Plant Based Alternatives and Real Meat: Are They Equivalent?

Caution must be exercised in categorizing foods as consumer equivalent simply on the basis of their protein content.

A US study recently published in Scientific Reports, the Nature group's journal, highlights the significant nutritional differences between beef and its plant-based counterparts.

The assessment was made using metabolomic analysis (“Metabolomic comparison of plant-based MEAT and grass-fed meat indicates large nutritional differences despite comparable nutritional fact panels.” Volume 11 of scientific reports, article number: 13828_2021).

By 2050, global food systems will need to meet the nutritional needs of nearly 10 billion people. Some argue that in order to do this in a healthy and sustainable way, it is necessary to move towards eating more plant-based foods and less meat, especially in Western countries. This has raised doubts as to whether the new plant-based products are healthy and nutritionally adequate alternatives to meat.

Modern alternatives mimic the protein content of meat by using vegetable protein isolates (eg, soy, pea, potato, mung bean, rice, mycoprotein, and/or wheat) and are sometimes fortified with vitamins and minerals found in red meat (eg, vitamin B12, zinc and iron). 

A team of American researchers used metabolomics to evaluate these aspects of nutrition and conduct a detailed comparison of the metabolite profiles of grass-fed minced meat with a popular plant-based meat alternative, sometimes considered healthier and more environmentally friendly sources of protein. To provide an in-depth comparison of metabolite profiles, 18 samples of popular plant-based meat alternatives and 18 samples of minced meat were examined, matched for serving size (113 g) and fat content (14 g).

Thus, the metabolic analysis showed that the metabolites in the two types of samples differed by 90%: 171 out of 190 analyzed metabolites. Several metabolites have been found exclusively (22 metabolites) or in high amounts in beef (51 metabolites). Nutrients such as docosahexaenoic acid (ω-3), niacinamide (vitamin B3), glucosamine, hydroxyproline, and the antioxidants allantoin, anserine, cysteamine, spermine, and squalene were present only in beef. Several other metabolites have been found exclusively (31 metabolites) or in high amounts (67 metabolites) in plant-based meat alternatives, such as ascorbate (vitamin C), phytosterols, and several phenolic antioxidants such as loganin, sulfur, syringic acid, tyrosol, and vanillin.

The significant differences in metabolites belonging to different nutrient classes (e.g., amino acids, dipeptides, vitamins, phenols, tocopherols, and fatty acids) with physiological, anti-inflammatory, and/or immunomodulatory roles indicate that these foods should not really be considered as interchangeable in terms of nutrition, but can be considered complementary in terms of the nutrients provided. However, it was not possible to establish whether any of the sources are more beneficial to HEALTH.

Thus, the researchers concluded that care was needed in classifying foods as equivalent to consumers simply on the basis of their protein content ("protein foods"), which is typical of dietary recommendations.