The Impossible Burger Is Not Necessarily Healthier Than A Regular Beef Burger

From Women's Health

No matter how many times your intense vegan friends insist that veggie burgers taste just as good as your regular beef patty (or even better!) ...well, you know that's kind of B.S.

However, the trendy Impossible Burger (which, damn, looks a lot like a real burger) is out to change your mind. And with it popping up on menus across the country (yep, the Impossible Whopper is even a thing at Burger King), it’s getting harder and harder to ignore this faux-meat burger.

While you’ve probably seen this vegan burger all over your social media feeds, you have questions. Lots of questions. Like...is it good for you? And how does it bleed like beef?

What is the Impossible Burger?

No, your server didn't flub your order. The Impossible Burger really does look, sizzle, feel, and even "bleed" like a traditional hamburger. But it's a meatless, completely plant-based patty.

Impossible Foods, the makers of the burger, say on their website that they spent five years working to come up with something that recreates the taste, texture, and smell of a traditional beef burger made with no animal products. (Seems impossible...hence the name.)

Bonus: It's eco-friendly, too. Impossible Foods says that compared to cattle production, "the Impossible Burger uses 95 percent less land, 74 percent less water, and creates 87 percent less greenhouse gas emissions." Although, to be fair, the same can be said of most other meat-free burgers and foods.

What are the Impossible Burger's ingredients and nutrition breakdown?

While the Impossible Burger is made from plant-based ingredients...that doesn't mean it's all vegetables. The Impossible Burger ingredients list includes soy protein, coconut oil, and potato protein, making it gluten-free.

And even though it’s plant-based, a four-ounce serving clocks in at 240 calories, 14 grams of fat (including eight grams of saturated fat), and 19 grams of protein, which isn’t super nutritious, says Amy Goodson, RD and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics.

Here's the full nutritional breakdown of a four-ounce Impossible Burger patty:

• 240 calories

• 14 g fat (8 g saturated)

• 370 mg sodium

• 19 g protein

• 9 g carbohydrates

• 3 g fiber

• Less than 1 g sugar

While the total calories and fat look reasonable, a serving is only four ounces. “When I ordered my burger, the smallest I could get was one-third of a pound, which is 5.3 ounces,” says Maxine C. Yeung, RD, registered dietitian and wellness coach.

There's also a high proportion of saturated fat per serving, likely from the coconut oil. Yeung says too much saturated fat is a health concern, regardless of the source.

Here's how it compares to a four-ounce ground beef patty that's 93 percent lean:

• 219 calories

• 10.13 g fat (4.2 g saturated)

• 75 mg sodium

• 29.72 g protein

• 0 g carbohydrates

• 0 g fiber

• 0 g sugar

Consider what you’re adding to your Impossible patty or pairing it with, too. “Some mayo and fries could quickly take this burger meal to hundreds of calories and lots of fat in a hurry,” says Goodson. “Pairing the patty with veggies, a whole-grain bun, and a healthier condiment like mustard or even mashed avocado is ideal.”

Impossible Burger vs. other veggie burgers: Who wins?

The Impossible Burger is higher in protein compared to other veggie burgers, says Goodson. “If your goal is protein, this might be your choice, but if you are trying to get veggies in with it, then a veggie burger might be the better option.”

Here's the nutritional breakdown for a standard veggie patty:

• 124 calories

• 4 g fat (1 g saturated)

• 398 mg sodium

• 11 g protein

• 10 g carbohydrates

• 3 g fiber

• Less than 1 g sugar

Compared to veggie burgers, the Impossible Burger also offers a fair amount of B12, a vitamin that vegans often have trouble getting enough of in their diets.

This burger is also a good source of heme iron, which isn’t readily available in other vegetarian and vegan sources, says Yeung. (More on heme in a minute.)

How does it compare to the Beyond Burger?

The Impossible Burger’s biggest competitor is Beyond Burger, another popular plant-based option. Like the Impossible Burger, this burger is designed to look, cook, and taste like a juicy beef patty, but without all the environmental and health impact. It even impersonates the look of a medium-rare burger, thanks to red coloring from beets.

Beyond Burger’s ingredients look pretty similar to the Impossible Burger except that it doesn’t contain soy and it’s GMO-free. Its main protein sources are peas, mung bean, and rice. Nutritionally, the two are on par for protein and fiber. The Beyond Burger has slightly more fat (total and saturated) while the Impossible Burger clocks in with a few more grams of carbohydrates.

Here’s the nutritional breakdown for a four-ounce uncooked Beyond Burger patty:

• 250 calories

• 18 g fat (6 g saturated)

• 390 mg sodium

• 20 g protein

• 3 g carbohydrates

• 2 g fiber

• 0 g sugar

Is the Impossible Burger good for you?

There been some concern about Impossible Burger’s secret sauce-soy leghemoglobin. Soy leghemoglobin is found naturally in the roots of soybean plants and contains heme, which gives the burger the beef-like aroma, taste, and characteristic “bleeding.” In animal products, heme is found in animal muscle.

Rather than grow bushels of soybeans, the scientists at Impossible Foods have genetically-engineered yeast to produce heme, which has raised some red flags for people wary of GMOs. While the company has performed tests, and the product is generally recognized as safe, the FDA gave the ingredient its official approval in July 2018, according to CNBC.

“The truth is, it is such a new food, that we just don’t know the long-term effects because there hasn’t been time to study it,” says Yeung. So it's hard to say right now whether the GMOs used to create the IB's signature taste will have any impact on your health.

At the end of the day, you should treat it nutritionally like red meat, Yeung says. “I recommend consuming it no more than twice a week," she says. “From a nutrition perspective, if it comes down to eating a lean beef or turkey burger versus the Impossible Burger, I’d choose the meat burgers, and the ingredients are all natural versus manufactured.”

How does the Impossible Burger taste?

Well, this is a matter of opinion, so here are a few Impossible Burger reviews:

“When I ate the burger, I was surprised that the texture was very close to ground beef,” says Yeung. But it's not-it's a totally plant-based, vegan patty. “If you don’t like meat in general, you probably won’t like this burger,” she says.

Still, she says the burger didn’t really taste like beef to her. More like wheat and soy.

However, our friends at Men's Health found the burger "a highly acceptable, tasty alternative to the real thing," although, "somewhat drier and less adventurous."

People on Instagram and Twitter, meanwhile, seem to love it:

Where can you find Impossible Burger locations?

Unfortunately, you can’t currently buy the Impossible Burger at grocery stores or online, just yet. But if you're curious to try it, you can order an Impossible Burger at thousands of restaurants in the U.S. and in Hong Kong. It’s popping up on the menu of more chain restaurants like Wahlburgers, Bareburger, Fatburger. Red Robin, White Castle, and Umami Burger. Even Little Caesars and Qdoba have jumped on the alterna-burger bandwagon. The Impossible Whopper made its debut at select Burger King locations and will be available at all 7,200 U.S. restaurants by the end of the year.

The bottom line: The Impossible Burger is a fun alternative, although nutritionally not that different from a red meat burger. But if you are meat-free and still miss cheeseburgers, it might be worth trying.

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