How healthy are meat and dairy alternatives?

Vegan diets are increasingly popular. As more of us reduce our animal product consumption, countless new meat and dairy alternatives appear on our supermarket shelves. Manufacturers market these products as healthy options (unsurprisingly), but perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to trust them…

In today’s short episode of ZOE Science & Nutrition, Jonathan and Sarah ask: are meat and dairy alternatives healthier than their animal-based counterparts?



Studies referenced in today's episode:

This podcast was produced by Fascinate Productions.

[davidhiggins]

I'm very skeptical of any processed food with meat or plant based and try to eat natural foods both meat and plant based and feeling much healthy

[alanphair]

I choose plant based milks to avoid dairy. It’s an animal welfare issue for me. Calves shouldn’t be forcibly removed from their mothers and the mothers shouldn’t be repeatedly impregnated just so that we can drink their milk.

[frankw]

I am 60 years old, i loved meet and dairy products. Having watched many videos how animals are tortured and abused . How cows are made pregnant, kill their babies just to get Milk made me sick . I have changed my diet eating less meat and dairy products and the ones i consume i buy at a local farm

[DolceArdore]

The food industry does not have a great track record when it comes to manufactured substitutes for traditional foods.

[lpodverde]

You should do an episode on soy, if it's an endocrine disruptor, does it affect estrogen and thyroid, especially in women.

[donnaadkins]

A whole food plant based diet is the best in my opinion for everyone and the planet. However if you are transitioning to a plant based diet then plant based meat alternatives are extremely helpful! I used them back in the day in my transition but now have learned how to make whole food alternatives myself like burgers and sausages. I make my own plant milk using almonds and cashews so I'm confident I don't get all the added nasties and I dehydrate my pulp to make flour for baking. This has taken a long time to get to this stage I would like to point out however, this did not happen overnight or even in a year or two, but it is possible. Good luck to everyone on any stage of your journey x

[JamesDean-ncei]

Grass feed red meat...
I think some research have the red meat thing all rong just like they had the egg yoke is bad for u.
And sheep put there wast back were it belongs... rather than striping a crop/tree and replacing it with bugger all.
Plus the gas that comes out of the rear end of a motor vehicle is a bit more TOXIC.
I agree with other videos that u produced, but the por sheep took a bad rap. 🐑.
Regards a very healthy sheep farmer from 🇦🇺.

[RDCPOSKYWALKER]

I have RA, and by going vegan, I am in remission now. I don't eat processed food or gluten too. Whenever I drink milk or have milk products except for Ghee, my hands get numb and swollen, and the pain persists for at least 12 hours.
Gluten makes me physically ill for weeks

[littlevoice_]

In the past if you were vegan, you were by default automatically eating naturally. But now vegan products are not automatically healthy.
Processed food is processed food regardless if it is labelled as "vegan" "plant based".

[paulwalsh]

I am a vegetarian who tries to keep all animal products to a minimum so I drink plant milks. However I'd still prefer to know their problems, so thanks for this. I personally drink the much maligned soya milk, as the unsweetened version has very good macros, specifically high protein.

[thomasrobinson]

Observational Science, carried out by questionnaire? Any links to the quoted studies? Are you saying that soya protein and sunflower oil are healthy?

[juliamarsh]

Interesting information about plant-based milk. How natural is dairy milk these days? From what I understand it is also highly processed. Even full-fat milk is homogenised. Processed to the point where the fat no longer floats to the top and forms cream.

[sandrialewindon]

I drink oat milk because I believe keeping cows lactating for human pleasure is wrong… removing their calves is barbaric and I don’t understand how it is still condoned. I don’t drink cows’ milk because I thought oat healthier! I’ve not seen any marketing that stated this… for example Oatly… neither for the other milk substitutes.
I agree the meat alternatives I’ve seen and mistakenly bought, are full of additives so I stick to pure vegetables and pulses now… takes longer to prepare and more planning but it’s worth it… I cannot be an environmentalist and ignore the facts!

[andrewmainprice]

When I was growing up nobody had any allergies at all. During my lifetime allergies seem to be much more common.I wondered if you could shed some light on why this might be thanks Andrew

[cristalwizard]

I chose oat milk because animal milk exacerbates my sinus problems. I’m not expecting to receive the same nutrients that I would from oats, but to substitute flavour and consistency. I can also be confident that I am not responsible for any animal’s suffering. I’m pretty sure that oats will also be lower in cholesterol. Did you discuss the animal fat consumption health elements?

[maggielauder]

Very interesting- I actually make my own nut milk and then use the pulse to make nut bars . Done this for years . As even the better brands of almost / rice Milk is only 4/6 % almonds etc and the rest water 💦 .
In my Opinion I do use cows milk but always organic because of the calcium you need .
Just because people say they are vegan : vegetarian they are not always healthy but I do get it if it’s for Welfare reason .

[helenhucker]

Another very interesting podcast. I assume the food companies are keen to provide plant based alternatives for commercial reasons, certainly if they are selling fewer meat products they need to expand their product range to stay in business.
I agree that there is a huge choice of plant milks and the quality varies but I would argue that any plant milk is healthier than dairy milk!

[zoyailpatel]

In my days cows ate grass, not animal feed with G M I as in the past 10 years,

[peterjgreaves]

Using climate change to advocate not eating meat makes me cry. I have been working at fixing climate change for decades. We used to talk about air miles, because you eat your weight in flown in food during your life time. If you want to save the planet, eat seasonal and local. Flown in food which includes animals does way more damage than cattle including beef, three times the damage using their carbon calculators. methane which animals produce is 25 times more warming than C02 but disappears in decades, c02 disappears over years, but a lot is absorbed by the oceans and trees. Nitrous oxide produces 300 times more warming than co2 and takes about century to disappear. Nitrous oxide is used in fertiliser which is used to produce planets and animals. The fertiliser factories in the USA (Europe not so sure) self report emmissions, they have been found to massively under report their methane emmissions, which is part of the production method.

If you want to save the planet we need to go back to using floods like the egyptians and animals to fertiliser the land, leave it to mother nature. At the moment good intentioned fools like Doctor Berry, are wanting to swap a disaster for a mega disaster. It makes me cry how food companies fiddle the science for commerical gain.
If you want to save the planet by not eating meet, ensure you first stop eating food produced by commerical fertliser, organic fertlisers are fine, stop eating flown in food and perhaps cut a flight out or two.

[CMonsteronutube]

Its hard to find any plant based milk outside the UK that is not chock full of additives, so I've gone back to cow milk. Please could your nutritionists show us how to make healthy plant milks in small batches at home? Or the benefits of say, whole oats or whole cashews to a smoothie instead of using store bought milk products....after all most of these milks are 98%