Is Plant Based Meat Healthy or Just a Fad?

If you’ve gone to your favorite burger place recently, you’ve probably seen some vegan options on the menu, as plant-based meats continue to surge in popularity. While there are certainly environmental benefits associated with going to a plant-based diet, many people incorrectly assume that doing so has a positive impact on their health.

There are vegan alternatives to virtually every type of meat. In addition to the options you can find at most restaurants, a trip through the meat department at your local grocery store will show that you find vegan bacon, turkey, chicken, beef, hot dogs, and more.

While these options are great news for people who want to be more eco-friendly and those who believe that animals should not be consumed, it’s important to answer the question: is plant based meat healthy or not?

Dr. Julian McClements, a highly renowned professor of food science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has done a great deal of research on plant-based foods.

McClements explains, “People think that if it’s plant-based, it’s healthy or healthier, and that certainly can be, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.” Instead, McClements points to the importance of understanding the process that the manufacturer uses when designing and producing the meat.

What is Plant-Based Meat and What's In It?

Plant-based meat is growing in popularity and is expected to continue to do so. In 2023, the global alternative meat industry, also known as meat analogue, was valued at $18.78 billion. That number is expected to nearly double by 2032.

Veggie burgers, which are among the most popular plant-based meat options, are made of beans and vegetables that manufacturers press into a patty. This process allows you to see the whole foods, lentils, black beans, corn, and chickpeas, that make up the burger patty.

Some of the best plant based meat brands, such as Impossible and Beyond Beef, are much more similar to the meats that they’re replacing. Beyond relies heavily on pea protein while Impossible uses soy.

McClements explains that this process requires the food to be “ultra-processed,” which can make the food less healthy or more healthy, depending on other factors.

Is Plant-Based Meat Healthy?

In order to make plant-based options resemble real meat, companies must use more processing. That is where you may run into some health issues, as everyone knows that overly-processed foods aren’t generally considered healthy.

Ultra-processing can remove the nutrients present in foods that are good for you, which makes them less healthy. When foods, such as those used in some of the plant-based alternatives on the market, are broken down and turned into patties, they lose a lot of their natural fiber, per the American Medical Association (AMA).

When foods are lower in fiber, your body digests them quicker which leads to blood sugar spikes and causes you to experience hunger sooner than you would if you ate something high in fiber. There are several studies that link low-fiber foods to obesity and diabetes, primarily because of the hunger that they lead to.

Most of the plant-based burger manufacturers try to mimic the real thing, which leads to them looking for a way to recreate the grease that you get when you make a traditional burger.

To generate this grease, you need fat, so manufacturers use coconut, canola, or sunflower oil. This added oil explains why some plant-based burgers have as much, if not more, saturated fat than some of their traditional counterparts.

Foods high in saturated fat are shown to raise cholesterol levels and may have as much as five times as much sodium in them. The fats used in these plant-based options also contain carbohydrates, which can raise your blood sugar.

Finally, plant-based burger patties usually have just as many calories as beef patties.

Judy Simon, a dietician in the Nutrition Clinic at the UW Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, explains, “You have to know what’s in them and compare them with what you’d be replacing.”

If you’re looking for something lower in sugar and salt, plant-based options may be better than traditional beef patties, and they’re certainly healthier than the processed burgers you can get at a fast-food restaurant. However, you shouldn’t switch to plant-based burgers if you’re just trying to avoid calories or saturated fats.

What Does Science Say About Plant-Based Options?

In November 2020, a small study was performed on a group of 36 adults over the course of 16 weeks. For the eight weeks, the participants ate two servings of traditional meat each day.

During the second half of the study, the participants ate Beyond brand plant-based meat for two weeks. The participants were broken into two groups, as one group started with the vegan meat options and then switched to traditional meat.

Researchers told the participants to keep their daily exercise routines the same, along with their total caloric intake. By the end of the study, people usually lost some weight and experienced lower “bad cholesterol” when they were eating plant-based meat.

More recent studies haven’t painted vegan meat in such a positive light.

A 2024 study utilized the same eight-week approach as the 2020 study but used 82 participants. 41 people ate from a pre-determined menu of meats. The other 41 participants were given the plant-based versions of those meat options.

Researchers checked the participants’ cholesterol, weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, and other vital signs at the beginning and end of the study. When the study concluded, the people who had been eating plant-based meats were not any healthier than their meat-eating counterparts.

However, Sunil Chandran, the Chief Scientific Officer at Impossible Foods says that coming out “better” is not really the point of plant-based foods.

Instead, Chandran claims that plant-based manufacturers want to offer something to meat eaters that allows them to adopt some plant-based eating habits without making wholesale changes to their lifestyles.

There has long been a belief that diets with a lot of meat lead to higher rates of inflammation, so the assumption has been that plant-based lead to less inflammation.

A 2022 study that studies the participants from the 2020 study found that there was little to no difference in inflammation between the plant-based eaters and those who ate traditional meat.

Decreasing Saturated Fat

Beyond Meat has recently announced that they’re replacing coconut and canola oil with avocado oil, which will bring the saturated fat content down by 60%. The new formulation will also reduce sodium by 20%.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has recognized Beyond as part of its “Better Choices for Life” program. The American Heart Association (AHA) has also released a collection of heart-healthy recipes that feature Beyond.

Chandran went on to explain that the majority of Impossible’s meat alternatives contains 25% less total fat and saturated fat than animal products. Chandran also contends that since Impossible relies on plants, their products have more intrinsic fiber.

So, Is Plant Based Meat Healthy?

While most people know about the dangers of things like sugars, fats, sodium, and calories, plant-based meats may introduce some dangerous elements that we’re not as familiar with yet.

Youling Xiong, a professor of food and animal sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, explains that humans have been grinding up meat and making burgers for a hundred years. Professor Xiong goes on to explain that we simply don’t have enough information yet about the impact of long-term, plant-based diets.

Plant-based meats do a lot of good for the environment. In addition to not using animals, these companies also use less land and water and also emit fewer greenhouse gases. Based on studies, they have about 50% of the environmental impact of real meat.

Most industry experts agree that as we see continued changes in manufacturing technology, plant-based meats will continue to evolve, becoming a healthy option.

Whether you’re interested in cutting down on your impact on the environment, have health concerns about eating meat, or you simply want to try something different with your diet, plant-based meat is a valid option. Hopefully, the questions surrounding the industry are answered in the near future.