My Unpopular View of Plant-Based Meat
Why I believe the goal is to eat GOOD food, not just replace meat
I’ve struggled with the “vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, whole food” concept for the past few years. I’m not one who likes to put labels on things, because as soon as you do it, you find yourself tied into how the world views those labels.
Plant-based has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years. Walk down the aisles of your favorite grocery store, and you’ll find “plant-based” products everywhere.
So, of course, the largest food corporations in the world - Tyson, Hormel, Nestle, Perdue, Smithfield - all jumped in as fast as they could.
Tyson launched plant-based nuggets amid weakening meat sales.
Perdue touts its vegetable and plant-based protein kid-friendly nuggets … which, on closer evaluation, has chicken.
It’s hard not to get confused.
Let’s talk about this plant-based meat
If you look at a Beyond Meat Burger, it appears to be a healthier version of a traditional hamburger. It even states it’s a “plant-based burger” that “has the juicy, meaty deliciousness of a traditional burger” but comes with the “upsides of a plant-based meal.” It promises:
No GMOs
No gluten
No soy
Kosher
Plant-based protein
What’s not to love?
Dive a little deeper, and you’ll find the ingredient list:
Water, pea protein, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, dried yeast, cocoa butter, methylcellulose, and less than 1% of potato starch, salt, potassium chloride, beet juice color, apple extract, pomegranate concentrate, sunflower lecithin, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, vitamins and minerals (zinc sulfate, niacinamide [vitamin B3], pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin B6], cyanocobalamin [vitamin B12], calcium pantothenate).
Look really hard at that list of ingredients. What’s missing?
If you said “plants,” you’re correct.
None of those ingredients can actually be classified as plants. There might be derivatives of plants, but they were processed before they made it to the ingredient list.
Plant-based burger? Hmmm …
[I may be using Beyond Burger as an example, but I could use any of them, and the list of ingredients would be similar.]
It gets worse – lab-made meat
Beyond Burger and other substitutes grew in size because of their ability to create a burger-like experience. They mimic the bloodiness of beef. They marble like beef. They even taste like beef.
These companies are looking for a way to step beyond “faking it” to find a way that mimics meat more closely without relying on animals for production.
Enter lab-made meat. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in November 2022 that laboratory-grown chicken is now “safe to eat.” While this is specifically for cultivated chicken produced by Upside Foods, other synthetic meat products will soon follow in their footsteps. What works for one opens up doors to many.
In theory, it’s hard to argue with it. It solves many problems. From their website:
It’s safe and delicious
It uses cells from a chicken instead of a live chicken
It reduces animal cruelty
It uses less water than animal production
It reduces the susceptibility to animal-borne diseases
Sounds great, right?
Then why do I have a problem with it?
I agree that our current approach to eating meat isn’t sustainable. Our obsession with meat has grown too large, and the production side is riddled with problems. CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) have reached exorbitant sizes, housing “more than 1000 animal units (an animal unit is defined as an animal equivalent of 1000 pounds live weight and equates to 1000 head of beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2500 swine weighing more than 55 pounds, 125 thousand broiler chickens or 82 thousand laying hens).”
They live in tight quarters, are fed high-protein diets to fatten up quickly, use large quantities of antibiotics to stay alive, and are riddled with disease.
Yes, I believe that’s a recipe for disaster.
I think it’s already showing up in our health.
Lab meat is supposedly better because it’s extracted from muscle stem cells from an animal and grown to produce muscle tissue in the laboratory setting. The tissue is fed, shaped, and structured to become a recognizable meat product.
Meat product.
It takes time in a lab to produce something that resembles meat.
What are the long-term implications? At this point, nobody knows.
Just. No.
What I believe …
I believe what we have is a “protein” problem.
We’ve been sold this concept that we need A LOT of protein to survive - and animal products are the only way to consume protein.
It’s just not true.
The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein for the average woman is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound. For a 50-year-old woman who weighs 140 pounds, that equates to around 53 grams per day.
Yes, that changes depending on things like age and lifestyle. But it gives you a good starting point. This is something you should explore further with your doctor, nutritionist, or other trusted healthcare provider.
Just an FYI. Let’s say you’re a fast-food junkie and love to visit the drive-thru:
A Sausage McMuffin with Egg has 21 grams of protein
A Big Mac Meal has 29 grams of protein
A Quarter Pounder with Cheese has 24 grams of protein
That’s waayyy over the suggested 53 grams of protein, coming in at 74 grams. And none of it can be classified as “healthy.”
Let’s compare that to plant-rich foods:
Lentils: Cooked lentils provide around 18 grams of protein per cup.
Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans): Cooked chickpeas offer approximately 15 grams of protein per cup.
Black Beans: Cooked black beans contain about 15 grams of protein per cup.
Tempeh: A half-cup serving of cooked tempeh provides around 15 grams of protein.
Tofu: Firm tofu offers roughly 10 grams of protein per 3-ounce serving.
Edamame: Cooked edamame beans supply about 17 grams of protein per cup.
Quinoa: Cooked quinoa provides around 8 grams of protein per cup.
Seitan: Seitan, also known as wheat gluten, offers approximately 25 grams of protein per 3-ounce serving.
Green Peas: Cooked green peas contain about 9 grams of protein per cup.
Hemp Seeds: Hemp seeds provide roughly 10 grams of protein per 3-tablespoon serving.
Chia Seeds: Chia seeds offer about 4 grams of protein per 2 tablespoon serving.
Almonds: Almonds supply approximately 6 grams of protein per ounce.
Pumpkin Seeds: Pumpkin seeds contain about 9 grams of protein per ounce.
Peanut Butter: Peanut butter offers about 8 grams of protein per 2 tablespoon serving.
Sunflower Seeds: Sunflower seeds contain roughly 6 grams of protein per ounce.
Oats: Rolled oats provide around 7 grams of protein per half-cup serving.
Brown Rice: Cooked brown rice offers approximately 5 grams of protein per cup.
Think you could develop three plant-rich meals from some of these foods and get the same amount of protein? You bet! (I’ll give you a couple to get started with. 😉)
Coming soon - more plant-rich recipes for you! Follow me for more ideas! 💥
Because I believe food is energy. It's rooted in the fundamental principles of biology and physics.
Food provides energy in the form of calories. When we eat food, our bodies break it down through digestion and metabolism, releasing energy used to fuel various physiological processes, including cellular activities, movement, and maintaining body temperature. Food provides the energy necessary for life and sustains the body's functions by converting macronutrients into usable energy units.
What we need is diversity in what we consume. Lot’s of wholesome foods - one ingredient foods - that when combined, give us what we need most.
What our bodies crave most! 💪
Is any food perfect today? No, definitely not. We’ve overpowered almost every system here on Earth, and it’s showing up in our health.
But when you stop and realize that food is your energy source, just by looking for the best, cleanest, most life-sustaining foods you can get, you’ll start to approach it a bit differently.
That’s my take … what do you think?
To your health,
Lori 🙋🏼♀️