Phrases like "healthy" and "bad for you" are highly subjective. For instance, salt is bad for people with certain types of high blood pressure, but it's fine for people young and healthy.
Also, there are a number of meat substitutes, each with their own nutritional profile. The obvious ones are TVP and the stuff in Impossible/Beyond, but there's also seitan, tofu, and even mushrooms.
Trying to lump them together isn't helpful, nor does it say anything about how your body will react to them.
The Impossible and Beyond meats are high in saturated fats (roughly comparable with beef IIRC), so should be consumed in moderation. I don't think TVP meat substitutes have this issue, fwiw.
What are the TVP meat substitutes?
Whole Food plants > plant based meat > animal products.
The plant based meats vary a lot. IMO just look for the ones that are low in sat fat and trans fat. Check for added sugar. And watch out for the ones that have really high sodium levels. Also best to avoid the ones with palm or coconut oil.
For example, the brands I know of that tend not to be so bad. Tofurky, lifelight,Daring original. In the UK This. Also the new beyond meat that uses avocado fat instead of coconut is really impressive actually. Only 1-2 grams of sat fat for a Burger.
Depends on the ingredients, you have to ask more specific questions.
There are studies on this, but it's a somewhat novel thing if you ignore traditional foods like tofu and seitan.
https://sentientmedia.org/fake-meat/
Fake Meat Versus Real Meat: Nutrition
When comparing the nutrition of plant-based and animal meats, an important factor to look at is their saturated fat content. Although fats are a necessary part of a healthy and balanced diet, consuming large amounts of saturated fat can increase levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and increase the risk of coronary heart disease and strokes. Saturated fats are found in high quantities in red meat, but are usually present in smaller amounts in plant-based meat products. One plant-based source of saturated fats to watch out for is coconut oil.
Some plant-based meats are higher in fiber. Eating high-fiber foods can help aid digestion, lower blood cholesterol levels and control blood sugar levels and appetite, which can help with weight management.
On the other hand, some plant-based meat products contain high quantities of sodium, and others may not contain enough vitamin B12. Although some manufacturers add this nutrient to their fake meat products, others do not. But this can be rectified by taking a vitamin B12 supplement.
Still in its early stages of development, the full nutritional value of lab-grown meat is difficult to ascertain. Yet because these meats are grown from just a few cells, there could be the potential to manipulate their growth and nutritional makeup to create an even healthier alternative to animal meat.
Probably. Making your own mianjin is much better ;)
Vegan Bullshit Bingo #9
Fake meat is highly processed and chemicalEverything consists of chemicals. What matters are the kind of ingredients. Not every cryptic word on the food label is inherently bad. Organic food also allows more than 50 "e-number" additives. The ingredient list of fruits would also be quite long when synthesized. It depends on the product. There are good and bad examples to be found. Just as many animal products are highly processed. A Vegan diet works great without substitute products, using legumes, vegetables, fruit, nuts, grain, pasta, potatoes, rice etc.. This broadens your horizon past simple mac and cheese while getting to know many new ingredients.
It really depends on wich ones. Also you can make most of them at home wich allows you to control everything that goes into them. I love making seitan myself.
