So, are these plant-based burgers healthy or not?

And the answer is, compared to what?

Eating is kind of a zero-sum game, right? Every food has an opportunity cost.

I mean, every time we put something in our mouth, right, it's a lost opportunity to put something even healthier in our mouth.

So if you want to know if something is healthy, you have to compare it to what you'd be eating instead.

So, for example, our eggs healthy, right? Compared to breakfast-linked sausage?

Yes. But compared to oatmeal? Not even close, right? But a lot, I mean, sausage is considered

a group-1 carcinogen. In other words, we know consumption of processed meat causes cancer,

each 50 grams serving a day. That's like a single breakfast link, was linked

to an 18% higher risk of colorectal cancer.

So the risk of getting colorectal cancer eating one link a day is about the same as the

increased risk of lung cancer you'd get breathing secondhand smoke all day living with a smoking spouse.

So compared to sausage, eggs are healthy, but compared to oatmeal, eggs are not.

So when it comes to Beyond Meat and Impossible burger, yeah, they may be better and

that they have less saturated fat, but hey, you want less saturated fat, and plant-based meat alternatives are no

match for unprocessed plant foods such as beans or lentils.

A bean burrito, lentils soup, could certainly fill the same culinary niche as a

lunchtime burger.

But if you are going to have some kind of burger, it's easy to argue that the plant-based

versions are healthier. There is a sodium I mean, it's easy to argue that the plant-based versions are healthier.

There is a sodium issue, and it's not that much, if any, lower and saturated fat,

since they use coconut oil, which is basically just as bad as animal fat,

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