Plant-based meat substitutes may be healthier for the heart than real meat

Plant-based meat alternatives, despite being ultraprocessed, may be healthier for the heart than meat, a new report suggests.

A review of previous studies found that risk factors for heart disease, including total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and body weight, improved when various animal-based meats were replaced with a substitute made from plants, according to the paper, published Wednesday in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

“Plant-based meat is a healthy alternative that is clearly associated with reduced cardiovascular risk factors,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Ehud Ur, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The new research, which reviewed studies published from 1970 to 2023, also found a wide nutritional variation in the meat substitutes, such as in the amount of sodium and saturated fat they contained.

One of the clinical trials cited by the researchers found that when participants consumed plant-based alternatives they experienced a 13% reduction in total cholesterol, a 9% reduction in LDL cholesterol, a 53% reduction in triglycerides and an 11% rise in HDL cholesterol.

Ur and his colleagues focused on two burger brands — one older-generation, one newer with a closer approximation to beef flavor. The older-brand burger had 6% of the recommended daily allowance for saturated fat, compared to 30% in the newer company’s burger. Similarly, the older brand had 0% cholesterol, compared with 27% of the RDA in the newer brand.