Vegetarian does not equal healthy – at least when it comes to fast food

There's a 'health halo' around vegetarian food. People seem to think that if it's vegetarian, it's good for them.

We do know that eating more plants is better for you, but that doesn't mean you must eat vegan (no animal products whatsoever) or even lacto-ovo (still eating dairy products and chicken eggs) vegetarian. The evidence shows that you can still eat protein from animals and have a terrifically healthy diet.

Scientists affiliated with Harvard noted this and wondered if the vegetarian options available at fast food restaurants were really better for you than the other options on the menu (Acad Nutr Diet 2021;doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2021.01.010).

To assess the nutrition of vegetarian options, the authors utilized a database of nutrition information from restaurants, limiting their exploration to the years 2012 to 2018. They further limited their analysis to 36 fast food chain restaurants in the United States with the largest sales volumes.

The authors analyzed the vegetarian options with respect to the total number of vegetarian main course options available at each restaurant chain, then considered the vegetarian options' comparative nutrient density, caloric density, and the amount of fats and sodium per serving. They further compared the vegetarian options to the non-vegetarian options within each chain as well as across restaurant chains.

Unfortunately, the authors found that fast food is still junk, even if it's vegetarian.

On the one hand, vegetarian options at fast food restaurants tended to be lower than nonvegetarian items in terms of calories, saturated fats and protein after adjusting for the number of calories each serving contained. On the other hand, vegetarian items were "significantly" higher in sugar. More immediately, vegetarian meat alternative sandwiches such as the "Impossible Whopper" had 1080mg sodium while the beef-containing version of the same sandwich ("The Whopper") had only 980mg sodium.

What this means for you

Don't be fooled into thinking that because something is "vegetarian" or even "vegan" that it's necessarily better for you. Read the Nutrition Information as well as the Ingredients to accurately evaluate whether a vegetarian option is really better for you than the alternative. You may be surprised.