Are plant burgers better than beef? Here’s how to decide

Plant-based meat substitutes can improve some measures of your metabolic health. Photo / Peggy Cormary, The Washington Post
Are burgers made from plants better for you than 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 California’s Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods often tout the health benefits of their foods. But whether you see any health improvements will depend on the brand of alt-meat 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, director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Centre, said people ask him all the time if plant-based 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.
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 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.
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 plant-based meats are designed to mimic the flavours, 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.
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 favourites – 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”.
Most studies suggest that plant-based meat alternatives have a significantly lower carbon footprint than farmed fish, poultry, pork, farmed shrimp, beef and dairy.
Surveys show that the most common reason people eat alt-meats is because they consider them to be healthier than real meat. In one study that examined this, 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 servings a day of grass-fed, 80% lean real meat. 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 plant-meat diet, the participants consumed about 26g of saturated fat, compared to 33g a day on the regular-meat diet. Beyond meat products also contain fibre, 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 fund it. Gardner said the researchers hired an independent, third party to conduct the main analysis to minimise any appearance of conflict.
Willett at Harvard, who was not involved in the study, said the significant drop in LDL cholesterol levels on the plant-meat diet could translate to a roughly 30% reduction in the risk of heart attacks. He said he believed the researchers put “enough firewalls in place” to prevent the study from being biased. “The findings are just what you’d expect based on the composition of the foods,” he added. “I have no reason to doubt the conclusions.”
The Beyond Meat burgers and sausages had surprisingly more protein – 20g in the Beyond burger and 16g in the Beyond sausage – compared to their real-meat counterparts, which have 16g in the beef burger and 10g in the sausage. But the Beyond products had 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%.
In a study published this northern summer, researchers in Singapore assigned 82 men and women to eight weeks of eating plant-based meats or regular meat. Unlike in the Stanford study, the plant group was given a variety of plant-based meats – fake beef, chicken and sausages – made by different brands, including Impossible burgers, OmniMeat Mince, Beyond Meat burgers and sausages, Chickened Out Chunks and Little Peckers.
In this study, there were no major changes in measures of cardiometabolic health, including LDL cholesterol levels, inflammation, insulin and body weight, among those eating plant-based meats or real meat.
While plant-meats in general tend to be lower in saturated fat than real meat, there’s wide variation in their ingredients and nutritional content, said Mike Murray, a registered dietitian and researcher at Examine, an independent organisation that analyses and summarises scientific research. For instance, one Impossible burger patty contains 6g of saturated fat, compared to 2g in a Beyond Meat patty.
Sunil Chandran, the chief science officer of Impossible Foods, said the company isn’t trying to convince meat-eaters to become vegans or vegetarians. He said Impossible products offer people the same nutritional benefits as real meat with fewer drawbacks. “It’s not really about switching so much as diversifying your diet,” he said.
He said most of Impossible’s products contain at least 25% less total and saturated fat compared to real meat, making them “a great option for meat eaters who want the protein with less fat and no cholesterol”.
He pointed out that the company introduced a new product last year called Impossible Lite Beef, which is particularly lean, with 21g of protein and just 1g of saturated fat per serving. It carries a special heart-check mark from the American Heart Association (as do some Beyond Meat products).
The most important thing when buying plant-based 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 brands contain.
One brand that tends to be particularly low in saturated fat and high in fibre 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.
If you don’t like the taste of plant-meat alternatives or traditional store-bought veggie burgers, then consider making 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% replacement,” he added.