A new study on whether plant-based meat alternatives have cardiometabolic health benefits has led to a condemnation of vegan food as unhealthy.

Some media reports have led with the statement that “vegan food” or “plant-based diets” are less healthy than meaty ones. But this is a misrepresentation of the diets that the participants of the study ate during the eight week trial.

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The 89 participants, who had a raised risk of diabetes, ate one of two prescribed diets. One included specific quantities of animal-based meat, while the other included specific quantities of their plant-based equivalents. In both cases, the meat and the plant-based meat replaced whatever protein the participants would normally eat. That is, the meat or plant-based meat had to be their main source of protein.

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Some of the health outcomes were slightly more negative for the plant-based group than the meat group. The participants who ate meat had “modest improvements” in blood pressure, whereas those eating plant-based alternatives did not. Plant-based eaters also had higher levels of sodium and potassium. They had higher blood glucose peaks, but mostly they remained in the normal range.

But the plant-based group saw improvement in other areas. They had a “markedly greater reduction” in dietary cholesterol and an increase in dietary fiber.

Overall, the study found that eating plant-based meat as a main source of protein “did not show widespread cardiometabolic health benefits compared with omnivorous diets over 8 weeks.” This conclusion is more moderate than media coverage suggests.

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