Lemon water is a simple and surprisingly healthy internal cleanser to start your day with. I certainly noticed a difference myself when I first started having the juice of a whole lemon in water first thing in the morning. I really like the way the sharp taste wakes you up and gets you going.

Some resources say that it’s good to have it in warm or even hot water. I suppose in this way you could use it as a healthier replacement for your morning coffee, but I personally prefer it in room temperature filtered water. It’s best to not have it in chilled water though as this can be a bit of a shock to your digestive system when you’ve only just woken up.

It’s also far better to use real lemon juice rather than lemon juice concentrate as these products usually contain sulfites, a preservative some people have a negative reaction to. Natural enzymes, antioxidants and vitamins are also likely to be lost in the manufacturing process so go for real lemons for the most benefits.

Quick and Simple Lemon Juice in Water

• Grab a lemon.
• Squeeze it in a citrus juicer like this.
• Remove the seeds and pour water over the juicer to get as much of the lemon as possible.
• Then pour it into a glass and drink it straight down.

There are a lot of health benefits associated with fresh lemon water with 12 of the best listed ahead. With a little practice you can make it up in under a minute so there’s no good excuse not to give it a try.

12 Good Reasons to Drink Lemon Water

1. Fresh lemon water, especially first thing in the morning, can help relieve or prevent digestive problemslike bloating, intestinal gas and heartburn and stimulate better digestion in general.

2. Lemons are antiseptic and have a powerful cleansing effect on you liver, kidneys and blood. An overworked liver in particular has an influence on how good you feel so having a simple way to cleanse it each morning can make a big difference to your daily energy over time.

3. Lemon water in the morning is a great way to get a good portion of your essential daily vitamin C. They are also a good source of folate and minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium.

4. The high mineral content of lemons makes them alkalizing to the body, despite their citric acid. It’s actually not the acid content of a food outside the body that determines whether it will have an acid or alkaline effect, but rather the way it is metabolized during digestion that counts.

5. Lemon water assist in elimination and will help prevent either extremes of constipation or diarrhea. Another good reason to have them first thing in the morning.

6. Drinking lemon water is even said to be good for improving your skin. The high vitamin C content would help here, but the overall cleansing, detoxifying, antibiotic and antioxidant effects are likely to be even more important.

7. Limonoid glucosides are an interesting flavonoid compound present in lemons that some research has shown may have anti-carcinogenic properties. Its protective effect also seems to last much longer in the body than most other natural anti-cancer compounds.

8. Lemon water helps your liver to produce more bile to aid in the digestion of fats. This makes them particularly beneficial if you’re planning a big breakfast fry up after a heavy night. And realistically, the nutrients in lemon are far more likely to help clear your head than greasy and potentially dangerous sausages or bacon.

9. The antibacterial properties of lemon can help in curing a throat infection. If you have a sore throat you could make a warm lemon drink to sip every couple of hours. That said, if you are having a lemon water every morning you’re probably unlikely to get one in the first place.

Personally, I can’t remember ever having a throat infection since I started regularly having fresh lemon water first thing.

10. Lemon water is also thought to decrease the amount of mucus and phlegm produced in the body. If you’re drinking cow’s milk often (a big culprit in mucus production) then lemon water each morning may help to lessen mucus levels in your body.

11. Many weight loss resources cite the benefits of lemon water and its citric acid in fat burning.

I’d be cautious of too many miracle claims – you’ll still need to avoid the kind of foods that make you fat, get some good exercise and ideally change your meal frequency to one that improves weight loss potential – but lemon water is certainly a beneficial addition to any body fat reduction plan.

12. Lemon water is great first thing in the morning to reduce bad breath. The high antioxidant and antibiotic compounds may also help reduce body odor over time. There really are a lot of good reasons to start your day with the freshly squeezed juice of a lemon in a glass of water.

Lemon Water Precautions

A few precautions to go along with all the lemon water benefits.

To start with, citrus seeds are not good for you. While one or two won’t hurt, it’s best not to swallow or particularly chew them. If you use a citrus juicer with slots to catch them just leave them in the strainer. If any do make it through then the smaller ones will usually float and are easy to remove with a teaspoon, while the larger ones can be left at the bottom of the glass.

Try to avoid having sugar, honey (unless it’s local raw or manuka honey), maple syrup or other sweeteners with your lemon water as the simple sugars will reduce the benefits.

