Whole Foods CEO: Plant-based meat not healthier than the real thing
Image by: Leo Gong
Behold: The Twinkie Burger!
Alternative protein sources are a very trendy subject right now. Plant-based meats are showing up in our Little League World Series commericals and landing on our fast-food chain menus. Lab-constructed proteins are right behind them and the companies profiting from both efforts would have you and I believe that this trend is due to consumer demand.
BUT… consumer’s want 2 things:
They want healthier choices.
They want to know more about what they’re eating.
1. Healthier Choices
In conversation amongst friends I’ve often referred to the plant-based burger as the “Twinkie Burger”. Seriously, check out the label on those things next time you get a chance. They are a HIGHLY PROCESSED food item.
Now, do I think it should be yanked from the shelves?
Of course not! I’m a believer in healthy competition because, in the end, the consumer will be the winner.
BUT - I also believe in shooting people straight and the fact of the matter is this:
Plant-based meats are not healthier than beef.
Check out a recent article from CNBC where Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, weighs in on the new trend:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/whole-foods-ceo-john-mackey-plant-based-meat-not-good-for-your-health.html
From the article:
”The [brands] who are capturing the imagination of people — and I’m not going to name these brands because I’m afraid I will be associated with the critique of it,” says Mackey, “but some of these that are extremely popular now that are taking the world by storm, if you look at the ingredients, they are super, highly processed foods.”
“I don’t think eating highly processed foods is healthy. I think people thrive on eating whole foods,” Mackey says. “As for health, I will not endorse that, and that is about as big of criticism that I will do in public.”
2. Know more about what you’re eating
We’ll try to weigh in on lab-based proteins in next week’s post. We’re not setup for subscriptions yet, so just shoot me an email at james@obrienhorses.com or follow us on Facebook to find out when the next article gets posted - http://facebook.com/obriengrassfedbeef