Food Scientists Focus on Taste & Nutrition of Plant-Based Alternatives

With the enormous popularity increase of plant-based alternatives for meat, fish, eggs, and cheese, scientists are now honing in on the ultimate health and taste profile for these alternatives. This is no easy feat, as a new paper in Science of Food explored.

In the United States, the plant-based food market was valued at almost $5 billion in 2019, with 40% of those sales in the milk category. This was almost a 30% growth from 2017. Plant-based foods like Impossible Burger and Beyond Beef have helped spread awareness for these alternatives.

Research from Wells Fargo said, “Consumers are increasingly drawn to plant-based alternatives given rising concerns for health, environmental considerations, and sustainability. We expect that outsized growth will continue for plant-based products, both in the U.S. and globally.”

“With Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods and other products coming on the market, there’s a huge interest in plant-based foods for improved sustainability, health and ethical reasons,” says David Julian McClements, University of Massachusetts Amherst Distinguished Professor and lead author of the paper A brief review of the science behind the design of healthy and sustainable plant-based foods. 

Plant-based foods’ nutritional profiles must meet those of traditional foods to be useful to humans. McClements and his team are researching the complexity of nutrition and plant-based diets.

“We’re trying to make processed food healthier,” McClements says. “We aim to design them to have all the vitamins and minerals you need and have health-promoting components like dietary fiber and phytochemicals so that they taste good and they’re convenient and they’re cheap and you can easily incorporate them into your life. That’s the goal in the future, but we’re not there yet for most products.”

Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental wellbeing, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer and has many side effects.

For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Here are some resources to get you started:

• Weekly Vegan Meal Plans
• Plant-Based Health Resources
• Plant-Based Food & Recipes
• Plant-Based Nutrition Resources
• The Ultimate Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition
• Budget-Friendly Plant-Based Recipes
• High Protein Plant-Based Recipes
• Plant-Based Meal Prep

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