If you don’t like the sharp citrus tang then just shot it down quickly and you’ll barely taste it.

That said, what’s with our obsession with everything having to be sweetened? The human palate is designed to enjoy a variety of different flavors and tastes. Ayurvedic medicine for instance, recognizes the importance of having a range of different tastes in your diet to maintain both physical and emotional balance.

Some people are also concerned about the citric acid in lemons having a sensitizing effect on their tooth enamel. Personally, I haven’t noticed any problem with this but it would make sense not to let the lemon water linger in your mouth and just drink it straight down.

I tend to follow my glass of lemon water with another glass of plain water and swirl it around a bit to wash my mouth clean. If you’re concerned about this another option could be to use a straw to sip it so less comes into contact with your teeth. It’s also probably best to wait half an hour before brushing your teeth.

Conclusion

Having a glass of fresh lemon water first thing in the morning can have a lot of health benefits. Even the busiest person should be able to find the time for this simple step to better health and energy,

As with any new habit, I’d suggest trying it for at least two weeks every morning and see how it is making you feel. I’d love to hear your thoughts and results in the comments below.

The alkaline diet is based on the idea that replacing acid-forming foods with alkaline foods can improve your health.

Proponents of this diet even claim that it can help fight serious diseases like cancer.

This article examines the science behind the alkaline diet.

What is the alkaline diet?

The alkaline diet is also known as the acid-alkaline diet or alkaline ash diet.

Its premise is that your diet can alter the pH value — the measurement of acidity or alkalinity — of your body.

Your metabolism — the conversion of food into energy — is sometimes compared to fire. Both involve a chemical reaction that breaks down a solid mass.

However, the chemical reactions in your body happen in a slow and controlled manner.

When things burn, an ash residue is left behind. Similarly, the foods you eat leave an “ash” residue known as metabolic waste.

This metabolic waste can be alkaline, neutral, or acidic. Proponents of this diet claim that metabolic waste can directly affect your body’s acidity.

In other words, if you eat foods that leave acidic ash, it makes your blood more acidic. If you eat foods that leave alkaline ash, it makes your blood more alkaline.

According to the acid-ash hypothesis, acidic ash is thought to make you vulnerable to illness and disease, whereas alkaline ash is considered protective.

By choosing more alkaline foods, you should be able to “alkalize” your body and improve your health.

Food components that leave an acidic ash include protein, phosphate, and sulfur, while alkaline components include calcium, magnesium, and potassium (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).

Certain food groups are considered acidic, alkaline, or neutral:

• Acidic: meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, grains, alcohol
• Neutral: natural fats, starches, and sugars
• Alkaline: fruits, nuts, legumes, and vegetables

Summary According to proponents of the alkaline diet, the metabolic waste — or ash — left from the burning of foods can directly affect the acidity or alkalinity of your body.

Regular pH levels in your body

When discussing the alkaline diet, it’s important to understand pH.

Put simply, pH is a measurement of how acidic or alkaline something is.

The pH value ranges from 0–14:

• Acidic: 0.0–6.9
• Neutral: 7.0
• Alkaline (or basic): 7.1–14.0

Many proponents of this diet suggest that people monitor the pH of their urine to ensure that it is alkaline (over 7) and not acidic (below 7).

However, it’s important to note that pH varies greatly within your body. While some parts are acidic, others are alkaline — there is no set level.

Your stomach is loaded with hydrochloric acid, giving it a pH of 2–3.5, which is highly acidic. This acidity is necessary to break down food.

On the other hand, human blood is always slightly alkaline, with a pH of 7.36–7.44 (3Trusted Source).

When your blood pH falls out of the normal range, it can be fatal if left untreated (4Trusted Source).

However, this only happens during certain disease states, such as ketoacidosis caused by diabetes, starvation, or alcohol intake (5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source).

Summary The pH value measures a substance’s acidity or alkalinity. For example, stomach acid is highly acidic, while blood is slightly alkaline.

Food affects the pH of your urine, but not your blood

It’s critical for your health that the pH of your blood remains constant.

If it were to fall outside of the normal range, your cells would stop working and you would die very quickly if untreated.

For this reason, your body has many effective ways to closely regulate its pH balance. This is known as acid-base homeostasis.

