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5 Potential Dangers of Plant-Based Meat (What to Eat Instead)

1. It is ultra-processed

Fake meat is not a whole food. It is a processed conglomeration of already-processed ingredients.

The major ingredient in the Beyond Meat burger is pea protein isolate, a form of protein that involves stripping and processing the nutrients from peas to isolate its protein content.

The Impossible Burger boasts a protein source of soy protein concentrate–another form of protein made from processing a whole food. See more reasons why processed soy may be dangerous.

So far, the food industry has succeeded in creating ultra-processed foods to help people eat less meat. But, what are the health consequences and environment impacts of these highly processed food products?

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2. It may not be gluten-free

Other than the large portion of the population underdiagnosed with Celiac disease, even more may have non-Celiac gluten intolerance or sensitivity.

Gluten is a major common allergen and can present problems even for those who can technically tolerate it. A gluten-free diet is optimal for most people so consuming processed foods like fake meat is not ideal.

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3. Fake meat is not real food

Fake meat is unrecognizable to our bodies. Heavily processed ingredients like pea protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, yeast extract, canola oil, natural flavors, potassium chloride, dextrose, and synthetic vitamins are not usable by our bodies.

We’re not evolved to properly digest and obtain nutrients from these processed ingredients and chemicals. Whole foods offer bioavailable nutrients that work synergistically in your body. For all of these reasons, fake meats are one of the worst foods for the environment.

4. Fake meat does not have good nutrition value

Fake meat cannot compete with real meat in terms of nutrition. Fake meat is high in sodium, containing at least 16% of your daily requirements (the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Meat burger sodium content.)

Real meat contains only 4% of your daily value of sodium, in comparison. Fake meat is low in overall nutrition. The Beyond Meat burger offers almost no vitamins and minerals, while the nutrients in the Impossible Burger are synthetic. 

5. It might make you sick

Our bodies cannot function optimally when we feed them heavily processed, nutrient-stripped foods instead of real, nutrient-dense foods. We are designed to eat plants and meat, not factory-processed products.

Your immune system may take a beating from the gut-harming ingredients like soy, pea protein, canola oil, dextrose, natural flavors, and sunflower lecithin found in these fake meat products.

You’re even more at risk if you have allergies to any of these ingredients. Not to mention that none of the ingredients are certified organic or non-GMO, so you may be burdening your system with toxins.

 Carrie Forrest, MBA, MPH, and creator of Clean Eating Kitchen. She is a blogger, food photographer, and cookbook author with a master’s degree in public health from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a specialty in nutrition. She also sports a

 master’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School with a specialty in marketing and entrepreneurship.

Thank you, Carrie, for sharing your gift of living well with via your amazing recipes!