Often criticised in recent years for their salt, fat and/or additive content, many plant-based alternatives are now considered to be ultra-processed foods.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t help with weight loss, unlike potato chips or ready meals.
In 2021, French consumer magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs shed light on the issue with an unequivocal investigation that largely mitigated the burgeoning success of plant-based meat and animal protein alternatives.
The organisation concluded that these foods are not necessarily healthier than their animal counterparts.
While these products do provide protein and a satisfactory amount of fibre, many of them are nonetheless ultra-processed, manufactured in ways to make soy and legume-based patties and sausages more palatable.
Above all, the magazine warned four years ago of the excessive presence of fat, but also of excessive salt and the presence of additives in these foods.
The image of these foods being healthy, by virtue of their commitment to animal welfare and/or the environment, doesn’t automatically go hand in hand with ingredients or compositions that are good for human health.
And, surprising as it may seem, European consumers were aware of this.
In March 2024, a report by the EIT Food Consumer Observatory indicated that 36% of them considered vegan chicken pieces to be ultra-processed foods.
The same was true of vegan cheese slices for 34% of respondents. So can soy patties be considered on par with potato chips and ready meals?
When it comes to labelling them “ultra-processed foods,” then yes.
But when considering the composition of a diet to aid weight loss, not all these foods can be put in the same basket, according to a study by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) published in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism.
This could sound surprising to consumers who were lumping all ultra-processed foods together.
In fact, replacing animal products with plant-based foods – regardless of their level of processing – can lead to significant weight loss, notably thanks to lower fat and calorie content, while at the same time boosting fibre intake.
This conclusion was reached following an experiment involving overweight patients, who were asked to follow a low-fat plant-based diet with no calorie limit.
At the same time, a control group of other patients who made no dietary changes was set up to compare results after a 16-week period.
On average, those on a plant-based diet lost 5.9kg, while the weight loss of the control group was deemed insignificant by the researchers, they report in a news release.
“The top three predictors of weight loss were reduced consumption of processed animal foods (such as smoked fish), unprocessed or minimally processed animal foods (such as milk, beef and eggs), and ultra-processed animal foods (such as cheese, fried chicken, and sausage),” they said. – AFP Relaxnews