ConsumerLab.com Answers: Beyond Burger vs. Impossible Burger vs. Beef Burger for Vitamins & Minerals

[Pluvious]

Question:

How do the Beyond Burger, the Impossible Burger, and a beef burger compare in terms of vitamins and minerals, and which is best?



Answer:
Burgers can be compared in many ways (e.g., taste, fats, protein, environmental impact, GMOs, amount of processing, etc.), but, as far as vitamins and minerals go, the Impossible Burger is a better burger than the Beyond Burger because, as shown in the table below, it matches the many nutrients in a beef burger and goes beyond the Beyond Burger in of terms minerals -- and way beyond it in terms of vitamins because the Beyond Burger lists none.

The Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger contain somewhat similar amounts of several minerals: Both provide 25% of the Daily Value (DV) of iron — which is twice the amount in a beef burger, although the iron in meat is heme-bound, which may be better absorbed than the iron added to the meatless burgers; and both meatless burgers provide more calcium than the 18 mg in a regular burger: Beyond provides 104 mg and Impossible provides 170 mg. All the burgers provide some potassium.

Only the Impossible Burger matches a beef burger on zinc — each providing about half the daily requirement. Neither meatless burger provides the small amount of magnesium in a beef burger or the moderate amount of selenium. Both meatless burgers contain about four times the sodium that is in a beef burger — a concern for people watching their sodium intakes.

As to vitamins, Impossible Burger matches a beef burger in providing substantial amounts of niacin and vitamin B6. Impossible exceeds the 102% DV of vitamin B12 in a beef burger, providing 130% of the DV. Due to the difficulty some people have with extracting vitamin B12 from meat (a common problem among older people and those using acid-lowering medications), B12 may actually be better absorbed from the Impossible Burger than from a beef burger. Impossible Burger also provides more folate and riboflavin (30% of the DV of each) than a beef burger (just 2% and 5% of the DV, respectively), although only a beef burger provides choline (12% of the DV), which is particularly important for pregnant women.

(continues... Also, many interesting comments posted at article's end)

https://www.consumerlab.com/answers/beyond-burger-vs-impossible-burger-vitamins-minerals-comparison/beyond-burger-impossible-burger/

[at140]

1. Manufactured vitamins and minerals are usually harder to

absorb than those in fruits and vegetables. I eat walnuts and peanuts instead of swallowing zinc tablets.

[msongs]

2. one suspects thinking impossible fake burgers are better for you is delusional

whatever is in them is highly processed and doctored with additives. one is probably better off just eating the dead cow

[hunter]

4. Meat substitutes may be better for the environment, depending on how the cow was raised.

Factory farms are a miserable life for the cow and more damaging to the earth's natural environment than eating plant products directly.

The "feed conversion" efficiency of factory farm cattle is about six to one or worse. Tremendous amounts of water are also required for meat and dairy production.

If humans eat plant products directly then their environmental footprint is much smaller.

There is a niche for cattle raised on responsibly managed pastures and range lands. In North America, at least, these animals replace large herbivores that were hunted to extinction by prehistoric man. But responsible pasture and range management has to be something beyond maximizing cattle production and sustainability. It must also include improvements to biodiversity, especially with regard to the protection of endangered and threatened species.

[Codeine]

10. Neither the environment nor the cow

would be better off, however.

[Opel_Justwax]

3. At my local Burger king they jacked the price of a whopper to $7.19 and the impossible is $7.69

I bought a couple of dollar tacos and a diet coke.

[Delphinus]

13. HOLY MALOLEY!

I am a vegetarian so haven't stepped into a BK in a long time. WOW! That's a LOT of moolah for a fast food sandwich.

[hunter]

5. The vitamin B-12 argument is often used by meat advocates.

It's a funny thing that animals don't manufacture vitamin B-12 directly.

In cows vitamin B-12 is manufactured by bacteria in the cow's gut. The bacteria in our own human guts manufacture vitamin B-12 as well but we don't have the ability to absorb it.

Manufactured vitamin B-12 is brewed in large fermentation tanks using innocuous bacteria commonly present in soil or on human skin.

[Codeine]

6. I didn't know it was a fermentation product.

Today I learned. . .

[in2herbs]

7. Since when are the people who eat at fast food places interested in nutrition? nt

[Codeine]

8. Almost everyone eats at a fast food place

every once in a while. Travel, work, or just a hectic-ass day sometimes make a stop for a quick bite a nice idea, and having a more nutritious, more environmentally-friendly choice at that sort of place benefits everyone.

[in2herbs]

11. I agree, but until these fast food places started offering meatless foods the only

thing offered by them that was healthy and offered any nutrition was salad.

[Codeine]

12. You're right, of course.

I’m glad things are changing and I can eat something other than fries.

[Blue_true]

9. ....

[Kali]

14. Admittedly I have an extreme bias

but the thought of laboratory produced overprocessed fake meat grosses me out even more than the cloned muscle fake meat.

beef is a low on the food web, healthy food. people who don't want to eat it are one thing, but I can't reconcile the inputs to this strange substance to grass growing in the sun, eaten by a bovine, then me eating the beef from that animal.