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Comment by Emma_Goldman | Hacker News Reader

Food, and therefore nutrition, is significantly more complicated than a ledger of macronutrients. In this particular case, I was getting at this:

https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077310

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> Ultra-processed foods, as defined using the Nova food classification system, encompass a broad range of ready to eat products, including packaged snacks, carbonated soft drinks, instant noodles, and ready-made meals.

I'm not seeing the relevance.

Quorn and other meat substitutes most certainly fit the criteria of ultra-processed foods, and as such may be implicated in poor health outcomes if they make up a significant portion of one's diet.

We can do better than "it's processed so it's bad".

The SWAP-MEAT trial concluded that processed alt-meat products improved health markers over animal meat: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32780794/

> Among generally healthy adults, contrasting Plant with Animal intake, while keeping all other dietary components similar, the Plant products improved several cardiovascular disease risk factors, including TMAO; there were no adverse effects on risk factors from the Plant products.

The list of illustrative examples may be misleading you. It is a wide category. Look at the Nova classification, then look at the ingredients list of meat substitutes. There is no debate on this point.