A Beyond Burger may be processed, but that doesn’t make a beef burger the healthier choice. After a restaurant dropped Beyond Meat saying it was unhealthy while keeping beef on the menu, plant-based physician Dr. Garth Davis is pushing back on the claim that “real meat” is better for you.

Davis points to Stanford’s SWAP-MEAT trial, which had 36 adults eat at least two servings of plant-based meat or animal meat each day for eight weeks before switching diets. During the plant-based phase, participants had lower LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol, lower levels of TMAO, a compound associated with cardiovascular disease, and lost a small amount of weight without being instructed to cut calories. Researchers found no significant differences in blood pressure and several other health markers.

That doesn’t turn a Beyond Burger into health food. Davis notes that it can be high in sodium and lacks the fiber and other nutritional advantages of whole plant foods like beans, so he still considers those the healthier everyday choice. But if dinner is going to be a burger either way, the available research doesn’t support dismissing the plant-based version simply because it’s processed.

Beans may still win the nutrition contest, but sometimes you just want a burger. And when that craving hits, choosing the plant-based one doesn’t mean you’re choosing the less healthy one.
Source: Plant Based News