🥓 Are meat substitutes any good?

The last few years has seen an explosion of meat substitutes or analogues brands.

Most companies are racing to develop more sustainable protein sources to help meet sustainability goals.

But are meat substitutes any good?

There are 4 types of meat substitutes

• Beans and pulses

• Plant-based substitutes: made from plants that are designed to taste like meat

• Fermentation-made meat alternatives: Traditional fermentation (e.g. tempeh, tofu), biomass fermentation (e.g. Quorn), precision fermentation (e.g. process that engineers microbes to produce and manufacture real egg or dairy proteins)

• Cultivated meat: grown directly from animal cells in the lab

Although some may be delicious, they all have limitations.

• Beans, pulses and traditional fermentation alternatives (e.g. tempeh, tofu) are great options. They provide way more fibre than meat, but are lower in protein amount and quality. This is not an issue if you have a varied diet and larger portion sizes. However, most people that rely solely on these foods for protein needs fail to meet their protein requirements.

• Plant-based substitutes, biomass and precision fermentation do not score that high. These products have lower calorie than meat. But they are lower in protein, Iron and B12, and higher in sugar. They are also classified as ultra processed foods because the finished products (e.g. plant based chicken fillet) require significant addition of additives and so are heavily processed.

From an affordability point of view, beans and pulses are a lot cheaper than meat.

Traditional fermentation alternatives (e.g. tempeh, tofu) are slightly more expensive, but still affodable when compared to meat.

The other meat substitutes, however, are significantly more expensive. The gap can go from 10% more expensive for mince substitutes to 200% more expensive for bacon substitutes.

🥊 Punchline

Plant-based alternatives offer clear environmental benefits but the less traditional products have an inferior nutritional profile to meat products. Beans, pulses and traditional fermentation alternatives (e.g. tempeh, tofu) remain the best and most affordable alternatives to meat.

🧫 How obesity dismantles our mitochondria

The mitochondria are the “power houses” of the cells. They are the energy-producing structures of our cells.

In this study, researchers fed mice with high-fat diet to induce and mimick the metabolic effect of obesity.

The mice’ mitochondria within the fat cells broke apart into smaller mitochondria with reduced capacity for burning fat. The consequence is fat gain.

This showed that excess eating can lead to weight gain and also triggers a cascade of events that reduces energy burning, making obesity even worse.

When the ability of fat cells to burn energy starts to fail, it becomes increasingly difficult for animals and people with obesity to lose weight.

The process observed in mice however was controlled by a single gene, called RaIA, which helps break down mitochondria when they malfunction.

It is the overactivity of this gene that triggers mitochondria fragmentation.

Genetic modification of this gene protected mice from excess weight gain, even when they ate the same high-fat diet.

What’s interesting is that some of the proteins affected by RaIA in mice are analogous to human proteins that are associated with obesity and insulin resistance, suggesting that similar mechanisms may be driving human obesity.

This and other studies are only beginning to understand the complex metabolism of obesity, but mitochondria dysfunction is now considered a very important issue in the aetiology of obesity.

🥊 Punchline

Excess fat accumulation is linked to mitochondrial dysfunction, which in turn, appears to to play a critical role in suppressing energy expenditure in obese adipose tissue.

🥩 Can a carnivore or ketogenic diet help treat inflammatory bowel disease?

Very-low-carbohydrate diets, including ketogenic and carnivore diets, are gaining popularity on social media.

A new pilot study wanted to test the efficacy of ketogenic diets for the the experimental treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), both Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease

Past research found an inverse association between intestinal ketone levels and lower IBD activity, and documented the efficacy of low-fibre elimination diets on gut bacteria metabolism.

In this study, 6 patients with Ulcerative Colitis and 4 patients with Crohn’s disease mostly ate meat, eggs, and animal fats.

All reported their diets to be pleasurable, sustainable, and benefiting their quality of life.

Clinical improvements were universal across the Inflammatory bowel disease quality of life (IBDQ) questionnaire.

The benefits observed likely derive from a combination of three features:

• The restrictive nature of the diet often facilitates the elimination of “problem” foods

• Lower fibre intake means less fermentation happening in the intestine

• Ketone bodies generated by the liver are potent regulatory and signaling molecules for the immune system and metabolism

The current treatment for inducing remission in Crohn’s disease is a combination of fiber-free feeds and elimination diet. This is highly effective, but very restrictive and unpalatable.

What this study shows however is that restrictive diets based on whole foods may be as effective and sustainable.

This study was a pilot study and noted some limitations. Most patients had a worse cholesterol profile, which can increases the long term risk of insulin resistance, and could be at risk of various micronutrient deficiencies.

🥊 Punchline

Ketogenic and carnivore diets hold promise for the treatment of IBD, including Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.