New study highlights the positive digestion benefits in New Zealand beef when comapred to a plant-based meat alternative
Researchers have compared the digestion differences between pasture-raised beef, grain-finished beef and a plant-based alternative. To mimic the human digestive tract, researchers used simulators in the laboratory to observe the differences.
Meat and the alternative plant-based product are made up of various components including fat and protein. When we digest food, our body breaks it down for us to use to do a range of functions, including building muscle and providing an energy source.
This research showed:
What an animal eats impacts the nutritional properties of meat. This work confirms animals eating pasture raises the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in meat, particularly long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) when compared to meat from grain-finished animals. It is well known these fats (that we typically find in fish), provide health benefits such as improving blood cholesterol
Digestion studies show that pasture-raised beef provides more of the desirable omega-3 fatty acids when the meat is digested, compared to that released from grain-finished beef. The plant-based alternative used in this study contained no long-chain omega-3 PUFAs.
Beef is highly digestible, meaning it breaks down efficiently. The plant-based alternative used in the research had lower digestibility during the course of digestion.