No, Plants Aren’t Bad for You (and Other ‘Meatfluencer’ Claims, Fact-Checked)

Meat is making a comeback, and some of its proponents are trying to take down vegetables in the process. Just as plant-based eating reached peak popularity in the pandemic era, ‘Big Meat’ began putting its most valuable PR players to work. Misleading marketing, manipulated research and rigorous rebranding have all been part of the effort to make meat the hero and plants, yes plants, the villain. Because now, according to some so-called wellness experts, vegetables are now a questionable dietary choice.

A big part of this growing anti-vegetable movement has been led by the carnivore diet community, especially on social media. Not only have these “meatfluencers” helped position meat-heavy diets as healthy, but they have also cast some plant-based foods as unhealthy, and even harmful. From claims about lectins to leaky gut, seed oils to ultraprocessed plants, we spoke to scientific experts in order to separate the facts from fads.

Fact: Lectins Aren’t the Villain (Most Are Destroyed by Heat)

Myth: Foods With Lectins Are Toxic

A pervasive claim in the carnivore diet space is that the consumption of lectins, a protein found in most plant foods, can cause inflammation, allergies and even lead to autoimmune diseases.

Shawn Baker, a popular social media figure who promotes the carnivore diet, has claimed that lectin consumption can lead some people to becoming nutrient deficient. Nope.

Beans, lentils, peanuts, tomatoes, eggplants, wheat and potatoes are examples of foods that contain high amounts of lectins. While the Mayo Clinic describes lectins as serving as a “protective function for plants as they grow,” in the carnivore community, they are often referred to as a “toxin,” released by plants as a defense mechanism to stop predators — including humans — from eating them.

The term “toxic” has grown to take on a much broader meaning in recent years, now pertaining not only to chemicals and foods, but also relationships, work environments, beauty products and more. Oxford Dictionaries even named it the Word of Year in 2018. But not all things deemed toxic actually cause grave harm. In fact, according to the Food and Drug Administration, “natural toxins” found in some foods, including those in honey, beans, some stone fruits, etc. are not of concern unless the food isn’t properly prepared and/or if toxins are consumed in high amounts.

But as Teresa Fung, professor of nutrition and dietetics at Simmons University, and adjunct professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, tells Sentient, lectins are a “naturally occurring protein” found in many foods, that when consumed can in theory “bind to nutrients in our gut, [reducing] the amount that we can absorb.” Eating a high amount of lectins can cause abdominal pain, bloating and even immune response in some people.

Fung stresses that this is all more in theory than in practice, as it would take more lectins than most people would normally consume to cause such symptoms, and “a lot of the lectins can be destroyed by heat — cooking would do it,” she says. “We don’t eat raw beans,” she says. “We don’t eat raw wheat kernels.”

The process of breaking down lectins in food with heat, such as boiling, is called denaturation, which means essentially unraveling the lectin proteins, rendering most inactive and safe to eat. “Boiling of red and white kidney beans,” according to 2020 research published in the journal Nutrients, “resulted in complete elimination of lectins.” Canned beans, for example, are already cooked.

There are some plant foods that contain higher amounts of lectins that are often eaten raw, such as tomatoes and peppers. The lectins in these foods are contained mainly in the skin and seeds, and as the Mayo Clinic reiterates, “The amount you’d need to consume each day to get to [a harmful] level, however, is much higher than a typical diet would include.”

Despite these straightforward facts, theories about lectins being toxic to humans “have fueled the profitable anti-lectin movement,” Harvard University’s Nutrition Source notes, “spawning bestselling books and enzyme supplements to prevent lectin activity in the body.”

The claims just don’t hold up. According to the Mayo Clinic, “No scientific evidence exists to show that eliminating dietary lectins will cure any medical disorders or conditions, including autoimmune diseases.” In fact, the opposite is true: consuming a diet rich in plant foods such as legumes, whole grains and vegetables is associated with better health, including decreased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, obesity and even some cancers.

Fact: ‘Anti-Nutrients’ Aren’t a Significant Health Risk

Myth: Anti-Nutrients Directly Cause ‘Leaky Gut’

Lectins are one compound among others found in plant foods, such as oxalates and saponins, classified by researchers as “anti-nutrients.” Again, in theory, eating too much of these compounds can inhibit the body’s ability to absorb other nutrients, which has sparked warnings from the carnivore crowd about a “leaky gut” that is best “cured” by eating only animal-based foods. Again, no.

