impossible Foods. “If you eat five beef burgers a week, we want you to trade them, even try swapping one for an Impossible Burger.”

With a booming market and new animal-free proteins made from cells in a lab or fungi in fermentation tanks, the options are endless. Can they be adapted to be healthier too? We’ll have to wait and see.

Written by Meghan McGee, Nutrition Scientist, Dalla Lana Fellow, University of Toronto.

This article was first published in The conversation.