Replacing meat with plant-based alternatives reduces cholesterol and weight

A study led by a researcher from the University of Granada and carried out in collaboration with the University of Castilla-La Mancha and the Francisco de Vitoria University has shown that replacing meat consumption with plant-based alternatives that simulate meat products would reduce total cholesterol (6%), LDL cholesterol (12%) and even body weight (1%) in the short term (1 to 8 weeks). The result of the research, led by Rubén Fernández Rodríguez, postdoctoral researcher in the group headed by Professor Jonatan Ruiz Ruiz, of the Faculty of Sport Sciences at the University of Granada and director of the Sport and Health University Research Institute (iMUDS), has been published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition under the title: Plant-based meat alternatives and cardiometabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Alternativas vegetales a la carne and cardio metabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis in Spanish).

The researchers analyzed eight previous investigations that included data from seven randomized clinical trials that evaluated different interventions based on replacing meat consumption with plant-based alternatives, formulated using proteins extracted from fungi, vegetables and/or legumes, applied to a total of 369 adults free of cardiovascular disease. This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis that sought to determine the effectiveness of replacing meat with plant-based alternatives that we can find on the market today in terms of cardiometabolic health, which, following the recent documentary based on the article by Professor C. Gardner of Stanford University, continues to increase in popularity in society.

The results, despite the fact that few studies have explored their effects, reaffirm the possible benefits to cardiometabolic health of replacing meat consumption with these plant-based alternatives. It should be noted that these products simulate meat in organoleptic characteristics (texture, aroma, flavor) and in nutritional composition, therefore, they could be considered as a previous step to the transition towards more vegetable-based diets without giving up the 'experience of consuming meat'.

'This study shows that replacing meat with plant-based alternatives has a positive effect on some cardiometabolic parameters such as LDL cholesterol even in short periods of a week,' says researcher Fernández Rodríguez, who also mentions an important gap in the scientific literature: 'The market for plant-based products is booming and it will be necessary to explore how these alternatives can impact on long-term cardiometabolic health, and even on other fundamental aspects such as mental health and the microbiota.' It is also important to emphasize that these effects could be greater in people with higher cholesterol levels or a poorer cardio-metabolic health profile, and that they could be used as a preliminary step towards a transition to a more plant-based diet, reducing the consumption of meat products, which would bring benefits not only to people's health but also to the environment.

The study marks a first approximation to how replacing meat consumption with plant-based alternatives would affect us and highlights the need for more studies that evaluate the different and most recent plant-based alternatives in different health parameters to see how they would affect human health in the long term. In addition, it would be interesting to see what impact they would have on the environment.