In fact, it’s nearly impossible for food to change the pH value of blood in healthy people, although tiny fluctuations can occur within the normal range.

However, food can change the pH value of your urine — though the effect is somewhat variable (1Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source).

Excreting acids in your urine is one of the main ways your body regulates its blood pH.

If you eat a large steak, your urine will be more acidic several hours later as your body removes the metabolic waste from your system.

Therefore, urine pH is a poor indicator of overall body pH and general health. It can also be influenced by factors other than your diet.

Summary Your body tightly regulates blood pH levels. In healthy people, diet doesn’t significantly affect blood pH, but it can change urine pH.

Acid-forming foods and osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a progressive bone disease characterized by a decrease in bone mineral content.

It’s particularly common among postmenopausal women and can drastically increase your risk of fractures.

Many alkaline-diet proponents believe that to maintain a constant blood pH, your body takes alkaline minerals, such as calcium from your bones, to buffer the acids from the acid-forming foods you eat.

According to this theory, acid-forming diets, such as the standard Western diet, will cause a loss in bone mineral density. This theory is known as the “acid-ash hypothesis of osteoporosis.”

However, this theory ignores the function of your kidneys, which are fundamental to removing acids and regulating body pH.

The kidneys produce bicarbonate ions that neutralize acids in your blood, enabling your body to closely manage blood pH (9Trusted Source).

Your respiratory system is also involved in controlling blood pH. When bicarbonate ions from your kidneys bind to acids in your blood, they form carbon dioxide, which you breathe out, and water, which you pee out.

The acid-ash hypothesis also ignores one of the main drivers of osteoporosis — a loss in the protein collagen from bone (10Trusted Source, 11Trusted Source).

Ironically, this loss of collagen is strongly linked to low levels of two acids — orthosilicic acid and ascorbic acid, or vitamin C — in your diet (12Trusted Source).

Keep in mind that scientific evidence linking dietary acid to bone density or fracture risk is mixed. While many observational studies have found no association, others have detected a significant link (13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source, 15Trusted Source, 16Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source).

Clinical trials, which tend to be more accurate, have concluded that acid-forming diets have no impact on calcium levels in your body (9Trusted Source, 18, 19Trusted Source).

If anything, these diets improve bone health by increasing calcium retention and activating the IGF-1 hormone, which stimulates the repair of muscle and bone (20Trusted Source, 21Trusted Source).

As such, a high-protein, acid-forming diet is likely linked to better bone health — not worse.

Summary Although evidence is mixed, most research does not support the theory that acid-forming diets harm your bones. Protein, an acidic nutrient, even seems to be beneficial.

Acidity and cancer

Many people argue that cancer only grows in an acidic environment and can be treated oreven cured with an alkaline diet.

However, comprehensive reviews on the relationship between diet-induced acidosis — or increased blood acidity caused by diet — and cancer concluded that there is no direct link (22Trusted Source, 23Trusted Source).

First, food doesn’t significantly influence blood pH (8Trusted Source, 24Trusted Source).

Second, even if you assume that food could dramatically alter the pH value of blood or other tissues, cancer cells are not restricted to acidic environments.

In fact, cancer grows in normal body tissue, which has a slightly alkaline pH of 7.4. Many experiments have successfully grown cancer cells in an alkaline environment (25Trusted Source).

And while tumors grow faster in acidic environments, tumors create this acidity themselves. It is not the acidic environment that creates cancer cells, but cancer cells that create the acidic environment (26Trusted Source).

Summary There is no link between an acid-forming diet and cancer. Cancer cells also grow in alkaline environments.

Ancestral diets and acidity

Examining the acid-alkaline theory from both an evolutionary and scientific perspective reveals discrepancies.

One study estimated that 87% of pre-agricultural humans ate alkaline diets and formed the central argument behind the modern alkaline diet (27Trusted Source).

More recent research approximates that half of pre-agricultural humans ate net alkaline-forming diets, while the other half ate net acid-forming diets (28Trusted Source).

Keep in mind that our remote ancestors lived in vastly different climates with access to diverse foods. In fact, acid-forming diets were more common as people moved further north of the equator, away from the tropics (29Trusted Source).

Although around half of hunter-gatherers were eating a net acid-forming diet, modern diseases are believed to have been much less common (30).

Summary Current studies suggest that about half of ancestral diets were acid-forming, especially among people who lived far from the equator.

