With celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Billie Eilish swearing off meat for good, we think, do we need animal meat? Can we endure as a species going against our ancient hunter ways? Well, we can survive, but will we thrive? Let’s get to the bottom of this together.
Nutrition
Will vegan meat provide us with all the nutrients we need? Let’s consider if vegan meat will replace real meat in our diet.
Protein
The human body needs ten essential amino acids to survive. For the longest time, vegans were putting their health at severe risk by not consuming all of them. Modern Vegan Meat has all the essential amino acids we require. So technically, we are good as far as protein is concerned.
Sodium
Plant-based vegan meat, unfortunately, has more sodium than traditional meat. A study concluded that plant-based mince was six times higher in sodium than its natural counterpart. However, that is not true for all brands of vegan meat. Vegan meat products with lower sodium do exist. You just need to look out for them. You also have the option of not additionally salting the vegan meat products.
Does this mean that vegan and regular meat are bad for you if you have cardiovascular issues? That comes down to cholesterol more than salt.
Cholesterol
Here’s what the health fuss is about, everybody! Vegan meat has zero cholesterol. That means there is zero risk to heart patients with a cholesterol budget. When you already have cholesterol plaque in your arteries, you can’t afford to consume more. So vegan or not, if you’re at risk for a heart attack, you should switch to vegan meat.
Fats
Vegan meat and traditional meat are about the same when it comes to saturated fat. That is because companies use coconut oil or avocado oil as an ingredient. However, fats aren’t the big bad guys we’ve made them out to be. The only fat you should be truly worried about is trans fats. Both traditional types of meat and most vegan meat products have zero trans-fat. However, it would help if you were vigilant since trans-fat is hydrogenated vegetable oil. Vegan meat companies might use it to cheap out on coconut oil.
Carbohydrates
Vegan meat is higher in carbohydrates than regular meat. That is because these products are made from vegetables. Vegetables are primarily made of carbs. However, vegan meats are ultra-processed foods made from protein isolate, so there can be some products with very few carbohydrates. That said, you can’t go keto with vegan meats without thorough nutritional research. By that, we mean reading the nutrition label correctly.
Fiber
A plant-based diet and meat are always higher in fiber than animal meat. However, the fiber content may have been removed. Different plant-based or vegan meat brands have different priorities, which is reflected in the nutrition table at the back. Always read the nutritional information on vegan meat products. Usually, there should be more fiber, but sometimes there could be less.
Vitamins and Phytochemicals
Vegan meat has more vitamins and phytochemicals than traditional meat. That is because plants are rich in these good nutrients. It makes no sense to throw away such beneficial micronutrients when plants are stripped down into raw materials for vegan meats. It is a fact that companies will pick and choose these nutrients based on which would be the most marketable ingredients. So a vegan meat burger is showing off that it has as much vitamin C as an orange intentionally does so.
Price
Right now, vegan meat is expensive. It is at least twice the price per pound of natural meat. Prices are different everywhere, but the bottom line is this highly processed vegan alternative is a lot more expensive. Perhaps too expensive for a lot of working-class Americans.
You may be able to afford it if you live alone, but if you have dependents, that pinches your wallet with other expenditures.
Some experts predict that the price will reduce with time, and right now, vegan meat companies are aiming at being a luxury experience product.
That said, if we were to stop all meat production and switch exclusively to vegan meat, many people would starve or suffer diseases related to protein deficiency. Many people simply will not be able to afford it.
If the price comes down to matching traditional meat, the human race has a fighting chance to change to vegan meat for good. A utopia with no animal products might not be such a distant fantasy. There is a possibility that the price will not go down but stay stable while the price of traditional meat is driven up by inflation to match it. If that happens, the difference between the rich and the poor will increase, and any meat will be a luxury product.
What would you choose to buy if vegan and regular meat were the same prices? We predict that if people are willing to pay the extra money, many others will join the trend if they can at the same price.
Some people might insist that they get more bang for their buck with traditional meat. That may be why vegan meats are priced higher to avoid that mindset and be considered the better, more coveted option.
Land
If we all stopped eating traditional meat, would there be enough vegan meat to feed everyone? Well, if we could afford the finished product, we could easily produce enough vegan meat to feed the whole world.
Some people have raised the issue that increasing vegan meat production requires more farmland which we cannot spare.
However, that is considering we keep producing traditional meat as we have been in the past. If we suddenly stopped traditional meat farming, we would free up a lot of land. The land is used for grazing, and the land is used to grow animal fodder crops. After the switch, we would free up to 75% of the agricultural land we use today. We thought we should inform you that agricultural land is half of the land humans can live on. That land could be reclaimed by nature and become the habitat of endangered animals and plants.
We could easily replace the total meat production with vegan meat. You may be concerned that people are starving worldwide or some people cannot afford to consume meat. That is not a problem of scarcity but distribution.
Taste
Let’s say that vegan meat had less sodium and was less expensive. Would everyone switch over and end meat farming? That still might not happen. Many people are carnivores for life, despite any health risks. The flavor of the meat is addictive to them. They would resort to hunting it in the wild if regular meat production as we know it ended.
The taste of meat made ex-vegan Ericka Dobeck start eating raw meat and organs to supplement her diet. She could have stayed vegan and used traditional supplements, but she claims it makes her euphoric and fulfilled. There has been a rise in the trend of extreme carnivorism and raw meat consumption, almost as a rebellion against the now vegan-forward regime.
Eating meat evokes a primal part of our brain. Not everyone will go against these instincts easily, and not everyone will be willing to. If the world suddenly banned animal meat, then chaos would ensue. The taste of vegan meat products is good on its own. However, they still do not hold a candle to actual meat. The meat addicts of the world will not convert to veganism so easily.
However, that is not stopping your local grocery stores from stocking up on vegan meat products and your favorite restaurant chains from hopping on the trend. You cannot even buy an impossible Whopper! Vegan meats aren’t sparing the budget with celebrity endorsements and marketing. Soon many people might get over the taste of traditional meet under all the hype and peer pressure. Then vegan meat will replace real meat.
Health arguments or celebrity adverts may never convert true flavor connoisseurs, but they might become an inconsequential minority. There was once a time we thought veganism was just a fad that would die down. It became the craze that swallowed the country whole and birthed a several billion-dollar vegan meat market.
Vegan meat is tasting better and better with time. Is the quality improving, or are we being brainwashed into liking it? That’s your call. If we end up with a vegan meat product that tastes indistinguishable from the real thing, that’s when meat farmers should cut their losses.
Conclusion
To wrap it up, we want to point out that there are many benefits to switching to veganism for individuals and the world. If the world switches to veganism, we would free up lots of land and reduce agriculture-based pollution. Can vegan meat replace the need for animal meat? Well, nutritionally, yes. Will it be better for our health and the planet’s health? Yes, and, yes. Will everyone be able to afford it? We honestly don’t know. What do you think about the future of vegan meat?
