02/08/2025
āEating this ultraprocessed food may be good for you and the planet,ā says CNN.
Right. And drinking Diet Coke is hydration.
Let me explain whatās actually happening when you ingest these products:
A Beyond Burger contains ~20+ engineered ingredients: pea/soy protein isolates (often extracted with solvents like hexane), methylcellulose (the same thickener used in wallpaper paste that your body canāt digest), ānatural flavorsā (a catch-all for lab-created compounds companies donāt have to disclose), cultured dextrose (a fermentation product that can include MSG-like compounds), and modified starches (chemically altered fillers).
Impossible adds soy leghemoglobin, a GMO yeastāderived ābleedingā agent that wasnāt in the human food supply before 2019.
When these hit your system, your body responds like it does to any ultra-processed food: inflammatory cascades, blood-sugar dysregulation, and gut-microbiome disruption. Your metabolism doesnāt magically treat a plant patty differently because the label says āplant-based.ā
Quick label check: If it needs a lab to make it, a paragraph-long ingredient list to explain it, or words like isolates, modified starches, gums, or ānatural flavors,ā itās ultra-processed. Real food reads like a recipe, not a chemistry set.
Donāt believe every headline. These are still ultra-processed foodsā¦ they hit your metabolism like a Cheeto with better PR.
If youāre plant-based, stick to actual plants: vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, olive oil, herbs, and minimally processed staples. If you eat meat, choose regeneratively raised options.
Your body has evolutionary wisdom about real food. Trust it over marketing headlines.
