The vegan chorizo in a taco served up at Taqueria El Barrio on Comm Ave poses a delicious dilemma.
The red, granular imitation chorizo looks just like Mexican-style pork sausage, and yet it cannot remotely be described as a health food. What is it made from? Nothing on the menu indicates its ingredients and the staff knows only that the main ingredient is soy.
Mystery (un)meat and new vegan faux meat options abound around the BU campus, from dining halls and the freezer section of supermarkets to Dunkin shops, which will roll out a new Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwich in early November.
With growing numbers of millennials and Generation Zers demanding affordable, cruelty-free foods and weighing the environmental impact of their day-to-day eating choices, there are now more options than ever, from Impossible Burgers and Incogmeato brand chicken nuggets to New Wave Foods lab-cultured shrimp, which it bills as shellfish evolved. And college and university campuses have become ground zero for the mock-meat movement.
If people gave up meat, it would have such a big impact on the environment, says Hannah Ferguson (CAS23), who decided to become a vegetarian when she arrived at BU. I dont miss meat.
Its definitely super, super easy now to be vegan, says Gianina Padula (Sargent21), who says dining options were one of the factors she weighed in choosing a college. Its made me more conscious of what I put in my body.
But since colleges like BU, with 11,000 students on a meal plan, are where questions get asked, and often answered through years or decades of research, here are two to consider: what if fake meat isnt so good for the planet after all? And what if its not that healthy either? What if its a trend, like the fat-free foods deluge of the 1990s that gave us potato chips made with Olestra and joyless Snackwell cookies?
As nutritionist Joan Salge Blake (Sargent84, Wheelock16), a Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences clinical professor of nutrition, says: Dont just assume the new options are healthier than the cow.
Its too early to know the answer for sure, but vegetarianism and veganism have evolved from being a personal health statement to a political one about the planets well-being. Sales of plant-based meat rose nearly 40 percent, to $801 million, between 2017 and 2019, according to the Good Food Institute, an industry group. Kara Nielsen (MET06), vice president of trends and marketing at Silicon Valleybased CCD Innovation, says young consumers are driving the shift, impatient for new ways to address their concerns that traditional agriculture will not be able to support the planets food needs without at the same time destroying the planet.
Theyre big consumers of media and [theyve] seen all the movies and videos that have shed light on the horrors of factory farming, so theyve been influenced by that, Nielsen says. This is a way they can exert power and control using their diet.
Meat substitutes increasingly promise a bizarre meta meat-eating experience.
Take the bleeding Impossible Burger, made with red, plant-based heme to make it taste meaty and look more like a burger. Its now available in grocery stores and at Burger King, and is one of the plant-based state-of-the-art options in BU dining halls, thanks to student demand.
Its rival, Beyond Meat, calls itself the future of protein and is featured on the menus of McDonalds and Subway. The alternative protein market is growing and companies like San Franciscobased Just are using animal cells, not a slaughtered animal, to make cultured chicken in a laboratory.
A promotional video even shows Justs employees eating its engineered chicken foodstuff at a picnic table while a chicken named Ian, whose cells helped create the food theyre eating, struts around the grassy yard.
Its surreal, but the industry calls these pseudo chicken nuggets and plant-based burgers clean meat, because they are created in a laboratory, not raised in a factory farm. The companies behind the new ventures heavily promote themselves as an environmentally friendly option, as well as a virtuous one.
Our planet cannot afford to supply the water, fuel, pesticides, and fertilizer that industrialized animal production requires, the Just website says. It cant afford the polluted water or the biodiversity loss. It cant afford the moral inconsistencies.
Some research has shown that moving away from livestock and poultry would reduce greenhouse gases. Joseph Poore, a doctoral student studying the environment at the University of Oxford, found that avoiding meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact, not just on greenhouse gas emissions, but on land use, biodiversity loss, water pollution, pesticide use, antibiotic use and a range of other issues.
Another study, commissioned by Beyond Meat and conducted by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan, found that Beyond Meats burgers generated 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, among other environmental benefits.
The drawbacks of red meats and pork, as well as processed meats like salami and frankfurters, which the World Health Organization classifies as carcinogenic, are well documented.
