It’s no secret that consuming meat can lead to various health and environmental issues. Imagine the joy of people who aspire to make a change to improve their health and/or to fight global warming when they woke up this morning to CNN news (2019) reporting that starting this Thursday people in East Coast can find the Impossible Burger in most Wegmans. But is Impossible Burger possibly a healthier choice compared to traditional burger patties? Also, how did Impossible burger quickly become the new “IT” food?
In recent years, many environmentally conscious people decided to become vegetarian, or even vegan, to help fight global warming. Bobby Magill (2016) states in climatecentral.org that by heavy reducing consumption of read meat, primarily lamb and beef, by 2050 the per capita food and land use-related greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 15% to 35%. Additionally, the per capita emission could be reduced by half if people decide to become vegetarian (Magill, 2016). More importantly, Harrison Wine (2012) reports in National Institutes of Health that following their longitude study “those who consumed the highest levels of both unprocessed and processed red meat had the highest risk of all-cause of mortality, cancer mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality.” Thus, it’s not a surprise that when Impossible Food was first launched three years ago at Momofuku Nishi, it immediately became the newest “IT” food (Yeung, CNN.com, 2019). People are excited to finally have a healthier choice to satisfy their meat cravings. But, again, is Impossible Burger really healthier?
First, let’s look at the nutrition facts of Impossible Burger and compare it with traditional burgers. According to goodhousekeeping.com and womenshealthmag.com the ingredients in the impossible burger and traditional burger are as follows:
| Impossible burger | Beef Patty Nutrition Facts |
| Serving Size: 4 ounces | Serving Size: 4 ounces |
| Calories: 240 | Calories: 260 |
| Total Fat: 14g (18% DV) | Total Fat: 16g (25% DV) |
| Saturated Fat: 8g (40% DV) | Saturated Fat: 6g (30% DV) |
| Trans Fat: 0g | Trans Fat: 0g |
| Cholesterol: 0mg | Cholesterol: 94mg (32% DV) |
| Sodium: 370mg (16% DV) | Sodium: 89mg (4% DV) |
| Total Carbs: 9g | Total Carbs: 0g |
| Dietary Fiber: 3g (11% DV) | Dietary Fiber: 0g |
| Total Sugars: <1g | Total Sugars: 0g |
| Protein: 19g | Protein: 28g |
| Calcium: 15% DV | Iron: 17% DV |
| Iron: 25% DV | Potassium: 11% DV |
| Potassium: 15% DV | |
| Thiamin: 2350% DV | |
| Vitamin B12: 130% DV | |
| Zinc: 50% DV |
What jumped out at a quick glance is the sodium content. Impossible Burger contains 370mg, or 16% of recommended daily value, and 2 grams higher in saturated fat (Picard, 2019). Furthermore, it also contains much less protein which will result in consumers feeling less full and potentially increase their food intake (Picard, 2019). More importantly, Jaclyn London (2019), a nutrition director at Good Housekeeping Institute states that “Plant-based protein that’s used to create something new — and therefore highly processed — is susceptible to being loaded with sodium and saturated fat.” The bottom line is that, it’s better for people’s health if they would eat meat in moderation than switch to Impossible Burger entirely and eat it excessively (London, 2019, cited in good housekeeping.com)
Why, though, is Impossible Burger perceived as a healthier choice so quickly? Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts (2012) suggest that messages can be used as a tool to encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyle habits (p.171). With a strong yet simple mission statement, Impossible Food (2019) is doing just that: Eat meat. Save Earth. The website impossiblefood.com (2019) proceeds with facts, claims, and information about how people save the earth when eating Impossible Burger. Schneider et al. (2012) explain this process as informational appeals, which is a process of providing people with facts and arguments about why it is important to engage in certain health behavior (p.171). The Impossible Food website organizes their facts and arguments in a fun, colorful, and futuristic way even, evidently targeting to a younger more progressive audience. As Schneider et al. (2012) stress that in order for informational appeals to be effective, it has to be constructed in a way that the target audience “gets it” (p.171). With the brief shortage of the Impossible Burger and the hype and excitement around it, it shows that their target audience “gets it.”
While having choices and saving the earth is a good thing, people should pause and check the nutrition facts on the Impossible Food, first. For example, does anyone know Heme, its main ingredient, is? Heme is a soy product, and while humans have been eating all sorts of soy products, there’s no known reports that human had have actually consumed soy leghemoglobin (Heme) before (Clinton, The New Food Economy, 2017). Furthermore, heme is a protein produced by genetically modified yeast cells, so it’s rather new and the health and allergy risk is not yet known as of today due to a lack of empirical researches (Clinton, The New Food Economy, 2017). So, while Impossible Food has great potential for carnivores to save the earth, it still needs a lot of empirical researche to back up its data and claims. Thus, East Coast people don’t go out and buy all Impossible Burger just yet. Perhaps starts with the ancient method of trying everything in moderation, first.
References:
Clinton, P. (2018, July 27). The Impossible Burger is likely safe. So why is everyone scared of heme? Retrieved September 26, 2019, from https://newfoodeconomy.org/plant-blood-soy-leghemoglobin-impossible-burger/.
