If youve been told by your doctor to decrease your intake of red meat and shift to a more plant-based diet, youre not alone.
At any age, but especially as we get older, eating more fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, Type 2 diabetes and obesity, says Dr. William Li, a physician, researcher and author ofEat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself.
Catering to the popularity of this diet shift, one of the biggest food trends of 2019 has been the rise of plant-based meats. These contain no animal products and are instead produced with plant-based ingredients such as soy, providing similar protein content to real meat.
Two leading makers of these products,Impossible FoodsandBeyond Meat, have taken the food world by storm, winning over meat lovers with burgers and other products that have a taste and texture surprisingly similar to real beef.
You can now buy Impossible and Beyond meat-substitute products in many grocery stores and restaurants across the U.S. For example, Burger King now has an Impossible Whopper and Subway has a Beyond Meat meatball sandwich.
If you really love the taste of a burger, the new trend of plant-based meats may help you satisfy your cravings while sticking with a plant-based plan, says Li.
But while these products do have some nutritional merits, there is debate over how healthy they truly are, and if they could potentially cause more harm than good. Before you swap in plant-based patties for your beef burgers, heres what to know:
While you may think youd be eating virtuously by choosing one of these alternatives to meat, biting into an Impossible or Beyond burger is a far cry from eating a plate full of greens.
The marketing teams behind these plant-based meats make the food sound enticing. But in reality, these products are highly engineered plant protein sources made from soy or pea protein isolate, says Maura Rodgers, a registered dietitian with her own practice in San Francisco. Theyre not made out of vegetables; theyre made from processed soy, she adds.
Also, marketing for these products often implies they are healthy choices, but that depends on how you define healthy. Some brands use nonorganic ingredients that may have been exposed to chemicals or that may be genetically modified (for example, more than90% of soy in the U.S. is genetically modified, according to the Agriculture Department).
If you look at the ingredient list for a Dr. Praegers veggie burger or other popular brands like Boca and Morningstar, which have been around for decades, youll see fresh plants: carrots, onions, string beans, zucchini and broccoli.
Plant-based meats such as the products made by Impossible Foods, however, are different. Theyre doing serious food science and drastically changing the [whole food ingredients], Rodgers says.
For example, while the process may have started with soy, in the final product, its been converted into a soy protein concentrate made by removing the soluble carbohydrates from soy flakes.
In my opinion, this style of eating soy is so young, and we dont have a lot of studies to assure us that these textured vegetable proteins and soy protein isolates are not creating adverse long- or short-term detriments, Rodgers says.
Its worth noting these new plant-based meats dont come cheap, either, says Li. At about $9 per pound, theyre about 50% more expensive than traditional veggie burgers.
Its important for older adults to consume enough protein tohelp prevent muscle lossandmaintain metabolism, says Samantha Presicci, lead registered dietitian at Snap Kitchen, a service that delivers ready-made meals in several U.S. cities.
At first glance, Impossible and Beyond products seem like smart choices for this reason, boasting 19 and 20 grams of protein per serving, respectively. The issue, however, is that plant-based proteins, such as the ones found in some plant-based meats, are not complete proteins, except for soy (a complete protein means it contains all essential amino acids).
Real meat offers highly bioavailable protein, which means that the protein and micronutrients in meat are more easily absorbed by our bodies compared with plant foods, says Presicci.
Instead of plant-based meats, I would recommend consuming more highly bioavailable protein, especially for adults over 55, in the form of responsibly raised meats and seafood, she adds.
Related: Why some restaurants are turning up their noses at Beyond Meat
If you are vegetarian or vegan, you can include complete proteins in your diet byeating a variety of plant foods, like legumes, lentils, nuts and whole grains, daily, said Rachel Stockle, a licensed dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic, in an article on the clinics website.
Its also worth noting that the Impossible Burger contains 8 grams of saturated fat per 4-ounce serving due to the addition of coconut oil and sunflower oil, which help make beef patties sizzle when grilled. Beyond Meat has six grams of saturated fat per serving, containing refined coconut oil and expeller-pressed canola oil.
In general, we know that too much saturated fat found primarily in animal sources is harmful to our health, associated with heart attacks and inflammation in the body, says Rodgers.
Theres still a debate in the medical community over whether coconut oil, the non-animal source outlier, provides more value than detriment. Rodgers says aging adults especially should proceed with caution when consuming products with coconut oil.
As you get older, you are at a higher risk for chronic disease, she explains, so while it may be time to re-evaluate how much meat youre consuming and transition to a more plant-based diet, simply swapping your beef burger for a plant-based one isnt necessarily the answer.
Most plant-based meats provide roughly the same amount of calories as regular meat, and a lot more sodium.
For older adults trying to limit their sodium intake to reduce risk of high blood pressure and heart disease plant-based meats may not be a better option, says Megan Wong, a registered dietitian who works with AlgaeCal, a calcium supplement company in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Also read: The No. 1 reason to become a vegan its not about your health
The Impossible Burger, for example, contains 370 milligrams of sodium per 4-ounce patty. However, theres a silver lining; it also contains 610 milligrams of potassium (thats about 200 milligrams more than a banana), which helps your body get rid of excess sodium, Wong says.
Plant-based meats can also provide more iron than the average beef patty, Wong says. This can be helpful for older adults who dont consume enough iron and are at risk of, or have been diagnosed with, iron-deficiency anemia, she says.
A deficiency in the B vitamins B12 and folate can lead to anemia, which becomes more common as we age and the Impossible Burger is high in both. Additionally, the Beyond Meat burger is a good source of calcium, providing 80 milligrams per serving (about as much as one serving of almonds), which can help older adults reach therecommended amount of calcium 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams per day after age 50.
Looking beyond the health element, plant-based meats are becoming more popular for their reduced impact on the environment.
For example, a 2018 study commissioned by Beyond Meat with the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan found that a plant-based burger generates90% less greenhouse gas emissions, requires 46% less energy to produce and has 93% less impact on land use than a traditional U.S. beef burger.
Plant-based meats are not only for the vegetarians and vegans of the world. In an unofficial taste test of side-by-side sliders one beef and one plant-based this writer can say it is hard to distinguish the difference.
Even reviewers at Food & Wine magazine described the Impossible Burger asalmost identical to beef.
Thats exactly what the companies producing these products are going for, replicating the same meaty texture and juiciness of ground beef without the actual meat. The Impossible Burger has even been genetically engineered with hemoglobin, a plant version of the protein that makes blood red, to look like it bleeds when you cook it, Li says.
While plant-based meats can help older adults reach their daily recommendations for protein, iron, B vitamins and calcium, theyre still highly processed. In principle, Li says he thinks theyre superior to red meat, but that its still too early to know for sure about the health effects of plant-based burgers.
If you want to try incorporating plant-based meats like the Impossible or Beyond burgers into your diet, first make sure your diet is mostly made up ofwhole foodsrather than ultra-processed foods, Li says.
Then, consider if plant-based burgers fit your budget, if youre allergic to soy or other plant proteins and if you enjoy the taste, he says. If all systems are a go, then by all means, dive in and enjoy one but only in moderation.
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What nutrition experts are saying about imitation meats in your diet - MarketWatch
