Interesting article about the health and environmental costs of various plant based replacements for meat. Apparent!y, unprocessed legumes were best, processed meat replacements 2nd, and lab grown meat was last. But all of them were better than animal products.
The man who busted the myth of fake meat
The industry wants you to believe lab-grown meat is a game changer but it doesn’t deserve any attention, says Dr Marco Springmann
As senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, Springmann is tackling one of the most contentious food issues of our time: what alternatives should we embrace to replace meat and dairy sustainably and healthily? His latest research, a comprehensive study of 24 milk and meat alternatives, found that legumes, such as peas, were a better alternative on cost, emissions and health, than veggie burgers and other highly processed vegetarian and vegan options, although they were better than meat and animal milk.
“Unprocessed legumes such as peas and beans were the clear winner in our assessment,” he says. “They performed well from all perspectives, including nutritional, health, environmental and cost.” “The easy takeaway is to go for unprocessed plant-based foods wherever possible,” he continues. “All of the beans did very well. Processed plant-based alternatives did fairly well, just not as well, although they’re still much better than meat and milk. But one of the big downfalls of processed plant-based alternatives is that they are very expensive. So if cost is an issue for you, that’s an even stronger argument for using minimal processed food.”
Springmann also advocates for a shift in how we think about meals. As he points out, in Indian or other plant-led cuisines, the absence of meat products is felt less. “In those more ethnic meals it doesn’t seem to be missing that there’s no meat or milk portion. It’s funny that in more Western meals you have to have some discernible milk or meat thing. Part of the problem, he says, is our tendency to try to force plant products to be like meat: processing them into burgers or sausages rather than preparing them on their own terms. "Rather than replacing a burger with another burger, what about swapping the burger and fries for a bean chilli or a stir fry with tempeh?” he suggests. “These options integrate a protein source with vegetables and whole grains for a more complete nutritional package.” He is keen on tempeh. “We found tempeh was much better than a normal veggie burger and almost as good as beans, because it preserves much of the structure of soybeans without heavy processing. It’s also much cheaper.”
