- Meat replacements made from plants have become more popular.
- Research is underway on the potential advantages of consumption of plant alternatives based on plants.
- Data from a systematic journal and a meta-analysis suggest that short-term use of plant-based meat alternatives can help reduce “bad” cholesterol, total cholesterol and weight.
Plant meat alternatives imitate the aspects of meat but are in plants. A systematic review and a meta-analysis published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Examined how plant -based meat alternatives have an impact on cardiometabolic health aspects.
The results suggest that the change of meat for meat alternatives based on plants for 8 weeks or less can help reduce total cholesterol by around 6% and lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), also known as Name of “bad” cholesterol, about 12% in adults without cardiovascular disease.
The authors conclude that the use of plant -based meat alternatives could help people switch to plant -based diets, but that researchers must conduct long -term studies to really examine the cardiometabolic effects of alternatives meat based on plants.
Recent data suggest that consumption of more vegetable and less animal protein could help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary diseases.
The current examination notes that there has been a recent interest in eating less meat and going to more plant -based foods for health and environmental reasons. As this research notes, plant alternatives based on plants “are designed to imitate appearance, aroma, flavor, texture and other food and meat products.”
Plant -based meat alternatives have variable nutritional value; Many are considered to be ultra -processed foods. However, this label can also be applied to many meat products.
For this analysis, the researchers wanted to focus on randomized controlled test data to examine the impact of meat alternatives based on cardiometabolic parameters in adults without cardiovascular disease.
Researchers have used several databases to identify relevant studies. They have excluded studies that have concentrated on traditional alternatives of plant meat like tofu, which are replacements of little transformed meat and “unable to look like meat”.
They also excluded studies that used alternative meat alternatives or cultivated meat. They included mycoprotein products, an alternative of meat derived from protein -rich fungi.
The researchers evaluated the risk studies of bias in five different areas. The final journal included data from eight publications covering seven randomized controlled trials. In all, they were able to examine the data of 369 adults.
Studies have compared diets with plant alternatives based on typical diets with the consumption of animal -based meat. Researchers have carried out meta-analyzes when four or more studies examined the same health result.
The researchers identified three factors mainly affected by the alternative consumption of plant -based meat: total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and weight. LDL cholesterol is often called “bad” cholesterol because it can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
The results suggest that changing meat for plant alternatives for eight weeks or less can help reduce cholesterol by 6.6% and LDL cholesterol by 12.1%.
Overall, the intervention of plant -based meat alternatives has only decreased 1%, so it has not reached a clinically significant level of weight loss.
In addition, weight loss reductions were only observed in two randomized controlled trials that had overweight participants. The researchers did not observe any difference in weight between participants who had normal body mass indices.
Researchers have not observed effects on “good” cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure or blood sugar concentrations on an empty stomach.
Sensitivity analyzes by examining only mycoprotein substitutes, derived from fungi, found that mycoprotein foods seemed to help considerably reduce total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
Researchers note that mycoprotein products tend to have higher levels of fiber, lower saturated fats and higher insaturated fats than other plant -based meat alternatives.
CHING JIAN, PHD, researcher in Human Microbiome Research Program, University of Helsinki in Finland, with training in intestinal microbiota, metagenomics, food interventions and functional foods, which were not involved in this review, declared Medical news today that it has been “well conducted and provides essential information on the effects on the health of meat alternatives based on plants, in particular with regard to cholesterol levels”.
“The results suggest that short -term consumption (1 to 8 weeks) of meat alternatives based on plants and fungal considerably reduces total cholesterol and LDL in adults, without impact on other cardiometabolic risk factors. In particular, the study also reduces concerns concerning the potential increases in blood pressure due to the salt content of some of these products. However, although the reduction in observed weight is statistically significant, it is not clinically significant (around 1%). »»
– CHING JIAN, PHD
Since this review has examined short -term use of plant -based meat alternatives, it cannot talk about long -term potential effects.
For example, researchers recognize that the short period of time may have been inadequate to assess the long -term effects of meat alternatives based on other risk factors, such as blood sugar.
It is possible that the trials were not “properly fed to detect statistically significant differences in the risk factors of cardiometabolic disease”.
These data focused on adults who did not have cardiovascular disease, so that the results may not be generalizable to other groups. In addition, the tests were only on three countries, so data from other countries can be useful in future research.
Third, research included a small number of tests, and these tests had quite small sample sample.
There was also a small number of studies included in meta-analyzes, and researchers did not carry out any analysis of meta-regression or publication biases. The authors were also able to perform meta-analyzes on certain variables such as insulin due to the lack of available data.
Plant -based meat alternative manufacturers have financed seven of the eight publications, which could lead to the results. The researchers could not carry out a sensitivity analysis to the conflict of interests due to the small number of studies.
The researchers also identified different levels of risk of bias among publications, and three were identified as a risk of high biases. The main fight with the bias was that double blindness was not possible with the intervention.
There was also a variety concerning nutrient profiles of plant -based meat alternatives. The authors noted that plant -based meat alternatives may not have the same effects on cardiovascular parameters.
The authors have recognized that the meat that the replacement substitute can influence the cardiometabolic effects and that the effect on weight loss can differ depending on the study population.
It is important to note that all the studies included had limits and were different from each other. Additional research may be necessary to examine various cardiometabolic factors and how plant -based meat alternatives can affect them.
Jian also noted the following limits of research:
“The number of control tests available (random, namely seven) is still low, most studies being funded by industry. All mycoprotein studies were based on Quorn products, while fungal meat alternatives are more diverse. Research lacks representation of various populations – a single study included Asian participants, and there is no data on children or the elderly. The long -term effects of health remain unknown, emphasizing the need for independent studies and funded by the public, in particular because the interest of consumers in these products continues to grow. »»
Overall, the data observed in the journal show how short -term use of plant -based meat alternatives can improve cholesterol levels.
The scientific director of the Charles Perkins Center of the University of Sydney in Australia, Luigi Fontana, MD, PHD, Fracp, who was not involved in the journal, told MNT that “we already knew that the regimes based on At least and minimally processed plants could considerably reduce cholesterol levels, mainly due to their high fiber and sterol and low saturation content. »»
Fontana noted that this study widens our understanding of this relationship by demonstrating that even alternatives of ultra-suitable plant meat could positively affect cholesterol when they replace animal meat products.
This data highlights the short -term potential advantages of these plant -based meat alternatives. The perpetrators of the journal suggest that they could help people switch to plant -based diets. They underline in their discussion the superiority of whole plant foods to the alternatives of meat based on plants.
Jian also stressed that “for healthy adults, these products can be a useful transitional food towards a more complete and plant -based diet”.
“Although they can be beneficial in the short term, whole and mini-transformed plant foods remain the preferred long-term choice due to their more balanced nutrient profile. For vulnerable populations, it is important to ensure that these products meet their specific nutritional needs, “he concluded.
