How healthy is vegan meat?

The facts.

• Vegan meat started as far back as 1896 when John Kellogg created a peanut based meat substitute. 

• They have evolved from veggie burgers to “burgers which bleed”

• Vegan meats mimic everything from beef to chicken to fish.

• As of November 2022, there were more than 60 plant based meat companies in the USA with over 800 companies involved in making meat for the end consumer.

• The industry is expected to be worth more than $40B by 2028.

The big picture. Context matters.

Vegan meats have had quite the ride lately – from being very popular in 2020 with everyone wanting to increase their consumption for health reasons to now being labeled “ultra-processed” and getting a bad rap. What is the truth? Is vegan meat, such as Beyond Meat or Impossible beef patties, healthy?

Let’s start by discussing what these meats are meant to be substitutes for:

• A beef patty is meant to replace the beef hamburger. 

• They are not meant to replace a whole food diet rich in vegetables or fruits. 

• They are not meant to replace your salad or replace your pasta. 

• Many people argue that a bean burger is healthier than a beyond beef patty – yes AND a bean burger is also healthier than a beef hamburger.

It is important to remember that the purpose of this innovation is to replace comparable items (ie) a beef burger for a beef patty. A vegan chicken nugget for a chicken nugget. With that context in mind, let’s dig in.

Vegan meat is nutritionally similar to their replacement

Impossible burger vs chuck
(80% Lean / 20% Fat – The most common choice among burger chefs for its fat content which makes juicier, more flavorful Burgers). Restaurants often are a higher fat content up to 25-30%.

Breaded chicken nuggets vs common plant-based options

Chicken breast vs plant-based

Summary: Vegan Meat

• Plant-based meats are nutritionally very similar to traditional meats.

• In general, plant-based meats have more fiber than animal meats which is a plus as the standard American diet is lacking in fiber.

• In general, plant-based meats have more sodium than animal meats. This is not ideal but note that animal meats need added salt while cooking while the plant-based meats will not. The final sodium content will be different than above depending on how much salt is added.

  Other Health Data

  • The link between red meat and colo-rectal cancer is clear.

  • The connection between red meat and high blood pressure is becoming very evident

  • The connection between meat and increased mortality was clearly shown as more Japanese adopted an American diet.

  • The connection between ultra-processed foods and cardiometabolic problems like obesity and diabetes is clear. This applies to meat hotdogs as well as vegan hotdogs.

They are not more processed than meat

This is an interesting area of discussion as the common narrative tends to focus on the number of ingredients. Most recently, Plant-based meats are being portrayed as “ultra-processed” while animal meat is being portrayed as “natural”. 

Animal meats being described as natural or “pasture raised” is misleading. In reality, 70% of beef produced in the US comes from four giant meatpacking companies. 8.9 Billion chickens (99.97% of those consumed in the USA) are grown in factory farms.

These animals are not simply raised on a farm, allowed to graze naturally as the marketing photos imply. Instead, they are reared in feedlots with a manufacturing or assembly line formula to get the right size, weight and fat content of the finished product. 

How do feedlots process the cows to artificially create the desired fat content for consumers? 

The feedlot sector represents an intensive production system with the goal of growing and or fattening cattle until they reach slaughter weight. This is divided into growing (backgrounding) and finishing (fattening) phases. 

In North America, the backgrounding phase focuses on engineering the diet so that the calves can be as large and lean as possible. Next, the finishing phase focused on feeding the calves a high grain diet until they reach a prescribed amount of fat so that they can be marketed for slaughter. 

Ground meat products undergo yet another level of processing. This is the mixing of fat and lean meat from various batches of animals to create a precise formula of lean muscle:fat ratio.

Feedlots are associated with many welfare issues, “predominantly related to the feeding and include free gas bloat, acidosis, liver abscesses, and laminitis, all of which are associated with high concentrate feeding typical in North America”. This is often managed with regular, high dose antibiotics.

They don’t create food safety concerns

The US has an alarming rate of food poisoning compared to many other countries. The source is E.Coli from downstream fecal contamination of our water and agriculture stemming from animal agriculture. Watch the Netflix documentary, Poisoned and learn for yourself. I have not been able to eat cantaloupe ever since!

The choices.

Life-focused

If your focus is on being kind to living things…

• Vegan meats are reasonable alternatives to the products that they are meant to replace (ie) a beef burger for a vegan burger, a ballpark hot dog for a vegan hot dog.

• Focus on reducing and eliminating animal products from your diet

Earth-focused

If your focus is on the earth and environment…

• Make food choices which have a lower environmental impact Look at the diet and environment insights. 

• Animal-based foods account for 57% of those emissions, and plant-based ones make up 29 percent.

• Read the EAT-Lancet report on diet and the planet

Holistic

If you are considering an integrated approach…

• A balanced and varied diet consisting of nutritionally dense foods and being plant forward is ideal.

• Vegan meats are not meant to be healthier than nor a substitute for a nutritionally dense balanced diet but they can have a healthy role in your life.

• Become an informed and nuanced thinker – do not fall for broad sweeping marketing headlines.

• Remember that chocolate, cheese, bread, yogurt and protein bars are also examples of ultra-processed foods

Resources

• A timeline of fake meat

• Factory farming awareness coalition

• Reddit posts on post slaughter processing of ground meat

• Food and Wine article on how vegan meat has thrived in Asia for centuries

• Learn the truth about terms such as “pasture-raised” and “grass fed” at The Environmental working group