How Replacing Plant-Based Products With Meat Improves Cardiovascular Health: A New Study

Thursday, August 13, 2020
ABC News Radio

Reviewer: KELLY MCCARTHY

(Washington)-Non-animal protein products reduce cardiovascular risk factors in a new study replacing Beyond Meat with beef, pork, and chicken as consumers turn to plant-based meat alternatives I understand.

A small study published Tuesday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Stanford Medicine found that when participants replaced proteins from animal protein to vegetable meat, they reduced LDL cholesterol, reduced TMAO levels, and in some cases Averages £2.

“In healthy adults in general, plant products improve risk factors for some cardiovascular diseases, including TMAO, while contrasting plant and animal intakes while preserving all other dietary constituents alike. The risk factors for plant products were not adversely affected,” the scientist concluded from 36 participants.

The researchers conducted this as a 16-week crossover study, splitting participants into two groups for dietary intervention.

Half of the participants ate more than two servings of plant-based alternative meat per week and half ate at least two servings of animal meat per week. Eight weeks later, people who eat plant-based “meat” started eating real meat for eight weeks, and people who eat real meat started eating plant-based “meat” for eight weeks.

This study did not include a washout period. This usually provides a small break during the intervention switch where the participants return to their diet as usual for a short time.

Participants’ LDL cholesterol levels, sometimes referred to simply as “bad” cholesterol, dropped by an average of 10.8 milligrams per deciliter. This has been found by the researchers to be statistically significant.

Dr Christopher Gardner, principal investigator at the Stanford Center for Preventive Research, said one of the main results tracked was the level of molecules, trimethylamine N-oxide, or TMAO. TMAO is associated with cardiovascular disease and Gardner calls it a “new risk factor.”

Scientists have found that participants have lower TMAO levels when eating a plant-based carnivorous diet.

“Participants who first ate a plant-based diet and did not eat meat during that time were essentially vegetarian. As a result, they may have inadvertently blunted their ability to make TMAO.” He said. “I’m still not sure if this kind of approach could be used as a strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Additional findings from the study included that participants lost an average of £2 during the plant-based portion of the study. They also found similar sodium intake and blood pressure levels during the animal-based and plant-based phases of the study. They say they subvert the myth that consuming plant-based meat increases sodium intake.

The actual meat used during the meat intervention was a combination of beef, pork and chicken products. The beef product used was 80% lean meat and 20% fat ground beef. Although it is a common red meat product for most Americans, the meat itself was significantly higher in saturated fat per serving than the plant-based “meat”.

Natewood, MD, a member of the ABC News medical unit, gave different results for saturated fat that would probably not be present when comparing 90-95% ground lean meat or other lean meat products. I explained that there is a possibility.

The Swap Meat Study was funded by an unlimited donation from Beyond Meat and researchers used the company’s products to compare the health effects of meat with plant-based alternatives, but Stanford Medical In the press release Beyond Meat said he was not involved in designing or conducting the study and not participating in the data analysis.

Additional funding for the research was provided by the National Institutes of Health.

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