Going vegan these days doesn’t mean you're stuck with tofu and veggie burgers as your only options. All kinds of plant-based meat is on the market, from meatless breakfast sausages to chicken nuggets, fish filets, and even juicy burgers that drip when you bite into them. In fact, some of the very best plant-based meats replicate meaty textures and flavors so well that even carnivores who are cutting back on their meat consumption could mistake them for the real deal.
But how healthy for you are vegan meats?
Vegan meats have their merits, as well as some shortcomings, according to experts. For example, just like actual chicken nuggets, the fake ones made with soy isolates, pea proteins, or other plant-based ingredients are, at the end of the day, still considered processed foods, and most dietitians are always going to put an emphasis on whole foods.
“Some vegan meats are heavily processed and may defeat the purpose of eating them for health or sustainability,” says Rita Faycurry, R.D., a registered dietician at Fay, a nutrition platform that offers virtual or in-person consultations with registered dietitians. “With that being said, vegan alternatives can help meat lovers who enjoy the smell, texture, and look of meat transition to eating less animal meat.”
In 2023, Gallup polls found that only 1% of Americans are vegan and 4% are vegetarian. However, the research organization in 2019 reported that nearly one fourth of Americans were scaling back on meat, even if they weren’t cutting it out entirely, which could explain the boom in popularity of plant-based meat alternatives.
While there are a number of reasons people choose to eat less meat—from environmental concerns to potentially saving some money on grocery bills amid inflation—dietitians say that reducing or eliminating animal meat from your diet is a way to cut back on saturated fats, which research shows could be good for heart health.
Here’s what else nutrition experts have to say about both the health benefits and concerns of vegan meat.
What Are the Health Benefits of Vegan Meat Alternatives?
A major benefit of eating vegan meat is it can decrease your intake of saturated fat, a type of fat that’s harmful to the heart when it’s eaten in excess and that’s found in animal-based foods like beef, pork, and poultry, explains Destini Moody, R.D., the founder of The Athlete’s Dietitian and an expert on the panel of Garage Gym Reviews.
Plant-based meats not only tend to have fewer calories, but also contain less saturated fat. Take for instance, a quarter-pound 80/20 ground beef burger that has 280 calories and 8 grams of saturated fat. On the flip side, Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger—which is made with pea, brown rice, and red lentil proteins among other ingredients and colored with beet juice—contains 50 fewer calories and just 2 grams of saturated fat.
“[Vegan meats] can make sticking to a vegan diet more sustainable for those who miss animal products sometimes,” Moody says.
Vegan meat alternatives also often contain fiber, a nutrient that real meat lacks, Moody points out. A diet high in fiber is good for your digestive health, regulating your blood sugar, and supporting heart health by reducing your risk for heart disease and strokes.
Plant-based meat alternatives are also rich sources of polyphenols, some of which have antioxidant effects that have been studied for reducing cancer risk, cognitive decline, and improving heart health, explains Suzannah Gerber, USDA-NIFA research fellow at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and the author of Plant-Based Gourmet.
Plant-based meats can also be beneficial for the gut microbiome in part because of their improved gut transit time which means that healthy gut flora can grow, Gerber says.
Also, compounds like nitrites and nitrosamines that make processed animal meat particularly unhealthy aren’t typically present in the plant-based versions, Gerber says. You see, animal meats like bacon, hot dogs, and ham, require curing and the byproducts, like nitrites and nitrosamines, are associated with cardiovascular problems. But plant-based versions don’t create these toxic compounds, and rather have been shown to increase circulating nitric oxide, which is likely beneficial for heart health.
As with all foods, it's important to look at nutritional qualities in the context of the full meal—not just one ingredient, says Umo Callins, RDN, and an ambassador from Impossible Foods’ Health & Nutrition Council. Generally speaking, plant-based meat like Impossible products have comparable protein content to animal meat, and, most of the time, at least 25% less total fat. An Impossible Beef patty also has 5 grams of fiber and 25% of the daily value of iron.
What Are the Health Concerns of Vegan Meat Alternatives?
Eating a plant-based diet can come with a slew of health benefits, from lowering your cholesterol to reducing your risk of Type 2 diabetes and even helping you live longer, according to research. But that doesn’t mean that everything wrapped or packaged in a “vegetarian” or “vegan” label is actually good for you.
The biggest beef that the dietitians have with vegan meats is their ultra processing. Some plant-based burgers actually contain more sodium, more saturated fat and exponentially more ingredients than beef, Moody says.
“Excessive added ingredients is a concern with plant-based meat because a fair amount of processing needs to happen to get plants to taste like meat, as you can imagine,” Moody says.
Her advice? Look for vegan meats with short ingredient lists.
Callins says she recognizes that one of the top health concerns people have about meat from plants is how the product was processed and manufactured. But, she says, there’s a misconception that these kinds of foods aren’t beneficial to health simply because they are processed. For example, an Impossible Burger might be considered a "processed food," but it actually outperforms "unprocessed" animal meat on key nutritional qualities like cholesterol and saturated fat, she notes.
Like all processed foods, consumers should be mindful of the sodium content in vegan meats, cautions Melanie Betz, M.S., R.D. and the founder of The Kidney Dietitian in Chicago.
Nine in 10 Americans get too much salt, and the culprits are usually pre-packaged foods and eating out, which make up about 70 percent of our sodium intake. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends limiting sodium to less than 2,300 milligrams per day, which is about one teaspoon of table salt. Too much salt can increase your blood pressure and your risk for heart disease and stroke.
This is another reason why it’s important to check nutritional labels. It’s not uncommon for some vegan meats to pack as much as one third of your daily recommended serving of sodium into a single serving.
Should You Incorporate Vegan Meats into Your Diet?
Vegan meat alternatives can definitely fit into a healthy vegan diet and be a substitute for those trying to cut back on animal proteins. The key is to not use them at every single meal, Betz says.
“An ideal vegan diet includes protein primarily from whole foods such as nuts, beans, seeds, lentils, tofu and whole grains,” she says. “But, using these vegan alternatives once in a while as a quick and easy meal option, or as a way to transition to a more plant-based diet is absolutely okay.”
Focus on the vegan meat products that are rich in protein and made from beans, peas, nuts, seeds and soy, like a bean burger, suggests Faycurry. You can also incorporate vegan meats with roasted veggies or salads and whole grains for balance and variety, she says.
