How A Meatless Diet May Benefit Our Health

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As we become more health conscious, cutting back on eating animal meat makes sense for many reasons. There’s a growing number of people who are giving up consuming any animal food altogether. The demand is shifting the food marketplace to diversify and provide healthy meat alternatives. 

Consuming animal flesh has been the normal and practical way to feed our body for as long as we can remember. As we evolve in greater awareness of how the choices we make have far reaching effects, we now consider all that is affected by our food choices. This is one basic instinct we no longer have to keep. There’s an abundance of healthy options readily available to most people. 

Eating animal protein not only contributes to acid in the body–excessive consumption of dairy, meats, and eggs have been scientifically proven to not only cause bone loss–but liver and kidney damage as well. 

Calcium is a mineral used in large amounts to reduce the body’s acidity. If none is readily available for this task, calcium is taken from our bones.  

Ammonia, by-product of nitrogen extraction, is created during the metabolism of animal proteins. This substance must then be filtered out by the kidneys. The kidneys are often overburdened filtering out acid from our bodies. This is not only as a result of our consumption of meat but also because of the other not-so-healthy food products we regularly consume. This potentially puts people at risk of eventually developing arthritis or gout, in so far as our skeletal system is concerned. Both these conditions are apparent symptoms of kidney malfunction.

There‘s a myth out there that only animal proteins provide the body with complete proteins. This is false.

Plant based proteins give the body a greater variety of amino acids, which along with slower synthesis, enables the body to build what it needs.  

Animal proteins quickly assimilated when we’re healthy are more difficult to process in older people and individuals with digestive issues. Hydrochloric acid and pancreatic enzymes necessary in large amounts to break down animal proteins become not as readily available. Digestion is much slower as people age. If liver or kidney damage is present, animal proteins can potentially further aggravate the system. 

There are excellent plant-based proteins to choose from. 

One of the best and most popular is hemp seeds delivering 16 grams of complete proteins per 3 tablespoons. Lentils are another excellent source with 17 grams per cup. Beans (black, kidney, mung, and pinto) are also plentiful in protein at anywhere between 12-15 grams per cup. Quinoa, another popular food, delivers 11 grams per cup. Spirulina, a complete protein food, packs 6 grams of protein per 10 grams (slightly over 3 teaspoons). There are many other great plant sources of proteins including almonds, avocado, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, and spinach.  

On more levels than one, replacing animal proteins with plant-based proteins makes sense! Even if it is only one or two days a week, taking a break from animal meat is a good practice. It’s healthy to eat a variety of foods.

As people shift the marketplace by making conscious choices, the demand for sustainable and healthier alternatives is driving the food industry. The science of engineered meats has been born.  

Scientists have used the heme molecule, an iron containing compound, to invent the “Impossible Burger.” This gives it its texture and gives the plant burger a flavor similar to blood. It gives the meatless burger an animal meat taste and consistency. This heme originally taken from the roots of soy plants is now reproduced in laboratory instead. 

This looks like a healthy choice and the intentions are more than honourable; but is engineered meat a nutritious alternative to real food? Can engineered meat deliver taste as well as significant nutritional value? Time will tell it, but such a breakthrough feels well worth celebrating. 

This meat alternative could potentially lead the way for the eventual end of the cruelty animals suffer through in mass meat production.

One concern I have with it—the saturated fat content. A whopping 10 grams of saturated fat is more than the amount some regular meat burgers deliver. Saturated fat is a known contributor to weight gain in some people. Such a high saturated fat concentration in just one food could elevate a person’s fat intake too high, depending on how much fat is consumed overall.  

The 3 oz. burger does deliver big in the B-complex vitamin category. Its food label shows it consists of 90% of B12 Daily Value (DV), 15% of B2/riboflavin and B9/folate, and 30% of B3/niacin. It does have a rather high level of B1/thiamine at 1360% DV though. Although there are no reported issues with vitamin B excesses as they should be filtered out by the body, such a high ratio of one in the complex could create an imbalance and affect the other Bs. Too much B1 causes upset stomach and promotes allergic reactions. 

The Impossible Burger’s nutrition label follows:

If the occasion presented itself—I would not hesitate to try one. Would it become part of my regular diet? Hard to say.