Last week, I wrote about ultra-processed foods and encouraged you to reduce your consumption of processed meats and sugary drinks. As someone who follows a plant-based diet, one of the questions I often receive is whether plant-based meats are healthy for you. New plant-based options for chicken, beef, and sausage seem to appear in grocery stores every day. There are even plant-based versions of eggs, bacon, fish, and seafood. It would be a lengthy email if I tried to give each product individual attention, so I'll provide some examples and make generalizations.
The first thing to consider when thinking about consuming plant-based substitutes is what they are replacing in your diet. If you already eat whole, plant-based foods like legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, you should stick with those as much as possible. Having the occasional plant-based burger won't hurt, but it's best to keep the majority of your meals focused on the unprocessed plant-based foods you already enjoy.
However, if you're substituting tempeh in place of bacon or a Beyond burger over a beef burger, that's a step in the right direction. Plant-based foods (even processed ones) are generally healthier than animal foods. As Dr. Greger points out in How Not to Die, it matters what you're comparing. For example, a baked potato is healthier compared to French fries, but when compared to a baked sweet potato, it's not as favorable. Rather than labeling foods as good or bad, consider them better or worse.
Someone who is just starting to eat more plant-based foods may initially rely more heavily on plant-based meats since they have a similar taste and texture to what they're accustomed to eating. However, over time, it's beneficial to start cooking with more unprocessed foods. For instance, you might add lentils to a soup, use black beans instead of meat in your burrito, or sprinkle pumpkin or sunflower seeds on your salad instead of bacon bits.
As with anything packaged, read the label. Check the sodium and saturated fat content, and look for ingredients you can't pronounce or don't recognize as food. Beyond Meat recently began using avocado oil instead of coconut oil in their burgers, which reduced the amount of saturated fat by 60% to just two grams per serving. They also decreased the sodium by 20% and added red lentil and fava bean protein, boosting the protein content to 21 grams per serving. Compared to a beef burger, choosing a Beyond Burger provides nearly as much protein, with significantly less saturated fat and no cholesterol.
Plant-based meats serve a purpose. They provide convenience when you're in a hurry or are a good alternative at restaurants that lack other veggie options. They help those transitioning from meat consumption by providing the satiety they desire. Taste buds adapt as you change your eating habits. When I first began following a vegan diet, I wasn't sure if the cravings for red meat would ever subside, but they did. Now, I prefer a homemade bean burger over a store-bought plant-based burger because, frankly, some of the packaged plant-based burgers taste too much like beef for my liking. I would rather create a faux lobster roll using heart of palm seasoned with Old Bay spice, but it's nice to have the occasional plant-based crab cake for variety.
When I bake, I use unsweetened apple sauce in place of eggs. You can also use banana or flax seed. I was curious to investigate how the frozen Just Egg patty compares to a chicken egg since I occasionally eat Just Egg for breakfast. The Just Egg frozen foldable, primarily made of water, mung bean protein, and canola oil, has a comparable amount of protein, total fat, and calories to one large chicken egg. The major difference is the cholesterol— a chicken egg contains about 200 milligrams, while the Just Egg has none. As someone with a history of heart disease and who also considers the cost to animals in my diet, I will still skip the chicken egg.
Ultimately, your choices come down to the question, "in place of what?" In most cases, a processed plant-based option will be similar to or better than its animal-based counterpart. Incorporating more whole, plant-based foods is ideal, but the processed options can support a transition from animal products.
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