The Impossible Burger and other products masquerading as meat are gaining popularity. The burger has found its way into many restaurants and is now starting to make its way as packaged “meat” into stores. The website for the Impossible Burger’s manufacturer, Impossible Foods, states that its mission with this burger is to save meat and the Earth. At the same time we are hearing more about global warming in the media and its effects on our planet. Our food production involving animal foods is a cause of climate change so any attempt to help in this area is welcome. While the Impossible Burger may be better for our environment, is it better for our health? We learned last month that eating animal based foods are associated with disease, so logical thinking would tell us eating a plant based burger should be better. Let’s see what we can find out.
The Impossible Burger first came out in 2016 and recently the company reworked the recipe so that as of April 2019 all restaurants are serving the new one. The current burger has 30% less sodium and 40% less saturated fat than the original and is supposed to be juicier and tastier. Many people report that it is tasty and is a good alternative for meat eaters. The burger is made of four main parts derived from plants- soy and potato protein which give it a meaty texture, heme which gives it the flavor, coconut and sunflower oils so that it sizzles when you cook it, and methylcellulose and food starch to hold it all together1. Vitamins E, B1, C, B6, B2, and B12 are also added. You can find the list of exact ingredients on the Impossible Foods website. The website also includes the nutrition facts for the burger itself and for this purpose a serving size is 4 oz. The nutritional highlights include 240 calories, 14 grams of total fat and 8 grams of saturated fat, no cholesterol, 370 mg of sodium, and 19 grams of protein. When looking at the nutrient list what stands out is the fact that you will get 2350% of your RDA of thiamin, or Vitamin B1, in this burger. When you compare this to the same size 90% lean ground beef burger, you find that the Impossible Burger is lower in protein and cholesterol, higher in fiber, fat and carbohydrates, and higher in many vitamins and minerals and salt.
There are benefits to eating the Impossible Burger instead of a beef burger. One is that is does not contain any cholesterol. Also, it is high in many nutrients. This can benefit plant eaters because unless they are eating some meat or taking a supplement they may not be getting enough Vitamin B12 and the Impossible Burger provides this. And as was already stated, it may be better for the environment. The company’s website claims that in making one burger it uses 87% less water, 96% less land, and 89% fewer emissions compared to that of a beef burger. At the same time, there are some possible concerns with the Impossible Burger. Heme is an ingredient found in the burger to give it the meat like quality of bleeding when it’s cooked as well as its taste. Heme iron is found in animal foods. Therefore, the company has to genetically engineer heme and it does this by using the roots of soy plants. Some people do not like to eat anything that is genetically engineered so this may be a negative aspect of the burger for them. The only research that has been done on the safety of the genetically engineered heme is with rats2. The rats were fed much larger amounts in proportion to what most humans would consume and the results indicated no ill effects shortly afterwards. However, we don’t know what any long term consequences might be with the product at this time. Another concern is the amount of thiamin in the burger. It has 28.2 mg of thiamin in it and the National Institute of Health’s website recommends 1.2 mg a day for an adult3. An upper limit to the amount that is safe for us to consume has not been established and while side effects of too much thiamin have not been reported, that does not necessarily mean high amounts are safe. What it does indicate is that there hasn’t been enough research to determine if there truly is any effect4.
Ultimately, you have to take the information about the Impossible Burger and decide for yourself if it is something you want to eat. Eating it as an occasional “treat” should cause no health issues. If you need to eat something on the go then it would be an alternative to the beef hamburger available at the fast food restaurants. However, if you just want to be more Earth friendly and not consider health consequences by replacing the beef hamburger that you are eating several times a week with the Impossible Burger, then it may not be the best choice. Also, remember that what you are putting on the burger, such as cheese, mayo, etc. can add more fat and calories to your meal. The company, Impossible Foods, has good intentions by promoting plant based products instead of animal products since research shows they are not only harmful to our health, but the health of our environment. We need to remember to look at the ingredient list to see how the food, when processed and not in its natural form, is created as well as the nutritional panel to determine if it is truly healthy for us.
1http://impossiblefoods.com/food