A restaurant’s decision to remove Beyond Meat from its menu has reignited the Beyond Burger vs beef burger debate – and plant-based physician Dr Garth Davis is not impressed. Davis, a board-certified bariatric surgeon, author of Proteinaholic, and longtime advocate for plant-based nutrition, recently shared a Facebook video explaining why he believes the idea that a conventional beef burger is healthier than a Beyond Burger is “completely unfounded.” Davis is known for incorporating whole-food, plant-based nutrition into his approach to weight management and metabolic health.
The encounter began when Davis visited a burger restaurant he occasionally frequents and discovered that it had stopped selling Beyond Burgers. The restaurant still offered a mushroom burger, which Davis welcomed, but he wanted to know why the Beyond option had disappeared.
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According to Davis, an employee told him the plant-based burger was removed because it was not healthy. When Davis pointed out that the restaurant still sold beef burgers, the employee reportedly responded that they contained “real meat” and were not processed.
“Actually, they are processed,” Davis says in the video, before turning to research comparing plant-based meat with its animal-based counterpart.
What the SWAP-MEAT trial found
Find more info about plant-based nutrition, health, and weight management on Dr Davis’ Facebook page, YouTube channel, and website.
To challenge the assumption that beef is automatically healthier, Davis highlights the SWAP-MEAT trial, a randomized crossover study conducted by Stanford University researchers.
The study involved 36 generally healthy adults who ate at least two servings of either plant-based meat or animal meat each day. Participants followed one diet for eight weeks before switching to the other for another eight weeks. This allowed researchers to compare how the same people responded to both types of meat.
The plant-based products used in the trial were supplied by Beyond Meat and included burgers and other meat alternatives. Researchers measured several cardiovascular risk factors. These included cholesterol, body weight, blood pressure, and trimethylamine N-oxide, commonly known as TMAO.
Davis describes TMAO as a substance produced when the body and gut microbes process certain compounds found in animal foods. Higher concentrations of TMAO have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, an association alone does not prove that TMAO directly causes heart disease.
The study found that participants had lower TMAO levels during the plant-based phase, particularly among those who ate animal meat first and then switched to plant-based alternatives. Participants also had lower LDL cholesterol – widely known as “bad” cholesterol – while eating the plant-based products.
They lost a small amount of weight during the plant-based phase, despite receiving no instructions to reduce calories or intentionally lose weight. The researchers reported no significant differences between the diets for blood pressure and several other measured markers.
Because the trial compared plant-based meat with animal meat rather than with beans, vegetables, or other minimally processed foods, its findings do not establish Beyond Burgers as the healthiest possible meal. They do, however, directly challenge the claim at the center of the Beyond Burger vs beef burger discussion: that beef must be healthier simply because it is perceived as less processed.
“The claim that a burger is healthier than a Beyond Burger is absolutely unfounded,” Davis says. “I mean, completely unfounded. It’s ridiculous.”
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A Beyond Burger is not a bowl of beans
Davis does not argue that Beyond Burgers should be treated as an everyday health food. He notes that they can contain a substantial amount of sodium and do not offer nearly as much fiber as whole plant foods.
“Do I think a Beyond Burger is necessarily healthy? No,” he says. “There’s a lot of salt in Beyond Burgers.”
For a more nutrient-dense meal, Davis compares the product with black beans. An equivalent serving of calories from beans, he explains, would generally contain less sodium and fat. It would also have considerably more fiber and would likely be more filling.
“Obviously, whole foods are always going to be healthier,” he says.
That distinction is important. The most useful comparison is not whether a Beyond Burger can outperform lentils, beans, or a whole-food plant-based meal. It is whether someone choosing a burger is better served by the plant-based version or the beef version.
Based on the SWAP-MEAT findings, Davis says the plant-based option comes out ahead on several relevant measures.
“Once in a while, you want a burger,” he says. “And a Beyond Burger is just as healthy. Maybe more healthy than a regular burger, or probably more healthy than a regular burger.”
Davis says he gave the restaurant a “friendly earful,” though he is not convinced the staff accepted his argument. But when it comes to the Beyond Burger vs beef burger debate, his message is clear. Calling the beef option healthier merely because it is “real meat” is not supported by the available evidence.
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Dining and Cooking