Beyond Impossible

Perhaps you have noticed in the supermarket two new plant-based meat alternatives.  One, Beyond Meat and the other, Impossible Burger.  Burger King now offers an “Impossible Whopper”, and McDonalds has tested a Beyond Meat burger in Canadian markets.  KFC has experimented with a Beyond fried chicken too.  Its popularity is growing because unlike traditional vegetarian burgers, these products taste very much like meat. I am certain you will be seeing it offered at many other restaurants soon. 

The additional appeals are that these products will result in a reduction in the environmental stressors in raising beef and chickens, and appeal to people with a conscious awareness about the harvesting of those animals.  A video with a spokesperson for Impossible Burger claims that this alternative meat source will result in 75% less water usage and generate 87% less greenhouse gases from the elimination of methane released from cows and require 95% less land compared to the production of equal amounts of conventional ground beef from cows all while providing adequate protein for us.  That sounds great but is this true?

Nutritional Comparisons

Here is a comparison between the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger:

The Beyond Meat burger is soy free and gluten free (without a bun).  The Impossible burger is not. However, the other ingredients are basically equal to the Impossible Burger in terms of protein, fat, fiber, and sodium.

The actual ingredients in each break down more specifically in this diagram.

If we look deeper at some of the ingredients in both we see wheat and soy as the main protein in the Impossible Burger and pea protein isolate as the main protein in the Beyond Burger.  Soy is GMO (genetically modified) which means it has the pesticide Glyphosate (Roundup) in its genetics.  Pea protein gets turned into a juice which then gets pasteurized and after more processing turns into Pea Protein Isolate. Expeller-Pressed Canola oil is still refined, bleached, and deodorized under high heat.  This strips out much of the nutrients from the oil.  Canola oil also contains small amounts of erucic acid which is toxic to humans.  Refined coconut oil also undergoes high heat processing and gets bleached causing it to lose nutrients. Perhaps the most troubling of the ingredients is the protein called soy leghemoglobin (SLH) derived from genetically modified yeast found in the Impossible Burger. In 2015 the FDA refused to agree that it was safe.  In 2017 Impossible Foods tried again with a new application for GRAS status (generally recognized as safe).  This time it showed a 28-day study of rats (equivalent to 2-3 years in a human) eating it rather than the 90-day study which was the original suggested study recommended by the FDA.  The shorter study with only 10 rats of each sex in the shorter cycle was statistically weak to clarify any health concerns from long-term consumption of this product.  However, some findings were worrisome.  Among them were:

1. Unexplained decrease in body weight.
2. Decreased red blood cells and/or damage to the bone marrow where red blood cells are made.
3. Decreased clotting ability.
4. Decreased levels of alkaline phosphatase (common in malnutrition and/or celiac disease.
5. Increased blood albumin and potassium levels (can indicate acute damage to tissues or kidney disease)
6. Decreased blood glucose (low blood sugar) and chloride (indicating kidney problems).
7. Increased blood globulin values (common in inflammatory disease and cancer)

There were also disruptions in the reproductive cycle with less fluid filled uteri as would be expected.  In response to this finding Impossible Foods commissioned a second rat feeding study which found no effect on the rats’ estrus cycle from SLH.  It was deemed an artifact of the experimental method used.  I hope for all women they are correct.

After this study, Impossible Foods was granted GRAS approval.  All the effects I listed above were dismissed as “non-adverse”, as having “no toxicological relevance” and “transient” as they appeared to reverse themselves after some days, and the effect did not increase with an increasing dose. 

This information on SLH was from an article in GMO Science June 25^th, 2019 and it was derived from a review of the 526-page report by the FDA from the submission of Impossible Foods in October 2017. 

Keep in mind the FDA’s GRAS approval is not a blanket statement of safety.  In situations like this it is common for the FDA to issue a “no questions” letter which protects the FDA from liability, but it still falls on the company to produce a safe product.

Below is a list of ingredients in the Beyond Burger.  It seems a little better than the Impossible Burger but some of the ingredients like methylcellulose and succinic acid sound ominous. 

The environmental piece

What about the less water, less carbon emissions, less land use argument in comparison to raising cattle?  Should we be eating soy and pea burgers in lieu of beef burgers to save the earth? This theory this has been discussed in various ways for many years, but the truth is all industrial agriculture including soy and peas are heavily dependent on oil inputs.  Think of all those huge tractors pulling corn and soy and vegetables out of the fields.  The EPA says that agriculture contributes 9% of our greenhouse gases emissions, with only one third (about 3%) of that attributable to livestock in the U.S., while transportation contributes almost 29%.  When the spokesperson from Impossible Foods said that switching to a non-meat substitute would save 87% of the greenhouse gases from livestock, it really is a guess and if it is correct, it would only be 87% of the 3%.   

Regenerative farming is a practice that is more likely to make a positive change in carbon sequestration.  It contrasts with industrial agriculture which plants huge swaths of one crop which then needs mechanized delivery of water and fertilizer, pesticide and carbon inputs from planes and tractors.  It also contrasts with concentrated animal feed lots where animals may not see much sunshine and not eat their natural diet.  Regenerative farming uses animals like cows and chickens to fertilize their fields which then attract insects, mice etc., and other wildlife for wild animals like birds to feed upon.  If cattle are raised on grass their entire life, the carbon and water inputs are much lower than concentrated feed lots where most of the disturbing statistics about carbon and methane come from.  In addition, the fields build up topsoil from the waste of the animals, which then help sequester carbon.

Finally

I have my concerns about the imitation meats Beyond Beef, and Impossible Beef that is gaining popularity and I would encourage people to investigate this further if these foods were something you would want to feed yourself or your family.  It seems “beyond impossible” to replicate the benefits of having some animal protein and fat in our diet and looking to food scientists to replace the evolutionary dependence we have with ruminants.  If you want to occasionally go meatless, traditional garden burgers might be a better choice.  There are some online recipes to make your own garden burger if you choose to.  If buying beef, use your purchasing power for grass fed and grass finished or pastured meats from sources that you can trust. This will be the best way to deliver a healthy product for us and at the same time, it will be better for the environment.