Plant-based burgers and other fake meats are healthier than beef in some ways and worse in others. They tend to lower cholesterol and deliver less saturated fat, but they also come with significantly more sodium and contain compounds that can reduce mineral absorption. The answer depends on what you’re comparing them to and how often you eat them.
How the Nutrition Stacks Up
The calorie and protein numbers are surprisingly close. Per 4-ounce patty, an Impossible Burger has 240 calories and 19 grams of protein. A Beyond Burger has 230 calories and 20 grams of protein. An 85% lean beef patty has 240 calories and 21 grams of protein. At a glance, you’re getting roughly the same energy and protein from all three.
The differences show up in fat type and sodium. The Impossible Burger carries 8 grams of saturated fat per serving, which is actually higher than beef’s 6 grams. The Beyond Burger comes in at 5 grams. Where plant-based patties really diverge from beef is sodium: the Impossible Burger has 370 mg and the Beyond Burger has 390 mg, compared to just 80 mg in a plain beef patty. That’s roughly four to five times more salt. Walter Willett, a nutrition researcher at Harvard, has suggested a useful rule of thumb: sodium should sit at about one milligram per calorie. By that standard, both plant-based burgers run a bit high.
Looking at restaurant menus more broadly, meat-free items average about 301 mg less sodium than meat-based items. But that comparison includes salads, grain bowls, and other dishes that aren’t trying to mimic meat. The fake-meat products specifically designed to taste like burgers, sausages, and nuggets need salt and flavoring to hit that target, and it shows.
What Happens to Cholesterol and Weight
The most telling evidence comes from the SWAP-MEAT trial, a crossover study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers had generally healthy adults eat plant-based meat for eight weeks, then animal-based meat for eight weeks (or vice versa), keeping everything else about their diets the same.
During the plant-based phase, participants’ LDL cholesterol (the kind linked to heart disease) averaged 109.9 mg/dL, compared to 120.7 mg/dL during the animal-based phase. That’s roughly a 10-point drop. Participants also weighed about 2 pounds less on average during the plant-based stretch. Levels of TMAO, a compound produced during digestion that’s associated with cardiovascular risk, were significantly lower when people ate plant-based meat: 2.7 versus 4.7 on average. These aren’t dramatic numbers on their own, but over years of eating, that kind of consistent difference in cholesterol and TMAO adds up.
The Ultra-Processed Food Question
Plant-based burgers are, by any classification system, ultra-processed foods. They’re made from isolated proteins, added oils, starches, and flavoring agents assembled in a factory. That puts them in the same broad category as chips and soda, which understandably makes people nervous.
But the “ultra-processed” label is a blunt tool. Harvard nutrition experts have pointed out that consumers don’t need to avoid the entire category, because the health effects depend on what’s actually in the product. When it comes to burgers specifically, plant-based patties are a better option than beef for both personal and planetary health. As Willett put it, “The fat composition of beef is so undesirable for health that it’s very easy to be better than that.” Beef is high in saturated fat and lacks the polyunsaturated fat, fiber, and vitamins found in plant ingredients. A processed product built from plants can still deliver some of those benefits, even if it’s far from a whole food.
Mineral Absorption and Phytic Acid
One nutritional downside that doesn’t show up on the label involves phytic acid, a compound naturally present in the soy, pea, and peanut proteins used to make plant-based meat. Phytic acid binds to minerals like iron, zinc, and calcium in your gut, forming compounds your body can’t absorb. This means the iron listed on a plant-based burger’s nutrition label doesn’t tell the whole story: you may absorb less of it than you would from beef.
A study of 120 plant-based meat products found an average phytic acid content of 434 mg per 100 grams, with huge variation depending on the protein source. Products made from peanut protein had the highest levels at 1,713 mg per 100 grams, followed by pea protein at 539 mg, soy at 408 mg, and mycoprotein (fungus-based products) at 242 mg. Elevated phytic acid intake over time can raise the risk of iron-deficiency anemia and zinc deficiency, particularly for people who already eat mostly plant-based diets and rely on these products as a primary protein source. If that describes you, paying attention to your iron and zinc intake from other sources matters.
What About Soy Leghemoglobin?
The Impossible Burger gets its meaty, slightly bloody flavor from soy leghemoglobin, a protein found naturally in soybean roots. The version used in the burger is produced by genetically engineered yeast. This ingredient has drawn more scrutiny than almost anything else in plant-based meat.
The safety data so far is reassuring. Toxicology studies found no safety concerns under tested conditions, and the FDA has reviewed it for use as a color additive in food. The yeast used to produce it does leave behind trace proteins, but these show up at very low concentrations (about 0.8% of the final product) and have been evaluated for allergenicity and toxicity without raising red flags. Beyond its role in flavor, soy leghemoglobin is a source of bioavailable iron, which partially offsets the mineral absorption problem caused by phytic acid.
Who Benefits Most From the Switch
If you eat red meat regularly and have concerns about cholesterol or cardiovascular risk, swapping in plant-based meat a few times a week is likely a net positive. The SWAP-MEAT trial showed measurable improvements in LDL cholesterol, weight, and TMAO in just eight weeks. You’re also avoiding the heme iron from red meat, which in excess has been linked to colorectal cancer risk.
If you’re already eating a mostly plant-based diet and considering fake meat as a staple protein, the calculus is different. The sodium content is high, the phytic acid can chip away at your mineral status over time, and you’d get more nutritional variety from whole foods like beans, lentils, tofu, and tempeh. These are less processed, lower in sodium, and in the case of tempeh, fermented in a way that actually breaks down phytic acid and improves mineral absorption.
Plant-based meat works best as what it was designed to be: a substitute for the burger you were going to eat anyway, not the foundation of an otherwise healthy diet. Eaten that way, the evidence leans in its favor.