The bottom line

The alkaline diet is quite healthy, encouraging a high intake of fruits, vegetables, and healthy plant foods while restricting processed junk foods.

However, the notion that the diet boosts health because of its alkalizing effects is suspect. These claims haven’t been proven by any reliable human studies.

Some studies suggest positive effects in a very small subset of the population. Specifically, a low-protein alkalizing diet may benefit people with chronic kidney disease (31Trusted Source).

In general, the alkaline diet is healthy because it’s based on whole and unprocessed foods. No reliable evidence suggests it has anything to do with pH levels.

thank you Written by Joe Leech, MS

Algae
Seaweed salt is a delicacy hand-harvested in the estuaries of the great French rivers as they flow into the sea in Brittany. While Fleur de sel, which is produced in the Camargue, is the caviar of the salt world.

Bible
The origins of salt date back thousands of years; it is mentioned in the Bible in connection with Lot’s wife who was transformed into a salt statue because she turned to look at the city of Sodom.

Champagne
A little tip to keep your champagne well chilled for longer: add a few spoonfuls of coarse salt to the ice in the bucket.

Deposits
Apart from sea salt, which is produced in salt pans, salt is extracted from mines: the oldest ones are in Eastern Europe, but they are to be found throughout the continent as well as in Pakistan, USA and Canada.

Edible
Table salt must be used sparingly: it is poisonous when consumed in large quantities, so much so that in China it used to be a way of committing suicide.

Flavoured
Fine or coarse, salt is available as a pure product or aromatized with the addition of spices and flowers, as well as being smoked to give a more robust flavour to food.

Goderich
Goderich in Ontario boasts the largest underground salt mine in the world; it extends for 5 kilometres beneath Lake Huron.

Himalaya
One of the most precious varieties in the world is the pink rock salt to be found in the Himalayan mountains. It is said to be the purest in the world and the only type of salt to contain 84 minerals and trace elements.

India
The exquisite black Indian salt (kala namak) comes from volcanic rocks. It is used extensively in masala dishes and is often sprinkled on fruit.

Japanese theatres
In Japanese theatres, it used to be customary, before each performance to throw salt on the stage to drive evil spirits away.

Kiln
To make perfect fish baked in a salt crust, it must be covered with a layer of at least 1.5 centimetres to form a sort of kiln around the food.

Light
In the kitchen, baking food in a salt crust is considered to be an extremely light and tasty cooking method.

Millenary
Salt is thought to have existed before any form of primitive track: animals used to lick the salty earth and create trails which, down through the centuries, became the roads of today.

NaCl
Salt is a chemical compound – sodium chloride, and NaCl is the chemical formula by which it is universally known.

Ounces
The human body contains from 4 to 6 ounces of salt; its function is to control blood volume, as well as regulating digestion and nerve fibres.

Pay
The word “salary” still exists today; it derives from the fact that ancient Romans were paid in salt provisions instead of money.

Quotes
There are a great many quotations regarding salt. “Believe no man unless you have eaten salt with him”, the ancient Greeks used to say. “The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea”, wrote Karen Blixen.

Restaurant ban
In 2010 in New York, a draft bill caused quite a stir: a one thousand dollar fine payable by any restaurant adding salt to its dishes.

Salt road
Ever since the bronze age, salt roads have developed, ancient trails which used to be used for carrying salt and are now a tourist attraction. For instance, the famous via Salaria runs from Rome.

Tequila and the others
Salt and cocktails are a common combo: for example, tequila is drunk neat after a taste of salt and lemon, while salt decorates the edge of a glass used for serving margarita.

Unlucky
Dropping salt is believed to bring bad luck because, in ancient times, it was as precious as gold. To drive away the evil eye, however, a pinch of salt is thrown over the shoulder Visitors The little island of Laeso, Denmark, with less than two thousand inhabitants, is visited by 60,000 tourists each year who arrive just to see where its salt comes from, the most expensive in the world.

Wood
Salt pan workers collect salt with small wooden shovels, which they use to form little cones of grains. Later, a machine passes by to collect the little heaps.

X-numbers of use
Precious and eclectic, salt is used in an infinite number of ways: those trying to count them have exceeded 14,000….

Yu
As early as 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Yu tried to tax salt: from then on, the struggle to control it has led to retaliations, such as Gandhi’s salt march against the English tax.

