Is Fake Meat Better for You Than Real Meat?

New York Times

17-02-2025

You've probably heard these two bits of nutrition advice: Eat more plants, and cut back on ultraprocessed foods.
So where does that leave fake-meat burgers, sausages, nuggets and other products sold by companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods? They are made from plants like soybeans and peas, but they are also highly processed.
If you ask the companies, they will tell you that their products are good for you. Nutrition experts say that there may be benefits, too. But while it's clear that eating red meat and processed meat is associated with health risks like heart disease, some types of cancer and earlier death, we really don't yet know how fake-meat alternatives might affect our health in the long term.
How do 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 like ground beef, pork sausages and chicken, the plant-based versions typically have fewer saturated fats (a category of fats that have been linked to heart disease) and similar or slightly lower levels of protein.
A four-ounce burger made with 85 percent lean ground beef, for instance, contains 6.5 grams of saturated fat. An equivalent size Impossible Burger has a little less than that (six grams of saturated fat), and a Beyond Burger has a lot less (just two grams). On the other hand, a Gardein Ultimate Plant-Based Burger has nearly 40 percent more saturated fat (nine grams) when compared with ground beef.
When it comes to protein levels, the burgers are a lot more similar: The beef patty has 21 grams of protein, while the three plant-based versions have between 19 and 21 grams.
Plant-based meat products also typically contain some fiber — a nutrient associated with reduced risks of Type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer and heart disease. An Impossible Burger has five grams, a Beyond Burger has two grams, and a Gardein patty has one gram. Real meat lacks fiber entirely.
The main nutritional downside of plant-based meats is that they tend to contain far more sodium than uncooked and unprocessed meats like ground beef, pork chops and chicken breast, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Tufts University.
Of course, most people add at least some amount of salt to raw meat before they cook it, a spokeswoman for Beyond Meat said in a statement. The company's current burger and beef products contain less sodium than previous versions, she said, and they now use 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.
How might fake-meats affect health?
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 2.5 servings of plant-based burgers, sausages or chicken per day for two months, they were no healthier than the 42 other participants who had similar amounts of real meat during the same time 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 2.5 servings of real meat per day for two months, and about 2.5 servings of plant-based products from Beyond Meat per day for another two months. At the end of the plant-based phase, the participants had lower cholesterol — and were a few pounds lighter — compared with the end of the real meat phase.
Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist and professor of medicine at Stanford University who led the 2020 study, acknowledged that people may be skeptical of its findings because it was funded by Beyond Meat. Industry-funded nutrition research tends to end up with results that are more favorable to the industry than research without industry funding. But with limited federal dollars for nutrition research, it's often the only way such studies are conducted, Dr. Gardner said.
He tried to minimize bias, such as by having outside statisticians analyze 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 are '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.
What about the processing?
One added complication is that fake-meat products typically fall into the ultraprocessed food category, which has generally been linked with greater risks of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and other health issues.
It's difficult to make products that replicate the tastes and textures of real meat without using highly processed ingredients, experts said. But it's not clear that all ultraprocessed foods are harmful, said Samuel Dicken, a research fellow at University College London who studies ultraprocessed foods.
We need more and better evidence to tease out how different ultraprocessed foods affect health. Given the available data, Dr. Dicken said plant-based meats were not the ultraprocessed foods he was most worried about. (Sugary drinks and processed meats were.)
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 'steppingstone 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 of the experts agreed, is to shift your diet away from red meat and processed meat, and toward more whole food or less processed sources of plant protein like beans, lentils, tofu and tempeh. Swapping plant-based foods like 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, Dr. Gardner said.
'Beans, peas and lentils, hands down, over the Beyond Burger,' Dr. Gardner said.
You can also try fish and chicken as healthier alternatives to red meat and processed meat, Dr. Mozaffarian said. Or, he added, use a portobello mushroom for your burger patty instead of ground beef. 'That's a real alternative,' Dr. Mozaffarian said.