Meatless burgers are having a moment. Once the province of vegetarian restaurants and college-dorm kitchens, they're now turning up everywhere from fast-food chains to big-box grocery stores.
Though some people have long avoided meat for ethical reasons, many today embrace a plant-based diet for its health benefits. Still others skip meat as a way to combat climate change. For some, all three reasons apply.
These instincts are spot on. The current mainstream mode of factory farming is terrible for animal health and welfare. And the highly processed, meat-heavy standard American diet is a key reason more than half of all Americans suffer from chronic illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions. Factory-farmed meat contains higher levels of harmful inflammatory fats, while diets rich in whole, nutrient-dense plant foods support wellness.
Plus, conventional and feedlot livestock leave an outsize carbon "hoofprint": They're responsible for roughly 15 percent of all greenhouse-gas emissions. Each factory-farmed cow releases 220 pounds of methane into the atmosphere every year, and methane warms the air at 28 times the rate of carbon dioxide.
It's clear that we need protein sources other than factory-farmed animals for personal and planetary health. Still, many health experts caution that processed meat substitutes may present challenges of their own.
"Today's faux meats present a conundrum," says Romilly Hodges, MS, CNS, who directs nutrition programs at Dr. Kara Fitzgerald's functional-medicine clinic in Connecticut and serves on the board of the American Nutrition Association. "On one hand, reducing the consumption of carbon-heavy animal meats is a good idea for our environment. On the other hand, moving away from real foods to something manufactured with synthetic ingredients in a lab is not good for our health."
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Meatless options aren't new. Soy-based burgers and hot dogs have been available for decades, and people have been making bean burgers at home for even longer.
But food manufacturers are now creating plant-based substitutes that look, smell, and taste like actual meat, hoping to attract eaters who wouldn't otherwise consider a plant-based burger.
It's working. Today, meatless options that are virtually indistinguishable from beef are widely available. And they're selling — a fact that pleases many healthcare experts.
The world’s first fake-meat “steaks” made from fungi.
"Fast-food restaurants are seeing an upsurge of requests, and people are actually eating them there, which is a good sign." says functional nutritionist Mary Purdy, MS, RDN. "I feel very hopeful and delighted that people are beginning to understand the effect of our food system — and specifically livestock production — on climate change. A cultural shift is happening."
Purdy's enthusiasm is tempered by other concerns, though. "I think the climate-conscious picture around food is quite complex," she says. "If we simply stop eating meat as individuals, or reduce how much we eat, that won't necessarily change the current agricultural system. And the processed foods that are used in the creation of faux meats do not necessarily lend themselves to environmental sustainability."
One such ingredient is genetically modified soy, which is one of the most common crops planted in the United States.
Soy is typically grown as a monocrop: One type of plant is cultivated in the same place, in wide swaths, year after year. Without diverse plant matter feeding the soil, it becomes depleted of essential nutrients and microbes, making the plants more susceptible to pests and increasing the need for chemical pesticides.
Soil with fewer nutrients and less microbial diversity also requires fertilizer — lots of it. Fertilizer releases nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas that increases planetary warming and damages the ozone layer. Levels of nitrous oxide have increased sharply since the 1960s, when inexpensive synthetic fertilizers first appeared on the market.
In short, faux meat has a carbon footprint of its own. The average soy burger adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere because of monoculture farming, while a beef burger made from a regeneratively raised animal removes carbon dioxide by helping to build topsoil that sequesters it.
"Once you dig into [the connection between climate change and agriculture], you find out there's a lot more than just plant-based versus animal-based protein," says nutritionist Katie Morra, MS, RD, IFMCP. "In the grand scheme of things, a processed-meat substitute is likely a better option than a feedlot-beef patty, but compared to regeneratively raised beef, it may not take the cake."
Conventionally raised beef and lamb are the most resource-intensive of all animal foods. Studies show that in countries where average meat consumption is high ("arguably too high to be healthy," says Hodges), reducing meat consumption can improve the household carbon footprint.
"Instead of switching to industrialized faux meats," says Hodges, "I would steer people toward increasing their whole-plant food intake — especially varied, colorful vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, lentils, and beans. There are plenty of ways to fake a 'meaty' meal with plant options like portobello mushrooms, vegetable and nut patties, and well-seasoned legumes."