Zero salt
Be careful not to use too much salt: nutritionists recommend a maximum quantity of 6 grams per day, while many natural products, such as fruit and cereals, do not contain as much as a milligram.

Are you curious about the surge in popularity of plant-based burgers like the Impossible and Beyond Burgers? Wondering our thoughts on these new food products? This article provides insights and recommendations that will help you make the best decisions for your health and your principles. 

Eating it up…

Both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat (makers of the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger, respectively) are astoundingly-fast-growing businesses. Beyond Meat took the IPO step earlier this year – a Forbes contributor, in September, called them ‘probably the hottest stock in the world’ and described it as ‘the top-performing IPO of the year and one of the best of all time.’ ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like this…’ ponders this same expert. 

Between them, these two plant-based burgers are now offered in fast-food outlets, restaurants and supermarkets across the US and internationally – Subway, Dunkin’, Burger King, Hard Rock Café, Cheesecake Factory, Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s, and Disney World are among those offering these plant-based burger alternatives. McDonald’s and KFC are rumored to be in testing phase. 

The meat of the issue

Health is usually tipped as the primary driver for choosing plant-based meat products. Curiosity, environmental and ethical concerns are strong motivators too. It’s not just vegans and vegetarians who are opting for plant-based, faux meats – nearly half of those who buy plant-based meat products do not otherwise avoid meat. 

Our focus in this article is do the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger live up to the health hopes of their consumers? 

Spoiler alert – we don’t think they do. Here’s why, and what plant-based burgers we would recommend instead…

The rub with the Impossible and Beyond Burgers

1. Ultra-processed

One way to identify foods according to their degree of processing is to use the NOVA classification system, the most prominent system used in scientific investigations and by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. NOVA recognizes four levels of processing of foods: unprocessed or minimally processed, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra-processed foods.

According to the NOVA scale, ultra-processed foods are “formulations of ingredients, mostly of exclusive industrial use, that result from a series of industrial processes, many requiring sophisticated equipment and technology”. Ultra-processed foods can be identified by meeting at least one of the following characteristics:

• Food substances never or rarely used in kitchens: these include hydrolyzed proteins and protein isolates that are fractionated, refined, or otherwise chemically manipulated from whole foods.
• Classes of additives whose function is to make the final product palatable or more appealing: these include flavors, colors, emulsifiers, thickeners, etc. 

According to the NOVA classification, both the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger are considered ultra-processed food products. Here is a list of their ingredients, which shows the use of fractionated whole foods, ingredients with other types of industrial processing, flavors, and additives. 

Impossible Burger

Beyond Burger

Ingredients: Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12. Sourced from Impossible Foods 11-03-19

Ingredients: Water, Pea Protein Isolate*, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Refined Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Natural Flavors, Cocoa Butter, Mung Bean Protein, Methylcellulose, Potato Starch, Apple Extract, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Sunflower Lecithin, Pomegranate Fruit Powder, Beet Juice Extract (for color) Sourced from Beyond Meat 11-03-19

This is how the Impossible Burger is made:

2. Similar Nutrient Facts to Fast Food Burgers

Most of you will be aware that in Functional Medicine we don’t consider the Nutrition Facts box to be the be-all-and-end-all of a food’s health value. There’s a whole host of nutrition information not covered by it after all. However, it is readily available and often compared. So let’s take a look – how do the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger stack up in the Nutrition Facts box?

To do this evaluation we added, for comparison, another processed, fast-food burger, the Big Mac with no bun. Is it a fair comparison? Impossible Foods seems to think so – their website says: The Impossible Burger is made from proteins, flavors, fats, and binders, like almost every burger you’ve eaten in your life. They themselves are comparing their product to processed burgers. 

Here’s the comparison:

Nutrient Facts comparison between plant-based burgers and a Big Mac patty without bun 

Per 100g (per single burger in parentheses) *	Big Mac patty	Impossible Burger	Beyond Burger
Calories (kCal)	236 (330)	257 (290)	221 (250)
Protein (g)	13 (18)	17 (19)	18 (20)
Fats (g)	18 (25)	12 (14)	16 (18)
Saturated fat (g)	6 (9)	7 (8)	5 (6)
Carbohydrates (g)	5 (7)	6 (7)	3 (3)
Sodium (mg)	450 (630)	327 (370)	345 (390)

*Note that the serving size for a Big Mac patty is 140g, while both the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger are smaller, at 113g. The data above are therefore adjusted for comparison to be the equivalents per 100g.

