Is fake meat better for you than real meat?

NEW YORK – You have probably heard these two bits of nutrition advice: Eat more plants and cut back on ultra-processed foods.

So, where does that leave fake-meat burgers, sausages, nuggets and other products sold by companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods? They are made from plants like soya beans and peas, but are also highly processed.

If you ask the companies, they will tell you that their products are good for you. Nutrition experts say there may be benefits too.

But while it is clear that eating red meat and processed meat is associated with health risks such as heart disease, some types of cancer and earlier death, people do not yet know how fake-meat alternatives might affect their health in the long term.

How their nutrients compare

The nutrient profiles of fake-meat products can vary widely, but two scientific reviews, both published in 2024, suggest a few patterns.

Compared with regular meat such as ground beef, pork sausages and chicken, the plant-based versions typically have fewer saturated fats – a category of fats that has been linked to heart disease – and similar or slightly lower levels of protein.

A 113g burger made with 85 per cent lean ground beef, for instance, contains 6.5g of saturated fat. An equivalent-size Impossible Burger has a little less than that (6g of saturated fat) and a Beyond Burger has a lot less (just 2g). On the other hand, a Gardein Ultimate Plant-Based Burger has nearly 40 per cent more saturated fat (9g) when compared with ground beef.

When it comes to protein levels, the burgers are a lot more similar. The beef patty has 21g of protein, while the three plant-based versions have between 19 and 21g.

Plant-based meat products also typically contain some fibre – a nutrient associated with reduced risks of Type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer and heart disease. An Impossible Burger has 5g, a Beyond Burger has 2g and a Gardein patty has 1g. Real meat lacks fibre entirely.

The main nutritional downside of plant-based meats is that they tend to contain far more sodium than uncooked and unprocessed meats such as ground beef, pork chops and chicken breast, said Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Most people add at least some amount of salt to raw meat before they cook it, a spokesperson for Beyond Meat said in a statement. The company’s current burger and beef products contain less sodium than previous versions, she said, and it now uses avocado oil instead of coconut oil, which has reduced saturated fat levels.

Fake-meat products generally have a better nutritional profile than red meat, said Dr Frank B. Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“The products are evolving very rapidly,” he said, adding that he hopes they keep getting better.

Mixed results in studies

In two small studies that investigated the health effects of replacing real meat with plant-based alternatives like those from Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, Dr Hu said, researchers reported mixed results.

One study, published in 2024, found that when 40 people in Singapore ate 2½ servings of plant-based burgers, sausages or chicken a day for two months, they were no healthier than the 42 other participants who had similar amounts of real meat during the same period.

The researchers used fake-meat products from Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, OmniMeat (based in Hong Kong) and The Vegetarian Butcher (based in Britain). That study was funded by an agricultural research firm in Hong Kong that did not have a vested interest in the outcome, the study’s lead author said.

In another study – this one funded by Beyond Meat and published in 2020 – researchers found some benefits associated with plant-based meats.

Thirty-six healthy adults consumed about 2½ servings of real meat a day for two months, and about 2½ servings of plant-based products from Beyond Meat a day for another two months. At the end of the plant-based phase, the participants had lower cholesterol – and lost a little weight – compared with the end of the real meat phase.

Nutrition scientist and professor of medicine Christopher Gardner at Stanford University in California, who led the 2020 study, acknowledged that people may be sceptical of its findings because it was funded by Beyond Meat.

Industry-funded nutrition research tends to end up with results that are more favourable to the industry than research without industry funding. But with limited federal dollars for nutrition research, it is often the only way such studies are conducted, Prof Gardner said.

He tried to minimise bias, such as by having outside statisticians analyse the data and by not allowing Beyond Meat to review the results of the study until it was accepted for publication.

The different findings from the two studies could have been related to differences in the participants, food products or study design, added Dr Hu, who said the Stanford study was “well designed and carefully executed”.

Regardless of these conflicting results, the data is promising, Dr Hu added. They suggest that the plant-based products may be beneficial for health – or at least not worse than meat. But, he said, “we need much larger and longer-term studies” with independent funding sources to confirm that.

The bottom line

If you enjoy the tastes and textures of meat but want to eat less of it, fake-meat products can be a helpful “stepping stone to a more plant-forward diet”, Dr Hu said. They may have some benefits for health, he said, and major benefits for the environment.

Even better, all the experts agreed, is to shift your diet away from red meat and processed meat, and towards more whole food or less processed sources of plant protein such as beans, lentils, tofu and tempeh.

Swopping plant-based foods such as legumes and whole grains for meat, for instance, has been clearly linked to reduced risks of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. These foods are typically cheaper too, Prof Gardner said.

“Beans, peas and lentils, hands down, over the Beyond Burger,” he added.

You can also try fish and chicken as healthier alternatives to red meat and processed meat, Dr Mozaffarian said. Or use a portobello mushroom for your burger patty instead of ground beef, he added. NYTIMES