But fake meats also come with many health and environmental unknowns that will take years to understand. An article by researchers at Harvards T. H. Chan School of Public Health that looked at whether plant-based meat alternatives can be part of a healthy and sustainable diet was published in the August issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Their conclusion: the answer remains far from a given due to a lack of rigorously designed and independently funded studies.
Take heme, the much-publicized ingredient in the Impossible Burger that the company says makes meat taste like meat and is something weve been eating and craving since the dawn of humanity. Impossible Foods derives its heme from soy plants using a fermentation process and genetically engineered yeast.
Sean J. Elliott a College of Arts & Sciences professor of chemistry, a heme chemist, and a vegetarian, says heme is a common molecule used in biochemistry research and is found not just in animals and soy, but in insects and bugs that dont necessarily taste like meat. The heme thats used by Impossible Foods isnt just hemeits heme delivered to your burger using a heme-binding protein called leghemoglobin. That raises questions for him about whether its truly the factor responsible for the meaty craveability of the product.
Although he says hes enjoyed Impossible Burgers on a couple of occasions, he also says the fermentation process used to create heme leaves behind a cocktail of leftovers along with leghemoglobin if the product is produced at an industrial scale.
Its easy to stay focused on the red heme, because its pretty. As a chemist, I have to think so, Elliott says. And for marketing, it gives you something easy to focus on instead of some of the other more complicated intellectual property that [Impossible Foods] doesnt necessarily want all their competition to know aboutlike how you make those yeast strains do the stuff that they do.
From a health perspective, Salge Blake says, many alternative meats are highly processed and made with unfamiliar ingredients, something health professionals have steered people away from for decades. A Burger King Impossible Whopper and a regular Whopper have about the same calories (630 vs. 660) and both contain unhealthy amounts of saturated fat and salt and more saturated fat than a regular hamburger made from lean beef.
It can also be tricky to discern what to eat when even traditional health advice about meat is called into question. Last month, a surprising study challenged decades of nutrition advice by telling consumers that forgoing red meat and pork offers only small health benefits, contradicting decades of nutrition advice and sowing confusion. On the heels of the report, it was revealed that the studys lead author, Bradley C. Johnston, an epidemiologist at Canadas Dalhousie University, has funding ties to the meat and food industry.
Salge Blake recommendsthis will sound familiara balanced diet rich in vegetables and fruits as well as lean meats and proteins. And she cautions against taking an extreme approach when it comes to health trends that also claim to save the planet, because it can create anxiety over food choices.
Im not a fan of the clean-eating thing, because it makes people crazy, she says. Students are thinking, I cant have all these worlds coming at me at one time.
Christopher L. Bee, BU culinary director, has a big job. The University has more than 11,000 students on its food plan, and they are vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, pescatarian, and increasingly flexitarian. (No fruitarians yet. Yes, thats a thing.) Keeping everyone satisfied is a challenge, especially when students are ranking colleges by which ones have the best dining halls.
Bee offers Impossible Burgers and a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes, as well as organic, fair-trade, free-range, and sustainably harvested foods. There are dining halls that offer as many as 10 different types of milk and milk substitutes, with oat milk the latest addition.
People are less afraid of the word vegan, says Bee, recalling the era when tofu and seitan seemed exotic. But laboratory food isnt what we like to do.
He says hes interested in offering vegetarian fare thats nutritious and familiar, and hes recently offered a special vegan-vegetarian station training class for Dining Services chefs. And hes got another on plant-forward cooking planned. (According to Plant-Forward Global 50, plant-forward is a style of cooking and eating that emphasizes and celebrates, but is not limited to, plant-based foodsincluding fruits and vegetables.)
The University already sources more than 20 percent of its food from local farmers, more than 80 percent of the seafood it serves is certified as traceable or sustainably caught or farmed, and nearly 20 percent of its meat and poultry products are certified as humanely raised. Ground beef, hamburgers, and hot dogs are from grass-fed animals, pork is from gestation crate-free animals. Find a full list here.
It will be college and university researchers who will ultimately untangle the environmental and health benefits, if any, related to the new meat substitutes hitting the market. But Bee, himself a carnivore, says he thinks the vegan meatballs cooked by his chefs at Fresh Fuel at Granby Commons compete favorably with meat and vegetarian options, and theyre cooked using eggplant, garlic, and lentils and are very flavorful.