There’s not really much of a difference between all three once you normalize for serving size. Ingredients in a Big Mac patty by the way? 100% beef. Not that we’re recommending it (for other reasons)! 

3. Ingredients not thoroughly scrutinized (applies to Impossible Burger)

Heme is the magic compound in the Impossible Burger, making it taste and bleed as a beef burger would. Although you don’t see it on the ingredient list, it’s there within soy leghemoglobin (SLH). Impossible Foods makes SLH by first genetically engineering yeast to contain the SLH gene. They then grow the yeast via fermentation and then isolate the SHL and add it (and the heme within it) to the burger mix. 

In July 2019, the FDA posted a Rule document amending the color additive regulations to allow for the use of SLH as a color additive. In it it states that: “Impossible Foods made its own determination, to which we had no questions, that the use of soy leghemoglobin preparation to optimize flavor in ground beef analogue products intended to be cooked is generally recognized as safe (GRAS).” They state that their decision was made based on results from a 14-day and two 28-day rat studies that showed “no evidence of mutagenic activity or increased chromosomal aberrations in cells.”

The Center for Science in the Public Interest criticized the FDA’s approval of SLH calling it a ‘barebones’ review of safety. CSPI Senior Scientist Lisa Lefferts said: “FDA’s guidance recommends long-term safety testing for additives like soy leghemoglobin, which fall in the agency’s highest ‘concern level’ category due to the extent of exposure. Instead, FDA relied heavily on a short-term (28-day) study, which provides no evidence of long-term safety.”

Other industrially produced ingredients once approved with GRAS status have had that status reversed as better data became available: partially hydrogenated oils, are perhaps the best known. In 2018, the FDA banned seven artificial flavors commonly used in baked goods, ice cream, candy, beverages and chewing gum, that were found to cause cancer in lab animals. Companies were given a rather generous 24 months to find substitute ingredients. 

4. Potential pesticide residues (applies to Impossible Burger)

Since the Impossible Burger uses soy that is genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate (the main active ingredient in Round Up), several groups have posited the concern that the burgers may contain pesticide residues. 

Impossible Foods has published reports from their six batch tests showing that glyphosate was not detected above 0.005 ppm (essentially a ‘negative’ result). The consumer advocacy group, Mom’s Across America (MMA) published their own testing done in April this year contradicting the Impossible Foods findings – the MMA tests, done through Health Research Institute Laboratories, showed glyphosate levels of 11.3 ng/g (equivalent to 0.0113 ppb). Impossible Foods has heavily contested MMA’s publication with scorching, defamatory tactics.

We’d say the jury’s still out about pesticide exposure from Impossible Burgers. Beyond Burgers, incidentally, are non-GMO (non-genetically engineered) verified and so have less of a concern (but not no concern) about potential pesticide residues.

While we’re on the subject, are vegan diets really a health panacea?

Health is often a major reason for choosing to restrict or avoid meat. However, in our clinic, we routinely see that poorly-implemented vegan diets lead to nutrient insufficiencies (seen on lab tests as well as through other indicators), are harmful to health and can perpetuate the very diseases our patients were trying to address or prevent. 

Vegan diets are not alone there – any diet poorly implemented can have similarly-negative results. Our goals are always to help patients implement the healthiest version of diets, respectful of their wider principles and dietary preferences. 

Where blood sugar and insulin dysregulation are factors however, (type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, PCOS/hormonal imbalances, overweight/obesity, cognitive impairment, and cancer are some relevant examples), vegan diets can in some cases be too high in carbohydrates and too low in other nutrients to be effective therapeutically. 

Our dietary toolkit is broad and evidence-based; applied in a highly personalized way to each individual that works with us. Barring some unique medical situations, plant food dominates our dietary plans, but not usually to the absolute exclusion of meat and fish.   

Let’s not give up on the goals

We agree that eating more plant foods is beneficial for health. Plants contain vitamins, minerals, fiber and powerful (and still not comprehensively understood) phytonutrients, which are essential for addressing the epidemic of chronic disease. High meat consumption, especially processed red meats like bacon, hot dogs, sausages, is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer and overall mortality.  

