Researchers have linked a high diet in ultraprocessed foods, such as hot dogs and fried potatoes, with Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death. But it turns out that some ultra -processed foods may not be so bad for you after all.
A new report on meat -based meats, from Good Food Institute and Pan International, is promoting the benefits of relying on food products, despite a recent decrease in its popularity.
“Doctors and dietitians are reluctant to consider alternative proteins by advising patients about nutrition because they see these foods as ultraproads,” the Nutrition Scientist Roberta Alessandrini, director of the Diabretines initiative of Dietary of International Dietary, told CNN, told CNN.
“However, if they are carefully chosen, these foods can be a valid and useful way to change towards more plant diets, which are good for people and the planet,” he said.
While “meat -free” meat products are designed to replicate the taste and texture of meat, and some empanadas hamburgers even “bleed”, false meat generally has a better nutritional profile than red meat, Dr. Frank B. Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard Thard Thread School of Public Health, he said. The New York Times Earlier this year.
“The fat composition of beef is so undesirable to health that it is very easy to be better than that,” Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at school told CNN. Willett said that any important nutrient in beef, lacking plants, can be added to meat alternatives.
“Animal products not only have too much saturated fat, but lack polyunsaturated, fiber and many of the minerals and vitamins available in plants,” he said.
But there are inconveniences. The George Australian Institute found in 2023 that, although plant -based meat products are generally healthier than real meats, they can be higher in sugar.
Another problem is the high sodium content. Red meat has less salt, but many would still season a steak before eating, sometimes consume the same amount of salt as people who eat higher sodium products, according to a randomized clinical trial in 2020.
And although the highest cost of plant -based meats can make consumers even reach real things, there is another considerable price that comes with the latter.
The meat industry contributes 16.5 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions for planets worldwide every year, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Reducing meat products would have a significant impact on curbing the current global catastrophe, which already costs communities in the billions of dollars every year on disasters related to extreme climate.
“There is such a large urgency related to climate change, environmental degradation and public health we need to give people as many options as possible, including plant -based meat alternatives,” Willett said.
The American Heart Association advises people not to replace meats with highly processed substitutes, and choose “high quality food and nutrient dense” instead.
