Are plant burgers better than beef? How to decide
Are burgers made from plants reallybetter for you than real beef burgers?
Scientists have found that in most cases, plant-based meat substitutes — or “alt-meat” — can improve some measures of your metabolic health, most notably LDL cholesterol, the kind that’s associated with heart disease.
Companies like Beyond Meat of El Segundo, Calif., and Impossible Foods of Redwood City, Calif., often tout the health benefits of their foods. But whether you see any health improvements will depend on the brand of alt-meat that you choose and what exactly it’s replacing in your diet.
The best plant proteins are whole foods such as beans, lentils, chickpeas, peanuts, almonds, walnuts and seeds, but plant meats can be a good choice for people who want to cut back on the amount of beef and pork in their diets for health or environmental reasons, said Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“Ideally, we’d like to see people switching to whole-food plant sources of protein,” he said. “But there’s a reality factor that a lot of people can’t make that leap all at once, and so having these alternatives is a good thing. They can be quite a bit better than the real thing.”
Christopher Gardner, the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, said that people ask him all the time if plantbased meats are good for them. He tells them, “Instead of what?”
“If it’s instead of lentils, then the answer is no,” said Gardner, who has conducted a study funded by Beyond Meat. “But that’s not why Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat made these products. They made them as alternatives for people who are eating red meat.”
Here’s what to know when deciding between eating plant-based meat and actual meat.
1. They’re ultra-processed
Plant-based meats contain different ingredients, some better than others. Many plant-based meats are ultra-processed, meaning they’re industrial formulations that contain a variety of additives, such as oils, starches, thickeners, sodium and preservatives.
Most studies have found that limiting the amount of ultra-processed foods you consume is good for your health. But nutrition experts say that plant-based meat substitutes can still be a good choice if you use them as a swap for processed meats or highly processed carbs like a bowl of pasta.
2. They taste like meat
Traditional veggie burgers and sausages are made from things like beans, grains, nuts, seeds and tofu, and are mostly intended to appeal to vegans and vegetarians. But plantbased meats are designed to mimic the flavors, textures and appearance of real meat. They’re typically made from pea and soy proteins, and they’re often marketed to meat-eaters as better for you and better for the planet. “Our products are made for vegans, meat eaters and everyone in between,” Impossible says on its website.
Joy Bauer, a registered dietitian and nutrition adviser to Beyond Meat, said she wished that everyone loaded their plates with lentils, nuts, seeds and vegetables. “But I know that the majority of people are not willing to give up their red meat favorites — the burgers, the steaks, the sausages and all the things they make with ground meat from tacos to casseroles,” she said.
Bauer said she doesn’t feel that everyone needs to entirely eliminate red meat from their diets, but that Beyond Meat products give people “the opportunity to enjoy the foods that they crave and love but in a far healthier format.”
3. They have less saturated fat and more fiber
Surveys show that the most common reason people eat altmeats is because they consider them to be healthier than real meat. In one study that examined this question, Gardner and his colleagues at Stanford recruited healthy adults and assigned them to follow two different diets for eight weeks at a time. For one eight-week period the participants ate at least two servings a day of Beyond Meat products, and for another eight-week period they ate at least two servingsa day of grass-fed, 80 percent lean realmeat. The participants were instructed not to change anything else about their diets.
The researchers found that when the participants ate the plant-based meats, they weighed slightly less and had lower cholesterol. On average their LDL fell about 11 points on the plant-meat diet. They also had lower levels of TMAO, a compound that has been found to increase the risk of heart disease.
Beyond Meat products contain less saturated fat than the ground beef used in the study, which explains the drop in the participants’ LDL cholesterol. In a typical day on the plantmeat diet, the participants consumed about 26 grams of saturated fat, compared to 33 grams a day on the regular-meat diet. Beyond meat products also contain fiber, which isn’t found in real meat and can help to lower cholesterol.
One caveat to the study was that Beyond Meat provided a research grant to Stanford that helped to fund it. Gardner said the researchers hired an independent, third party to conduct the main analysis to minimize any appearance of conflict.
4. They have more protein but also more sodium
The Beyond Meat burgers and sausages had surprisingly more protein — 20 grams in the Beyond burger and 16 grams in the Beyond sausage, compared to their real-meat counterparts, which have 16 grams in the beef burger and 10 grams in the sausage. But they did contain more sodium than real meat.
Bauer noted that since Gardner’s study was published, Beyond Meat has reduced the sodium in its burgers and ground beef by 20 percent.
5. They require more label reading
The most important thing you can do when buying plantbased meats is to look at their ingredients and nutrition labels, said Murray. If your goal is to lower your cholesterol, then pay close attention to their saturated fat content. If your goal is to lower your blood pressure, then look at their sodium content. If your priority is building or maintaining muscle, then keep an eye on how much protein the different brands contain.
One brand that tends to be particularly low in saturated fat and high in fiber is Quorn, which makes imitation cutlets, burgers, meatballs and other plant meats made from mycoprotein, a fermented fungus. A number of studies have found that eating plant meats made from mycoprotein can lead to modest reductions in blood pressure and insulin and substantial reductions in LDL cholesterol. Several of these studies have been funded by Marlow Foods of Yorkshire UK, the parent company of Quorn.
6. You may prefer to make your own at home
If you don’t like the taste of plant-meat alternatives or traditional store-bought veggie burgers, then consider making your own homemade veggie burgers, like the popular “Superiority Burger” or a black bean and mushroom burger with balsamic-glazed onions.
Another option is to make your own “blended” burgers by using a combination of ground beef and plants such as black beans and lentils or mushrooms. You’ll get the taste of real meat combined with the health and environmental benefits of eating plants — without the ultra-processing.
Willett pointed out that whether your primary concern is your health or the environment, adding any amount of plant foods to your diet is a step in the right direction. “It doesn’t have to be a 100 percent replacement,” he added.