Food and Nutrition

Over time, there has been a grow­ing aware­ness of envir­on­ment­al, health and eth­ic­al issues, which has led many people to favour veget­ari­an or vegan altern­at­ives over meat. In gen­er­al, a diet low in meat and high in plant-based foods is con­sidered health­i­er, as red and pro­cessed meat in par­tic­u­lar increases the risk of heart dis­ease, dia­betes and bowel can­cer. Eat­ing more whole pulses such as beans, len­tils and peas instead of meat has also been shown to have health bene­fits.

How­ever, it is not yet known wheth­er these plant-based meat sub­sti­tutes, some of which are highly pro­cessed, are health­i­er than meat. Although they are sim­il­arly rich in pro­tein, con­tain more fibre and few­er cal­or­ies and sat­ur­ated fatty acids, they are high in salt, for example. In addi­tion, the pro­tein is isol­ated from the plants, mean­ing that healthy sec­ond­ary plant sub­stances, micronu­tri­ents or fibre are no longer con­tained in the end product. Veg­gie products are also con­tro­ver­sial because they some­times con­tain many addit­ives to imit­ate the fla­vour and mouth­feel of meat. For example, methyl cel­lu­lose is used as a bind­ing agent, which is sus­pec­ted of dam­aging the intest­in­al mucosa and micro­bi­o­me. Fla­vour­ings and fla­vour enhan­cers are also added, which of course can also be found in products con­tain­ing meat. In addi­tion, the products often have a dif­fer­ent con­sist­ency to meat and are sig­ni­fic­antly more expens­ive to produce.