We do serve the Impossible Burger, but we can get the same results using food, while still making a difference, he says.
Read the original:
Fake Meats Are Hot, but Are They Healthy? | BU Today - BU Today
- Happy Cows & Vegetarians - Video [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2015]
- Vegetarianism (for Parents) - KidsHealth [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- vegetarianism | History, Types, & Facts | Britannica.com [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- Becoming a vegetarian - Harvard Health [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- Vegetarian ProCon.org [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 13th, 2019]
- Vegetarianism - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 13th, 2019]
- Proven Advantages And Disadvantages Of Vegetarianism [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2019]
- Vegetarianism: Pros and Cons - GOQii [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2019]
- Twenty-Two Reasons Not to Go Vegetarian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2019]
- 56 Delicious Vegetarianism Facts | FactRetriever.com [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2019]
- What 6 World Religions Have To Say About Vegetarianism [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2019]
- Where do you find amazing vegan Vietnamese food in the Bay Area? Look for this Buddhist temple in East Palo Alto - San Francisco Chronicle [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 11th, 2019]
- US cities with the best choices for vegans and vegetarians - Lonely Planet Travel News [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 11th, 2019]
- The Best Cities For Vegans and Vegetarians in 2019 - Forbes [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 11th, 2019]
- An Increase in Variety of Vegetarian Food could Tempt Carnivores to Stay Away From Meat. - DailyHealthTalks [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 13th, 2019]
- Religion or Belief Discrimination: Employment Tribunal finds 'vegetarianism' is not a belief protected from discrimination - Lexology [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 13th, 2019]
- Have a beef with vegetarianism? Find out what all the mooing is... - Communities Digital News [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 23rd, 2019]
- Celebrities who turned vegetarian by choice | Here is a list - Republic World - Republic World [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2019]
- United States Eating Trends Report 2019: Meat, Dairy, Vegetarian, and Vegan - Overview of Continuity & Changes in Consumer Retail Shopping... [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2019]
- Should The Government Subsidize Vegetarianism? - Old Gold & Black [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 4th, 2019]
- Burger King's Impossible Whopper Is the First Step on the Road to State-Enforced Vegetarianism - Washington Examiner [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 4th, 2019]
- China perfected fake meat centuries before the Impossible Burger - CNN [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 4th, 2019]
- India is Not a 'Vegetarian Country' Like the EAT-Lancet Report Would Have Us Believe - The Wire [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 16th, 2019]
- 7 Types Of Vegetarian Diets, Explained By A Nutritionist - Women's Health [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 16th, 2019]
- Does the Church have a stance on vegetarianism? - The Irish Catholic [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 19th, 2019]
- LETTER TO THE EDITOR: A vegetarian diet is a viable choice - BCLocalNews [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 20th, 2019]
- Vary your veggie options - The Observer [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 20th, 2019]
- Hosting vegetarian guests? Make this mushroom dish that even turkey-lovers want to try - INFORUM [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 20th, 2019]
- Hosting vegetarian guests? Make this mushroom dish that even turkey-lovers want to try - Duluth News Tribune [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 22nd, 2019]
- Meatless meal: Mushroom dish is tasty for vegetarians and turkey-lovers alike - Williston Daily Herald [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 22nd, 2019]
- Adventists believe the Bible favors vegetarianism. Shouldn't their dietary studies tell us that? - PostBulletin.com [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 22nd, 2019]
- Cambridge University students cry fowl over 17th century painting that upsets vegetarians - The Telegraph [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 22nd, 2019]
- Philosopher Peter Singer on the Ethical Issues of Eating Meat - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2019]
- Why did the Brahmins become vegetarian? B.R. Ambedkar asks in this excerpt from 'Beef, Brahmins and Broken Men' - The Hindu [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2019]
- Going vegetarian: What to know - Medical News Today [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2019]
- Vegetarianism, Resistance, and the AmazonHow One Brazilian Journalist Is Fighting Climate Change - Vogue [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 16th, 2019]
- Top Restaurant Food Trends Of The Decade - NDTV Food [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 17th, 2019]
- Interesting facts about Anglo-Indian food and what to expect if you are a vegetarian - Times of India [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 19th, 2019]
- News - Politicized Veganism - The Heartland Institute [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 19th, 2019]
- Christmas season animal cruelty that gave rise to vegetarianism - Business Daily [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2019]
