I dunno... IMHO trying to substitute fake meat for meat isn't great. And a lot of the stuff isn't what you'd call "healthy" to begin with.
Beef-less beef is everywhere. Here’s how it stacks up nutritionally.
www.bonappetit.com
To make it seem like meat, they doctor it up with all sorts of things that are just as unhealthful as meat. It's plant-based, but that doesn't mean it's healthy. If they're adding in natural fats, a whole bunch of soy, and loading it down with sodium to "taste like meat", well you're out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I'd almost go a few ways here:
- Where you need a meat substitute, lean ground turkey can be a better option than beef. In a lot of dishes with "hidden" meat, i.e. the sort of things you bring up like spaghetti, lasagna, etc, the differences won't be very noticeable. I assume the doc wants you to mostly be cutting back on red meats; there are alternatives.
- Where you might normally use meat (such as a burger) but it's not hidden, use something else, but not fake meat. For example my wife and I eat portobello burgers on a regular basis. Mentally I don't even attempt to tell myself I'm eating a burger; I tell myself I'm eating a delicious portobello sandwich on a bun. That's IMHO *far* healthier than a burger or a fake burger.
- Where you don't need a meat substitute, just eat something else. We honestly do a ton of fish/veggie meals here (not sure if your doc was offering fish as a "meat" alternative". We tend not to do a lot of pasta, but my wife makes an awesome Greek tortellini salad that is meatless. If you're trying to cut back on meat, cut back on meat, rather than substituting fake meat.
There are tons of ways to reduce meat intake without trying to fool yourself.
I get people who are vegetarian simply because they don't want to eat animals gravitating towards fake meat, but if you're trying to do this for health reasons, the fake meat isn't much of an improvement.
Vegetarian/vegan food can be incredibly delicious. In some ways it's like when I used to travel to Utah on business and they had a cap on 4% ABV for beer. Instead of just throwing a ton of hops and making a 7% IPA, you have to be very careful to develop flavor within a restriction. Vegetarian/vegan food can't rely on meat and fat, but that doesn't mean that they don't develop great flavor. I'm not a vegetarian/vegan personally, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the food. When I choose meatless meals, I will rather go fully meatless, not replace meat with fake meat.
