What’s the Meat of the Matter
In the Matter of Meat?
Americans eat an average of 54 pounds of beef annually, about the equivalent of a quarter pound hamburger every other day. And as a celebrated American food icon, burgers are the most common form of red meat consumed. Most people are familiar with health recommendations to limit red meat for both human health and for the health of the planet.
In the past year, meat substitutes, especially burger type products made with either plant protein or cultured lab cells, have become ubiquitous in supermarkets and restaurants. Even Burger King offers the Impossible Whopper made with an Impossible Foods Burger that’s genetically engineered with yeast, bacteria, and algae to mimic meat with its “heme” protein imitating bloody juices.
As expected, both consumers and health experts are divided in controversy about the acceptance, health, and environmental issues with alternative (alt) meat products. Here’s a quick overview of a couple of other fake meat products before considering the Pros and Cons of alt meat compared to animal meat. Beyond Meat is the other very popular alt burger made from pea protein and dyed with beet juice. There is also lab grown meat derived from a biopsy of an animal’s muscle that is used to grow more muscle cells within a mixture of nutrients, thus creating meat from meat. A few of these products on the market are Memphis Meats, JUST, and Fork & Goode.
Here’s my list of the pros and cons of alt meat compared to whole animal foods, but you can add your own:
Pros
· Benefit to animal welfare (although there may be some concern about taking an animal muscle biopsy.)
· This technology could improve food safety by reducing food-borne illnesses, such as E. Coli, which have occurred with handling and processing of animal foods.
· Reduction of factory farms, their risks to workers (especially during COVID pandemic.)
· Less carbon released into the atmosphere than raising livestock, although this is still being debated with uncertain data.
· Red meat is high in saturated fat that is detrimental to both body weight and heart health.
Cons
· Lab grown meat may be just as resource-intensive (and very expensive) as livestock food.
· Alt meats tend to be higher in sodium than fresh meat; coconut and palm oils added are high in saturated fat
· Genetically modified fake meat risks environmental contamination and loss of control of the engineered organisms.
· Alt meats are marketed with minimal FDA oversight…concern for lack of transparency?
· A political issue: cell-cultured meat should be labeled as such with shared oversight by the FDA and USDA
· Meat is a whole intact food, not a substitute laden with artificial additives.
· Many alt meats contain wheat, soy, and tree nuts—all top food allergens.
· Some products are highly-processed with fillers.
· What the heck are we actually eating anyway?
o Concern for ‘Franken-meats’ that diverts from progress on land stewardship, farmer advocacy and small-scale solutions
Have you tried these new burger alternatives? If so, what’s your take?
What happens when we create artificial food alternatives? Over the years, I’ve witnessed food manufacturers create products to address a consumer trend or a health claim, such as fat-free cookies when fat was chastised for weight gain (as fat contains more than twice the calories of both carbohydrates and proteins.) In this case, food manufacturers replaced the fat with increased sugar content and fake fats created in a lab. As a result, many people ate more cookies to achieve the satiety they enjoyed with the original product. Research shows that people who consume ultra-processed food diets consume about 500 calories more daily than those who eat a more whole foods diet, and weigh significantly more. In the case of sugar-free soda, research has demonstrated that people who consume these on a regular basis consume more calories and have higher body weights than those who drink water or other unsweetened or non-artificially-sweetened beverages.
From my perspective, I prefer to make or buy plant-based burgers made with real food ingredients such as black beans, lentils, whole grains, vegetables, herbs, and spices, etc. Here’s a link to some veggie burger recipe ideas.
And when I occasionally choose to eat meat, I buy it from a local farmer who has a reputation for humanely raising and slaughtering animals, and preferably, where the animals have been grass fed which is both better for the health of the animal and the planet. I enjoy every bite of it, full of taste, protein, good fat (from omega-3 in grass), iron, vitamin B12 and more.
Think about it and you decide—
We vote with our fork when it comes to animal welfare, sustainability, health.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, pros, cons…;)
FMI: www.wildberrycommunications.com