- Manushi Chhillar on Winning The Sexiest Vegetarian Personality By PETA: My Parents Were Vegetarians & They Gave Me The Choice - Headlinez Pro [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 25th, 2019]
- Turkey and sprouts and seitan, oh my. Welcome to a different kind of Christmas dinner - Fora.ie [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 25th, 2019]
- Food We Talked to Vegetarian Latinos About How They Handle the Holidays - Remezcla [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 25th, 2019]
- Meat Loaf reveals hes ditching animals from his diet and going vegan for Veganuary - The Sun [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 1st, 2020]
- Going vegetarian for the love of god, and animals - The Star Online [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 1st, 2020]
- Why Are There So Few Vegetarians? - Psychology Today [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 1st, 2020]
- Food of the decade to be driven by vegetarianism and micro cuisines - Business Today [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 6th, 2020]
- Year of the veggies: going vegetarian in 2020 | News | samessenger.com - St. Albans Messenger [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 6th, 2020]
- Veganuary: What hopeful vegans need to know before giving up meat in 2020 - Inverse [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 6th, 2020]
- From tofu lamb chops to vegan steak bakes: the 1,000-year history of fake meat - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- How vegetarianism is going back to its roots in Africa - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2020]
- WATCH | Tokyo 2020 Olympics put vegetarianism on the table in Japan | Living - Euronews [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 20th, 2020]
- Vegetarianism: Know the different types of vegetarian diets - Times Now [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 24th, 2020]
- Nearly One in Four in US Have Cut Back on Eating Meat - Gallup [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Why fake meat will never be a substitute for a chicken wing - National Post [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 1st, 2020]
- Why some philosophers think you should be a vegetarian - Big Think [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 1st, 2020]
- EU spending tens of millions of euros a year to promote meat eating - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2020]
- Ways to Staying Healthy - Daily Pioneer [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2020]
- Rakul Preet Singh is not going to eat non-veg now, there are lots of extra stars who don't eat meat and fish! - Sahiwal Tv [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2020]
- The Taste With Vir: The moral case for veganism is much stronger than the case for non-vegetarianism - Hindustan Times [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2020]
- A wider platter - The Indian Express [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2020]
- Harrison Ford Ditches Meat and Dairy and Says he is Vegetarian - The Beet [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2020]
- Balancing health with your culture - The Miami Hurricane [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2020]
- Americans say this popular diet is effective and inexpensive - YouGov US [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2020]
- I have never seen him eat a vegetable: With steak off the menu, officials scramble to feed fussy eater Trump in India - The Independent [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2020]
- Eating meat is inhumane, bad for the environment, and harmful to my health. I still can't give it up. - Business Insider Australia [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: March 12th, 2020]
- Vegetarianism The Basic Facts [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: March 28th, 2020]
- Paul McCartney Keeps Tabs on The Simpsons to Make Sure Lisa Is Still Vegetarian - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2020]
- Study reveals biggest motivation for people to consider turning vegetarian - The Indian Express [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2020]
- The Vegetarian Diet: A Beginner's Guide and Meal Plan [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2020]
- Deepening Divides : The Caste, Class and Regional Face of Vegetarianism - Economic and Political Weekly [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2020]
- This is really why most people go vegetarian - Ladders [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 20th, 2020]
- Outlook on the Worldwide Plant-Based Food & Beverage Industry to 2025 - COVID-19 Impact, Competition and Forecast - ResearchAndMarkets.com -... [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 5th, 2020]
- New psychology research finds meat eaters tend to have better mental health than vegetarians - PsyPost [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 5th, 2020]
- Take plant-based eating to the bank - MoneySense [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 8th, 2020]
- Does meat-consumption affect mental health? What you need to know - Insider - INSIDER [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 8th, 2020]
- 10 hidden health benefits of eggs you should know - IOL [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 14th, 2020]
- What Happens To Your Body And Brain When You Go Vegan Or Vegetarian - HuffPost [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 14th, 2020]
- Vegan? Want To Try Indian Food? Here Are Your Choices | TheTravel - TheTravel [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 14th, 2020]
- The perfect vegan sausages from a dry mix: what other meat-free joys of the 70s did I miss? - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 25th, 2020]