We also concur that finding sustainable foods with low environmental impact is a pressing societal need. We fully recognize the interconnections between ecological and human health and have written and discussed those very issues before

However, we cannot conclude that an ultra-processed food source, especially one with questionable new ingredients, is the solution.

In fairness to Beyond Meats, we think their burger does come out on top in the comparison above, due to better ingredients and non-GMO status. They are, however, secretive about their production processes making it hard to evaluate, and ultimately still fall into the ultra-processed foods category. 

A smattering of the conclusions reached by research on ultra-processed foods (let’s call them UPFs now, for covenience) as a group is pretty convincing:

• UPF consumption is associated with body fat during childhood and adolescence.
• Decreasing the dietary share of UPFs is an effective way to improve nutritional quality of US diets
• A 10% increase in UPF consumption is associated with >10% risk for overall and breast cancer
• UPF consumption is positively associated with weight, especially among women
• Limiting UPFs is a potentially-effective strategy for obesity prevention and treatment
• Dietary improvements in general involve lower consumption of UPFs and higher consumption of minimally-processed foods and culinary ingredients
• The displacement of minimally processed foods and freshly-prepared dishes by UPFs is associated with unhealthy dietary nutrient profiles and several non-communicable diseases

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, issues raised with UPFs are that they:

• use chemically-manufactured ingredients not found naturally 
• are nutritionally-imbalanced 
• displace whole foods in the diet 
• are often aggressively marketed without comprehensively or accurately informing the consumer. (For instance, the marketing for plant-based burgers is often more in line with natural, organic items whereas in fact they are highly processed.)
• are, in general, associated with increased rates of chronic disease – obesity, cardiovascular, cancer, depression, asthma, gastrointestinal disorders and all-cause mortality

What would we recommend instead?

We recommend diverse, ‘clean’ and varied diets based on whole foods as much as possible. Our general guidelines include:

• Aim for 8+ cups of varied and colorful, non-starchy vegetables per day.
• Choose organic, whole food products whenever possible.
• Choose grass-fed, free range, antibiotic / hormone free animal products whenever possible.
• When opting for packaged foods, choose the least processed options available (e.g., short ingredient list, natural / recognizable ingredients, minimal preservatives / additives / flavorings / colorings). 

To find animal protein sources with a lower carbon footprint, check out our blog post, and to choose and source local food as much as possible, you can use this resource. 

An alternative to processed burgers, we hope you’ll consider making your own plant-based burgers. Here are some wonderful suggestions: 

• Zucchini burgers
• Black bean burgers
• Mushroom burgers
• Ultimate veggie burgers

And for the occasional meat burger, we like to mix it up with plant foods too. Check out our Beet Beef Burger for Methylation Support. It contains rosemary too, which has been shown to reduce heterocyclic amine (pro-oxidant, pro-carcinogenic compounds formed from grilling all types of foods) formation during cooking.

So, should I buy stock in Beyond Meat?

We’re clearly not in the business of financial advice! However, the same Forbes contributor cited above gave some relevant thoughts that further contextualize the market for plant-based meats and the choices we, as consumers, face. He fires a blazing caution to those who are considering jumping into the Beyond Meat stock craze. He braised it down to two main reasons why your fingers could get a little charred:

Firstly, despite first-mover advantages, plant-based burgers are replicable. Bigger companies are already developing and launching their own versions. Secondly, it’s a craze! The hysteria will fade away. The ‘next new thing’ will rise above it.

From our vantage point, we would simply add that if something doesn’t deliver on one of its primary promises – health – it won’t last in the long run. 

Thanks to Lindley Wells for her research contributions to this article. Lindley holds a degree in nutrition and integrative health from Maryland University of Integrative Health. Before entering the field of nutrition, Lindley studied environmental policy at Colby College where she focused on sustainable agriculture and domestic and international food regulation/policy. Lindley is deeply passionate about bringing food and nutrition education into schools and to get people of all ages back into the kitchen preparing their own healthful meals. Lindley’s areas of interest include the brain gut connection, eating disorders, culinary nutrition, mindfulness and stress reduction, and the prevalence and physiological impact of chemicals in everyday products. Lindley is a currently in training in our clinic as she works towards the Certified Nutrition Specialist credential.