THE FAUX MEAT PHENOMENON
Faux
(fake) meats have progressed in leaps and bounds since the days of
Tofurky roasts. Even devoted meat lovers are being drawn over to the
veggie side of life by convincingly tasty ‘not-meats’. Is facon better
than bacon? Or are we better off sticking with the real deal?
What’s in them?
Vegetarian ‘meats’ are made from a variety of non-animal foods such as
beans, fungi, grains and nuts, and mostly the protein parts. The result
is a mass of chewy textured plant proteins with meat-like savoury
flavours. Some faux meats are designed to resemble their animal food
counterparts, such as soy-protein shaped to look like prawns or even
pork belly with the layer of fat and crispy skin to boot- which is
pretty amazing work by food technologists although vegans don’t like it
much, preferring not to eat anything that even looks like an animal.
Lab meat
Food scientists are working on lab-grown meat and have produced
convincing burger patties with meat cells grown in a test tube, removing
the need to raise or kill livestock. While this futuristic scenario is
now a reality on a small scale, it is super expensive and won’t be
meeting the world’s needs for meat anytime soon.
Nutrition With
the rise in popularity of plant-based diets, faux meats are now finding
a wider market with people wanting a healthy and sustainable option.
However, although they are made from plants (or fungi) their nutritional
composition can fall short of ‘superfood’ expectations. Like real bacon
and sausages, some faux meat products are highly processed and contain
high levels of sodium (salt) and other food additives.
We compared 2 faux meat products and one vegan ‘bacon’
recipe with their real meat equivalents to give you their nutrient
profiles. Just a few mouthfuls of Coconut Bacon will use almost your
entire daily saturated fat allowance (21.4g out of 24g). The two
commercial products we looked at had no Vitamin B12 added, which is a
problem for vegans as fortified foods are the only source in a vegan
diet.
Sustainability Some say vegetarian diets
are more sustainable because plant foods require fewer inputs (e.g.
water, feed, energy etc) than meat to produce; however, there is more to
this story. Highly processed foods require more energy and have long
supply chains that add transport inputs and emissions. Smaller animals
have a lower eco-footprint than larger ones, and even cattle and sheep
can be raised on land than can’t be used for cropping. Not to mention
the social benefits of keeping farming communities around the world
viable. Eating some animal foods within a plant based diet produced with
more sustainable and fair farming practices can be better for people
and the planet.
If you want to eat more sustainably,
there are much lower hanging protein solutions. We could eat the whole
animal (not just the prime cuts); swap some meat for legumes; and choose
more sustainable meat sources. In Australia we are catching on to
eating our national emblem, kangaroos as a wild and free-range source of
lean meat rich in iron. And of course we could waste less food
generally, which is simply throwing away everything that went into
producing it, and creating greenhouse gases from food rotting in
landfill.
The un-plugged truth
- You do not need to go meat-free to be healthy; lean unprocessed meats are rich in essential nutrients.
- Faux meats can have more fibre but can contain more saturated fat and sodium than unprocessed meats - check the label.
- Be a more sustainable consumer by eating just enough meat, eating nose-to-tail, and don’t waste food.
Nicole Senior is an Accredited Nutritionist, author, consultant, cook, food enthusiast and mother who strives to make sense of nutrition science and delights in making healthy food delicious. Contact: You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or check out her website.
