Are fake meats unhealthy?

Question

I've been considering and sampling a vegetarian diet. I've tried the faux meat products out there and find them a delicious and close---in some cases perfect---match to their meaty counterparts. But during a conversation with some co-workers today, the subject came up of how healthy these meatless alternatives really were. They speculated that in order to get them to taste like meat, veggie dogs and the like must filled with countless preservatives and additives...thereby making them very UNhealthy. While I would love to incorporate these tasty treats into a vegetarian diet (if I so choose that route) I worry that their concerns might have a ring of truth to them. In the pursuit of a juicy soyburger, would I be exposing myself to a host of unhealthy chemicals?

Oh, a slightly off-topic p.s. When I brought up tofu as a good alternative, another co-worker claimed that it causes breast cancer because it's estrogen based or something like that. Feel free to clue me in on that too.

Answer 1

Yes, they are. Put your concentration into eating vegetables and beans. Notice, I didn't say fruit. That's cause fruit has the sugar you don't need.

Answer 2

Anything can be unhealthy if you eat too much of it, meat can be unhealthy also, but real meat from an animal: cow, pig, chicken, is much better than fake meat which is processed even more and loaded with food coloring and preservatives and chemicals to simulate real meat. Real meat is much more fresh and I'd say, much healthier and not peppered with chemicals and colors.

Answer 3

No they aren't unhealthy, per se, but would eat them all the time without eating fresh vegetables and fruits, like because it's just not a balanced diet. A balanced diet with a soy burger every now and then would be fine unless you are allergic to soy.

Any claims about soy being harmful are nonsense. It doesn't matter if it's fermented or not, or if it's a condiment or not. I'm married to a registered dietitian with a master's degree in nutitrion. If anybody says this stuff, ask them if they have similar qualifications.

Answer 4

Most of the faux meats are either soy or some other legume based. They are actually very good for you. Some products are actually nicely seasoned as well. There is a black bean burger that Morningstar Farms produces that you would be hard pressed to detect is not real burger.

Answer 5

Not all are but a lot of foods are full of salt and unneeded things as long as they are eaten in very low moderation it seems okay and everyone has a right to eat anything they want. But it is said in certain reports that a lot of tofu is actually bad for you. It would be better to just take vitamins and eat plenty of vegetables, and beans and some fruit because you do need sugar just not a lot of it especially if you are diabetic.

Answer 6

I always considered processed vegetarian/vegan foods the "junk foods" of the veggie scenes. Most of them contain all matter of vegetable scraps and then are highly seasoned and "preserved" to make it taste like something.

A lot of the recent research on soy, esp. tofu suggests a number of serious problems with eating it as a staple. If you Google "soy dangers" or other search terms you will come up with a lot of hits.

For one thing, the asian cultures that eat tofu have it as a condiment rather than a staple. And here we are making fake meats out of it and all sorts of other things. Seitan another "fake" has killer amounts of sodium, and TVP . . . well one never knows what goes into that ... depends on who the mfr. is and what kind of ethics they have.

You mgiht want to also Google, "Flexitarian Diets" and check out some of the websites and suggestions about a safe, sane, healthy diet that has reshaped the vegetarian movement and reduced the "strict vegetarians/vegans" to a tiny, tiny, voiceless minority.

Congrats on checking out the safety factor before jumping into vegetarianism.

Answer 7

Processed foods shouldn't be the bulk of a diet anyway.

But no, I wouldn't say they're unhealthy. There are healthier options yes, and they are by far healthier than the real animal products.

Oh, and I wouldn't trust a word out of someone who says fruit is unhealthy.

Answer 8

Yes any processed food is extremely unhealthy

Answer 9

Most fake meats actually are soy and they just have flavors added into them. The fake meats are actually healthier for you then the real stuff.

Answer 10

"There is a black bean burger that Morningstar Farms produces that you would be hard pressed to detect is not real burger."

I can detect that it is not a real burger. It actually tastes good.

Answer 11

I'm not sure. But, i get the soy burgers and things like that so i can still get the needed protein.