Are The Impossible & Beyond Burgers Actually Healthy
One of the biggest health trends of the 1980’s was the infamous “Gardenburger”, a plant-based burger alternative that was introduced on the scene and now owned by the Kellogg Company. These burgers were welcomed by vegetarians and meat eaters alike as a regular or occasional alternative to the greasy burger on a Friday night. Restaurants like Chili’s and others started to feature these burgers as options for their clientele. Fast forward 40 years and it seems we are taking the plant based burger to an entirely new level. Introducing the new Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger, two plant based burgers that are not just in the shape of a burger, but can actually emulate the texture and taste of a beefy burger. It seems like no one can escape the uber-trendy faux-meat craze - Impossible vs. Beyond Burgers - who is the winner? Whether it is a friend, the news, or Wall Street, everyone appears captivated that even Burger King is now featuring plant based burgers on the menu.
The real question we should be asking is not what tastes better, but are these meatless burgers actually healthy alternatives to begin with? Unfortunately, although professed as superior to a traditional beef burger, these plant based burgers are both processed, pre-packaged foods with minimal nutritional value. They suffer the same shortcomings the original veggie burgers presented us back in the 1980’s with potentially even worse controversial ingredients. Are we unknowingly compromising our health with these seemingly healthy alternatives?
To answer this question, let's take a look at their ingredients.
Beyond Burger Ingredients: Water, Pea Protein Isolate*, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Refined Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Natural Flavors, Cocoa Butter, Mung Bean Protein, Methylcellulose, Potato Starch, Apple Extract, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Sunflower Lecithin, Pomegranate Fruit Powder, Beet Juice Extract (for color)
Impossible Burger Ingredients: Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.
Here's what they have in common:
Unhealthy Oils (Sunflower Seed Oil & Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil) - here are a few reasons why we avoid these oils.
These oils often go through a refining process called RBD, which stands for Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized. This process usually includes high heat, some earthen bleaching clay, and filtering or double filtering the oil. They do this to get a neutral color and flavor. These rancid oils rely on their deodorizing to make it undetected in our food supply.
Sunflower seed and canola oil contain a high amount of polyunsaturated fats. Your body needs both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, but it needs significantly less polyunsaturated fats and these sources should be in the form of nuts, seeds, and wild caught fish. When high amounts of the rancid polyunsaturated oils are consumed it leads to congestion in the liver and is linked to increased inflammation in the body. To top it off, most of the food we eat in America is extremely high in polyunsaturated fats and extremely low in monounsaturated. This is why people often take supplements like fish oil or algae to increase their daily intake of healthy fatty acids. The alarming part about these unhealthy oils is that some can be as high as 70 percent polyunsaturated fat.
Generally speaking, unless you are buying premium oils, clear descriptors like 'cold-pressed' are left out from the ingredient list. It is usually safe to assume that if there is no clear label, the oil is 'expelled' using chemical solvents like hexane. The slightly better 'expeller-pressed' still heats the oil up to 210˚ F. The quality control with expeller-pressed is questionable, and they are almost always processed further, as described above.
Natural Flavors - Don't trust the word natural. 80 to 90 percent of the ingredients that make up the term, natural flavors, contain chemical solvents and preservatives. These include the cancer-causing chemical BHA, propylene glycol (found in antifreeze) and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). We are incredibly cautious about consuming products that contain this in their ingredient list because the term is so broad. It also shows they are not willing to list the exact real ingredients.
Methylcellulose - This ingredient is derived from cellulose, which is also used to make paper and cardboard. Methylcellulose is used as an emulsifier, thickener, and even a laxative.
Salt - Unless it's labeled "sea salt" or "Himalayan salt," it is most likely table salt. The problem with table salt is that it is processed. This means that it has been heated to about 1,200˚ F, which destroys most of the trace minerals that we need from our diet. In many cases, they also add iodine back in, but they often use synthetic forms. In addition to this, many manufacturers add anti-caking agents, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and bleaching compounds for appearance.
Impossible Burger Ingredients to Note:
Soy protein isolates - This is another mysterious ingredient. Many times they use a chemical process to isolate soy protein. This process often leaves behind substances you don't want to ingest, like aluminum (read more about why we avoid soy in this blog).
Soy leghemoglobin - We had no idea what this was, so here's the definition right from Impossible Burger's site: "We took the DNA from soy plants and inserted it into a genetically engineered yeast. And we ferment this yeast—very similar to the way Belgian beer is made. But instead of producing alcohol, our yeast multiply and produce a lot of heme."
Other things to consider:
Most of these ingredients are isolate forms of whole foods, and they are all processed. When you isolate something, a lot of the nutrition is lost, and many times they use chemicals or other unhealthy extraction methods to do this.
The Impossible Burger company openly uses GMOs in their ingredients, specifically to make heme which is what they say makes their veggie burgers taste like meat. They do this by fermenting genetically engineered yeast. Not only do they use GMOs, but they argue the GMOs are not only safe but better for your health and the future. This is something that we disagree with 100%.
While Beyond Burger trumpets that their burgers are non-GMO, none of their ingredients or Impossible Burger's ingredients are organic. This means that they could be filled with harmful pesticides, herbicides, and other harmful ingredients.
The bottom line is that most Americans eat a lot of meat, so including more vegetables in their diet seems like a healthy alternative. However, even though these burgers are marketed as vegetarian, that in no way makes them healthy. You are not eating vegetables—just over processed vegetarian products filled with chemicals and preservatives. While we agree that most Americans need to lower their meat consumption, we don't believe this is a better alternative. Having a high-quality organic grass-fed burger (ideally from your local farmer) is far better to eat. If you're avoiding meat altogether, we suggest making your own veggie burger from fresh whole foods like this one.