Why You Should Avoid Vegan Junk Foods

Being a vegan is about animal rights and the health of the planet. But shouldn’t vegans also care about their own health just as much. If you end up in bad health because of poor food choices, how can you continue to fight for animal rights and the planet? You will be amazed at how much better you feel and how many animals you can save when you avoid vegan junk foods.

Being a vegan is a noble cause and it’s not easy caring about animals and the health of the planet. Being a vegan takes a lot of conviction to stick to, knowing that by changing their diet they can save animals and planet Earth.

When a person becomes a vegan to stand up for what they believe in, they do it in the face of a lot of criticism. Not only is there criticism, but also the concerns from family and friends that they will ruin their health if they don’t eat meat and drink milk.

Vegans Can Get Fat and Unhealthy

Many vegans I talk with act as if they aren’t concerned about their health, just as long as the food they eat is not from a living creature. When the subject of their health comes up, some vegans get offended when the subject of vegan junk foods comes up.

It seems rather odd to care so much about animals and the planet, yet have so little concern for their health.

The phrase “fat vegan” sounds like an oxymoron, but it is more common than you might think. Just because a food comes from plants, doesn’t mean it can’t make you gain weight or get sick. And if you’re not careful with your choice of vegan foods, you could become a fat vegan or an unhealthy vegetarian.

And if you were to get sick, then you might not be able to carry on as a vegan. Many of the medications that a vegan might have to take could have been developed through animal testing. And some medications are made from animals, even the gelatin in capsules is from animals.

And if you end up getting sick because of your because of vegan junk foods, you might not be able to carry on the crusade for animal rights and to stop climate change.

Maybe it is time for vegans to care about their health as much as they do about animal rights and the environment.

Vegan Fake Meats

There has been a sudden increase of vegan plant-based foods. Fast food restaurants are all advertising their plant-based burgers, tacos, sausages, and bacon. This is certainly a step in the right direction and could help more people to become vegan.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from becoming a vegan, and if these vegan fake meats help with the transition, I am all for it.

But should a vegan suddenly start eating these vegan junk foods. The answer is no, not if they care about their health as much as they do about animal rights.

You might wonder what could possibly be unhealthy in these plant-based fake meats. They are too high in saturated fat from the oil, high in sodium, and have little fiber.

It is much healthier to make your own vegan black bean burger.

Let’s look at a couple of the popular plant-based burgers you can buy at a store or restaurant as they compare to a healthy homemade vegan oil-free black bean burger. The following are for 1 burger.

	Impossible Burger (113 grams)	Beyond Burger (113 grams)	Vegan Black Bean Burger (120 grams)

Calories	240	250	200
Calories from Fat	126	160	18
Fat	14 g	18 g	2 g
Saturated Fat	8 g	6 g	0 g
Sodium	370 mg	390 mg	113 mg
Protein	19 g	20 g	10.5 g
Dietary Fiber	3 g	2 g	10 g

The Impossible Burger

The Impossible Burger has become a popular plant-based fake meat that contains a lot of oil, fat, isolated proteins, and fortified with vitamins. Being fortified could mean you are eating substandard vitamins you might not want.

The Impossible Burger also has GMO ingredients like soy leghemoglobin and soy protein. If you have concerns about genetically modified foods, you would want to stay away from the Impossible Burger. [1]

Beyond Meat Burger

The Beyond Meat burger certainly has plenty of oil. You can find in the ingredients expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, and sunflower oil. [2]

Their website claims they do not have any GMO ingredients in their food, which is most likely untrue, since most if not all canola oil is genetically modified.

Why Vegan Junk Foods Are Unhealthy

Yes, these fake meats are plant-based and have no animal foods in them. But the amount of fat from oils is the main health concern. Unfortunately, too many vegans do not concern themselves with this.

It’s not just these two brands, as there have been fake burgers, hot dogs, and sausages around for a long time. And most of them have oil, chemical food additives, MSG, and isolated soy protein. Plant-based yes, but also vegan junk foods.

Vegetable oils are not a health food, and certainly not good for our health. Vegetable and seed oils are nothing but liquid fat and should be avoided because:

They are high in omega-6 fatty acids
They damage the endothelial cells of our arteries, which reduce the amount of nitric oxide available in our body [3]
They cause plaque to form in our coronary arteries, leading to heart disease [4]
They have more than twice the calories per gram than either protein or carbohydrates, which causes weight gain among other health problems
They are pure fat, which can lead to type 2 diabetes [5]

Oil-free Vegan Burgers

You can find much healthier and tasty vegan burgers at the store like

Sunshine Burgers for example, which are very good.

Engine2 at Whole Foods is another line of oil-free vegan burgers, ravioli, and burritos. Or you can make your own as there are many recipes for homemade plant-based burgers.

Palm Oil Kills Animals

Many vegan junk foods have palm oil in the ingredients. Not only is palm oil damaging your health, but it also kills animals and is one of the causes of global warming.

In order to get more palm oil, rainforests are being cut down in order to make way for more palm oil plantations. Cutting down the rainforests contributes to climate change, since it destroys the natural peatland of the forest. This peatland absorbs carbon dioxide and is necessary if we hope to reverse climate change.

The leftover debris is then burned which adds more pollution to the atmosphere. And all of this slash and burn kills the natural wildlife in the area. The survival of orangutans is one of the main threats today because of palm oil. [6]

Vegan Junk Foods Conclusion

These new vegan fake meats are just two examples of the new vegan junk foods that are coming out, and there will be plenty more. Many of them will have high amounts of refined vegetable oils, fat, saturated fat, sodium, and questionable ingredients that are not healthy for us.

Just because donuts, potato chips, soda pop, and other vegan junk foods do not come from animals doesn’t mean they are fine for you to eat. Learning about a whole food plant-based diet could really enhance your health while maintaining your vegan diet.

If you really care about your health as much as the animals and the planet, you will read labels and start to get away from the chemical food additives, oils, and vegan junk foods.

About the Author

Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

© 2019 Sam Montana/Healthy Food and Life

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