New Study Verifies Beef and its Substitutes Nutritionally Vary

Jul, 2021 - By SMI

A new study defines the nutrition diversity of the actual beef and its plant-based substitute meat as both of them possess different metabolites, which are essential for body mechanism irrespective of food type.  

A study was conducted by scientists from the Duke University in North Carolina demonstrated that meat-like plant-based beef differs from the actual beef on the basis of nutrition. There is a misconception about the nutrition contents of two types of food that are beef and its substitutes to be nutritionally identical. However, they have nutritional diversity. Both of them vary from each other with certain nutrition components.

The study was carried out with the comparison of 36 cooked patties: 18 were made up of grass-fed ground beef and other 18 were made up of a popular plant-based meat alternative.  Both the food types were compared on certain nutrition parameter such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins and vitamins. However, researchers were mainly focused on the amount and type of metabolites present in each sample of patties. Metabolites are substances that are secreted in an organism’s cells through the regulatory processes when an individual consumes food. Metabolites are essential substances that promotes metabolism of the body and various health benefits. The outcomes of the study showed that the kind and concentration of metabolites in two kinds of food samples vary from each other.

The researchers observed that out of 190 measured metabolites, the concentration of 171 metabolites in two different foods varied from each other. Even the type of metabolites was different in two kinds of food.  The beef patties consisted of 22 metabolites that the plant-based substitute didn’t possess, whereas the plant-based substitute patties contained 31 metabolites that were different from the original beef patties. Though, the metabolites found in both the kind of beef patties were observed to be equally essential to fulfil nutritional requirements for body mechanism, so it cannot be claimed that one kind is better than the other.