Here’s an issue often debated by vegans and meat-eaters alike: is it healthy to eat vegan burgers like the Impossible Burger or the Beyond Beef patties or other vegan burgers you may find in the grocery store, or is it just a pathetic attempt to imitate meat, and vegans would do better to eat rice and beans and give up on pretend-meat products?
The answer is: it depends. To judge how healthy commercial plant burgers are, you need to analyze the ingredients and particularly the content of fat, saturated fat, and sodium.
Any burgers made with coconut oil, such as the Impossible Burger products, are going to be nearly as rich in saturated fat as the beef they imitate. Impossible Ground Beef, made from soy protein isolate, sunflower oil, and coconut oil (among other ingredients) contains six grams of saturated fat per serving, which is comparable to the saturated fat content of “real” beef. If you’re going to enjoy plant-based burgers, you want to look for those that have no more than two grams of saturated fat per serving. Beyond Beef products, made from pea protein and avocado oil, have two grams of saturated fat per serving. So if you’re choosing between those two products, Beyond Beef is the less fatty one.
Also, look to see where the fat is coming from. If it’s coming from nuts, seeds, or olives, it’s not problematic, as those are whole foods. If the fat is coming from oils, that’s when you have to concern yourself with how high the total fat content is (shoot for less than ten grams per serving), as well as the saturated fat content. Any burger made with coconut oil will be too high in saturated fat, and so it will not only be imitating meat in taste and texture, it’ll be imitating meat in cardiac risk. The general rule for sodium content is to look for roughly one mg per calorie, although going a little bit above that is no big deal, especially if you don’t have high blood pressure.
Burgers made with seitan (wheat gluten), like the Beyond Steak, are often less fatty than other plant burgers, but you don’t want to eat those if you’re gluten-sensitive. Those made from isolated soy proteins can cause digestive discomfort. Ditto for pea protein, which for some people may raise the level of uric acid in the body.
Although they’re hard to find, look for commercial burgers made from whole grains, mushrooms, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Neither the Beyond Burger nor the Impossible Burger can even compete, from a health perspective, with a favorite commercial plant-based burger of mine: Actual Veggies’ Sweet Potato Burger. Here are the ingredients: Sweet Potato, White Bean, Oat, Carrot, Cauliflower, Yellow Onion, Red Pepper, Chickpea Flour, Cannellini Bean, Lemon, Ovata Seed, Oat Flour, Spice Blend.
I’d rather eat food made from ingredients like that than “fake meat” made from isolated soy protein and coconut oil. My Sweet Potato Burgers have one gram of fat, and zero grams of saturated fat. Slide it into a whole wheat bun with some mustard, greens, tomato, and pickle or cucumber, and you’ve got a delicious, healthy meal.
Even better, if you have the time, you can make your own plant-based burgers from wholesome ingredients. There are a number of recipes for such burgers in my book America Goes Vegan!
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