Can vegan meats meet your body’s nutritional needs?
Maybe you’ve shopped at the supermarket and then found meat labeled vegetarian. Well, You don’t need to be surprised because that product is substitute meat that uses vegetable ingredients as the basic ingredients. To find out whether vegan meat is healthy for our bodies or not, you have to first know the ingredients in it. Meat substitutes for vegetarians are also known as seitan.
Vegan meat is made from a protein in wheat called gluten. The method of making vegan meat is by kneading wheat flour with water until it forms sticky dough strands. The dough is then rinsed with water while continuing to knead it slowly to remove the starch in it. After rinsing, the remaining product is pure gluten with a chewy and sticky texture. That is what you came to know as seitan. Even though you use seitan, you can say that vegetarian meat is healthy because it contains high protein and minerals. 28 grams of seitan is the same as consuming 104 kcal of energy and 21 grams of protein. Vegan meat is also a highly processed product that is low in carbohydrates and fat. The replacement meat from seitan also contains sufficient protein for body intake. The other ingredients that can be used to substitute meat. Some of them are tempeh, mushrooms, beans, tofu, sweet potato flour, or rice. Some use flavorings to make them taste like real meat.
Some of the advantages of vegan meat are:
1. High in protein
Vegetarian meat is a healthy food because it is very rich in protein. The amount of protein can even be equivalent to the protein from chicken and beef. For meat substitutes from seitan, every 28 grams of seitan, you can meet almost 50 percent of protein needs in a day.
2. Safe for people who are allergic to soy or pods.
Many vegan meat products use nuts as their base ingredients. Usually, what you often find is soybeans. Not everyone can eat soybeans safely. Some people have allergies to this type of pod. For those who are allergic to legumes, vegan meat made from seitan is the right choice. Seitan does not contain soy, so it is safe for people who have a soy allergy.
3. Rich in nutrients Nutritional content is not the only factor that can determine whether vegan meat for vegetarians is healthy or not. However, usually vegan meat products have their nutrition. It would be even better if you eat vegan meat with a balance of vegetables and fruits so that you can fulfill the nutrients that your body needs.
Whether or not vegan meat depends on your diet. Vegan meat does provide a large amount of protein, but you should still get complete protein from nuts and legumes. Apart from that, you also shouldn’t overeat vegan meat. If you want to meet your nutritional needs, you must also get them from fruits and vegetables. You can include vegan meats in your diet as an alternative to make your daily diet more varied.