Magill, B. (2016, April 20). Studies Show Link Between Red Meat and Climate Change. Retrieved from https://www.climatecentral.org/news/studies-link-red-meat-and-climate-change-20264
Mission Statement . (0AD). Retrieved from https://impossiblefoods.com/mission/
Wallace, H. A. Z. E. L. (2018, October 24). Sink Your Teeth Into This: The Impossible Burger Isn’t As Nutritious as You’d Think. Retrieved from https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/food/healthy-eating/a708824/is-the-impossible-burger-healthy/
Wein, H. (2012, March 22). Risk in Red Meat? Retrieved from https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/risk-red-meat
Picard, C. (2019, April 30). I Ate an Actual Impossible Burger – Here’s What It Really Tastes Like. Retrieved from https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a27286383/impossible-burger/
Schneider, F.W., Gruman J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Yeung, J. (2019, September 26). The Impossible Burger has arrived in East Coast grocery stores. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/us/impossible-burger-east-coast-intl-hnk-scli/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_content=2019-09-26T11:30:07&utm_term=link&utm_source=fbCNN&fbclid=IwAR0yLA91G620G1htwQ306N4MfYsUFrbUlvyMY3USmc8gRhqPTRe6h_ylubY
Tags: health, health behavior change, Impossible burger, Lesson 5
Let me begin my comment with a disclaimer: I have been a vegetarian for 24 years, beginning at the age of 11. I gave up eating animals for two reasons. First, I stopped eating meat because I felt better when I didn’t eat meat, and second, because I love animals. I could not see a difference in eating a cow versus eating my horse or dog.
That being said, I will never eat an Impossible Burger or a Beyond Burger. The first reason is that it looks and supposedly tastes like meat. After 24 years, I have no desire to eat anything that tastes like an animal. The second reason is that unless you order the Impossible Burger at Burger King correctly, it’s going to be cooked on the same broiler as chicken and beef, tainting it with animal products (Today Show, 2019). What is really upsetting to me is that Burger King seem to be phasing out the Veggie Burger by Morning Star which contains real vegetables. While the Morning Star burger is still very processed, it is less processed than the Impossible Burger and doesn’t taste like meat. The third reason that I will not eat the Impossible Burger is that is not exactly healthy, as the original poster stated. The fourth reason is that since it looks and tastes so much like meat, I do not trust a cook at Burger King to serve me the correct burger, as I have been served turkey burgers and regular burgers more times than I can count when they looked nothing alike.
I appreciate that Burger King and other vendors are trying to offer a vegetarian option for their customers as vegetarian and veganism is on the rise worldwide (Today Show, 2019). Burger King could have found a product that was less processed, less meat-like, and have a protocol to ensure that the meat product isn’t mixed up with the Impossible product.
My suggestion? Stick with the MorningStar Veggie Burger. Compared to the Impossible Burger, the Veggie Burger has 390 calories versus 630 in the Impossible Whopper, 17 grams of fat versus 34 in the Impossible Whopper, and 980 grams of sodium versus Impossible’s 1080 (Burgerking.com, 2019). Every single nutritional value is much more reasonable for an occasional fast-food-fix.
Resources:
Impossible WHOPPER. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bk.com/menu-item/impossible-whopper.
TodayShow. (2019, August 12). Why Burger King’s new Impossible Whopper isn’t totally vegetarian. Retrieved September 29, 2019, from https://www.today.com/food/new-burger-king-impossible-whopper-isn-t-vegetarian-t160203.
Veggie Burger. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bk.com/menu-item/veggie-burger.
The impossible burger along with vegetarian versions of popular fast food menu items have become very popular recently. I have seen at Burger King, the Impossible Whopper being advertised, and even though I have not tried it personally, I have heard many people say that it tastes almost identical to the regular Whopper. When I first heard this, I was confused as to how they were able to use non-meat products and still be able to mimic the flavor of meat. What types of ingredients were they adding to make it taste that way and are they even healthy to consume? I thought it was interesting how much a change can potentially be seen in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of reducing consumption of red meat. These findings along with the high mortality rates associated with eating red meats is what has caused many people to be receptive to the idea of becoming vegetarian and vegan and thus the popularization of the “Impossible Burger”. Many people who struggle to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle struggle with the temptation of not eating meat, so by creating a close replica of a burger, but being completely meatless and “healthy”, people are excited and willing to try it. However, given the nutrition facts that you included, it doesn’t seem to be that much healthier. For instance, there is 370 mg of sodium compared to only 89 mg in a regular beef patty and there is less protein in the Impossible Burger. I think it is interesting that the author from housekeeping.com said that it is better to not go vegetarian completely and eat meat in moderation rather than eat the Impossible Burger. To add into the idea that the Impossible Burger may not be very healthy, the Huffington Post interviewed a dietician who said that the protein from the Impossible Burger comes from many processed sources that are unhealthy (Sweeney, 2019). Soy is a component of the meatless burger which can be very unhealthy when consumed in large quantities.
I definitely agree that social influence plays a large role in people’s eating habits. Seeing the message about saving the planet causes people to want to become involved in this initiative and therefore, will buy into the Impossible food trend. The way information is presented to the general public influence people’s behavior. Seeing flashy signs that appeal to the emotion of the audience causes consumers to feel a certain responsibility to do their part in saving the environment and eating less meat. These are common advertising tools used by companies in order to push their product to consumers, and it has shown to be effective, as we have seen with the rise in popularity of the Impossible Burger. Great post!
Sweeney, E. (2019). Beyond Meat And Impossible Burger Aren’t As Healthful As They Seem. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beyond-meat-impossible-burger-healthy_l_5d164ad1e4b07f6ca57cc3ed.