What exactly are plant-based meat, vegetarian meat, and artificial meat?

01

What is “mock meat”?

The food that many people call vegetarian meat refers to a vegetarian food with a flavor and texture similar to meat. It has been popular since the 1960s. It usually uses plant proteins such as soy protein, peanut protein, wheat gluten, etc. as the main raw materials , and is processed through puffing and extrusion technology to form a meat-like texture.

These vegetarian meats have now formed many types of food, such as vegetarian meatballs, vegetarian meat patties, vegetarian sausages, vegetarian chicken, etc.

Vegetarian chicken picture source network

Compared with traditional gluten, vegetarian meat has adopted advanced modern food processing technology. It is a meat-like food made through processes such as molding, steaming, and frying. Many varieties are similar to meat in appearance, color, aroma, and taste.

Konjac is a kind of vegetarian meat. It is a very healthy food, rich in carbohydrates, low in calories, and has a higher protein content than potatoes and sweet potatoes. It is a high-quality water-soluble dietary fiber and rich in trace elements.

Image source: Photo Network

02

How is “artificial meat” made?

Strictly speaking, "artificial meat" is divided into two categories:

The first is "plant meat" or "plant protein meat" , which extracts plant protein from peas, soybeans, and wheat to produce various simulated meat products. Simply put, it is soy products made to taste like meat. This is not unfamiliar to us, a country on the tip of the tongue. Vegetarian chicken and vegetarian meat are "plant meat" that we have eaten for hundreds of years.

The other type is "cell-cultured meat" , which is a process in which animal stem cells are placed in a culture dish and, relying on a scaffold and culture fluid, the cells continue to proliferate and eventually "grow" into meat.

The process of producing such "artificial meat" is very complicated, requiring researchers to "feed" stem cells with sugar, amino acids, fats, minerals and a variety of nutrients to allow them to continue to "grow" and eventually achieve mass production. Currently, it is still in the cutting-edge exploration stage, and the high production cost of this "artificial meat" is also prohibitive.

The production process of artificial meat in the laboratory Source: Eating Well

03

Are vegetarian chicken and vegetarian duck really nutritious?

Eating too much meat may be bad for your health due to excessive fat intake, so some people have turned their attention to vegetarian chicken and duck, which taste similar to meat.

However, these vegetarian foods do not mean "healthy" . They are generally made with soy products or wheat gluten as raw materials. In order to make them taste better, vegetable oil, white sugar, salt and seasonings are added, which may contain higher fat.

For example, the vegetarian chicken wings in the picture below have a fat content of 34.6 grams per 100 grams, which is three times that of normal chicken wings. The calories are 2.4 times that of normal chicken wings, and the sodium content is not low, which is equivalent to 2.76 grams of salt.

Just eating 100 grams of such vegetarian chicken wings will cause your salt intake to reach 56% of the limit set in the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents, which can easily exceed the limit.

If you eat such vegetarian chicken and duck as health food, you will not only run the risk of gaining weight, but will also increase the risk of developing high blood pressure.

04

A balanced diet is the key to nutrition

When talking about the nutritional value of protein foods, people tend to only look at the protein content. However, humans do not absorb protein directly, but instead digest it into various amino acids before ultimately absorbing and utilizing it.

Therefore, when measuring the nutritional value of a protein food, we cannot only consider the content, but also how much essential amino acids the human body can absorb from it.

Image source: Photo Network

In response, a study at the University of Illinois tested the DIAAS of plant-based burgers to more accurately assess their nutritional value.

DIAAS comparison of three types of animal meat and two types of plant meat

Image source: European Journal of Nutrition

From the research results in the table above, we can see that the three animal meat burgers can meet the nutritional needs of digestible essential amino acids for all age groups from 6 months to adulthood, and the DIAAS values ​​are all over 100. However, the two plant meat products have their own shortcomings.

In general, plant meat is not as good as animal meat in terms of digestible essential amino acid scores . To obtain the same amount of essential amino acids, people need to eat an additional 10% to 30% of plant meat, which may cause an excess of other nutrients (such as calories), leading to other health problems.

Image source: Photo Network

The nutritional needs of the human body cannot be met by relying on a single food source. A truly healthy way of eating should be to eat a little bit of everything . After all, a balanced diet is the key to nutrition!

Source: Academy of Sciences, Science Popularization China

Beijing Association for Science and Technology, People's Daily Online

Compiled by: Dong Xiaoxian

Editor: Guru