Beans and peas beat lab food as best meat alternative, study says

Beans and peas are the best meat and milk substitutes from a nutritional, health, environmental and cost perspective, according to a new study from researchers at UCL and the University of Oxford.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesResearch showed that legumes (such as soybeans, peas and beans) perform better than processed products such as vegetarian burgers and plant-based milk.

Lab-grown meat was found to be the worst substitute due to a lack of health benefits and high costs, even when potential cost savings and investments were taken into account.

The findings provide support for government policy and business initiatives aimed at increasing intake of minimally processed meat and milk substitutes.

The study, led by Dr. Marco Springmann (UCL Institute for Global Health and University of Oxford), combined assessments of nutrition, health, environment and costs to compare the impact of meat and milk with substitutes.

Researchers assessed traditional products such as tofu and tempeh, processed alternatives such as veggie burgers and plant-based milk, future products such as lab-grown beef, and whole foods such as soybeans and peas.

The findings show that unprocessed plant foods such as soybeans, peas and beans are best suited to replace meat and dairy. Choosing legumes over meat and milk would reduce nutritional imbalances in high-income countries such as Britain, the US and Europe by half and reduce mortality from diet-related diseases by a tenth.

Meanwhile, the environmental impacts of diets, such as greenhouse gas emissions, land use and water use, would fall by more than half, and costs by more than a third.

Dr. Springmann said: “Reducing meat and dairy in high-income countries is essential for limiting climate change, biodiversity loss and improving health. Our study shows that there are a range of foods and nutritional products that would have multiple benefits in replacing meat and meat. dairy in current diets.”

Despite not being the frontrunners, processed plant-based foods such as veggie burgers and plant-based milks still resulted in significant benefits in replacing meat and dairy. However, emissions reductions and health improvements were one-fifth to one-third less than choosing unprocessed legumes, and the costs to consumers were one-tenth higher than current diets.

Dr. Springmann noted: “Unprocessed legumes such as peas and beans were the clear winner in our rating. They performed well from all perspectives, including nutritional, health, environmental and cost. But a surprising runner-up was tempeh, a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans, which retains many of the nutritional properties of soybeans without much processing or additives. This and its relatively low cost gave it an edge over more processed alternatives such as veggie burgers.

Another surprising finding involved laboratory meat. Despite the large uncertainties, existing data suggest that it is not a competitive product, even for normal meat. With current technologies, emissions could be as high as beef burgers, up to 40,000 times the cost, while the health consequences of replicating beef would be just as bad.

Although costs and emissions could decrease through more efficient production processes, this would require both substantial investment and technological advances.

Dr. Springmann added: “Public investments in both lab-grown meat and ultra-processed burgers seem like a tough sell when we consider their relative impact and available alternatives. Our findings suggest that suitable alternatives to meat and milk exist and are available and affordable without necessarily requiring new technologies or product development. What is needed, however, is sensible government policy that supports all citizens in eating healthy and sustainable meals.”