Leaky gut is not a medically recognized disease. Rather, the term is typically used to describe intestinal permeability — an impaired intestinal barrier that allows toxins into the bloodstream. As the Cleveland Clinic explains on its website, intestinal permeability is only recognized as a symptom of other diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease and celiac diseases, not a disease on its own. The Clinic recommends a diet low in sugar and dietary fat to help support the right bacteria in the gut. It does not suggest the carnivore diet.

Jill Joyce, assistant professor of public health nutrition at Oklahoma State University, wrote in a piece for The Conversation that despite the scary sounding name, “anti-nutrients aren’t the evil nemesis of all the nutritious foods you eat.”

Research suggests that anti-nutrients are only a concern when consumed in excessive and unrealistic amounts, she explains, and in fact, many anti-nutrients, “are now considered health-promoting nutraceuticals and functional foods.”

Saponins in legumes, for example, have been found to boost immune health and have anti-cancerous therapeutic effects. Lectins can lower risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Fact: Seed Oils Are Not Unhealthy in Moderation, Especially If They Help You Eat More Vegetables

Myth: Seed Oils Cause Disease

Myths about seed oils continue to dominate in health and wellness spaces, most recently due to misinformation about a study of seed oils and colorectal cancer, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggesting (again, falsely) that Americans are being “unknowingly poisoned” by seed oils.

When we look beyond the misleading headlines and social media posts, it turns out that seed oils are not only not toxic, but can actually have some health advantages over animal fats like tallow.

In the carnivore diet space, false claims against seed oils are used to prop up animal fats as the “healthier” alternative. “It’s time to Make Frying Oil Tallow Again,” Kennedy Jr. recently tweeted. But tallow is high in saturated fat, which is linked to increased risk of heart disease and stroke, and, unlike seed oils, contains cholesterol.

Seed oils like canola and sunflower oil have a high concentration of omega-6 fatty acids. While it’s true eating too much of these could disrupt the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio and potentially cause harmful chronic inflammation, typically these oils can be part of a healthy diet.

Used in moderation, the Cleveland Clinic explains, omega-6 consumption supports heart health. “The real reason they’re considered so bad for you,” the clinic states on its website, “is how they’re most often used” — in foods that are also “full of fat, sugar and sodium.”

Adding a little to roasted vegetables or a salad is a different story. As Dr. Christopher Gardner, professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a nutrition scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, tells the American Heart Association: if a dash of seed oil is going to help you eat a stir fry or salad, “and you’re going to eat more of it because of the flavor? Fantastic,” he says. “The seed oils are not killing you. They are helping you enjoy more healthy foods.”

Fact: Processed Plant Meats Can Be Part of a Healthy Diet

Myth: Plant-Based Meat Is Less Healthy Than Meat From Animals

As plant-based meat alternatives became more popular in recent years, so did misinformation about bean and pea-based meats — their ingredients and how they’re made. But contrary to claims that plant-based meat alternatives are worse for your health than meat— many of these originating from the meat industry —, research shows plant-based meats (yes, even the processed ones) can be part of a healthy diet.

For example, a 2022 perspective paper states that compared to other plant-based alternatives “soy-based meats and soymilk compare favorably with their animal-based counterparts nutritionally.” And a paper published in the Future Foods journal found plant-based alternatives “present a number of benefits, including generally favorable nutritional profiles.”

Plant-based meat alternatives vary greatly when it comes to processing and ingredients. Some mimic the amount of fat in their conventional counterparts. Some contain high amounts of sodium. Yet Fung says she is less concerned about whether a food is labeled “ultra-processed” than what it is made of. “It really depends on what the food is,” she says. “The things I would rather look at are the ingredients list, as well as the nutrient content.” Her preference for a healthy plant-based meat is a homemade bean burger.

Ultimately, we pay more attention to overhyped and confusing “ultra-processed” claims instead of the very real planetary and public health harms caused by how much meat we eat. And with the vast majority of meat consumed coming from factory farms, traditional meat can hardly be deemed “unprocessed.”

The Bottom Line

As the anti-vegetable movement grows, misleading myths that just happen to align with the meat industry’s agenda continue to run rampant on social media. From lectins to seed oils, ‘meatfluencers’ are fueling misinformation about both meat production and plant-based foods. But the science is clear: eating more plants, especially fruits, beans and vegetables, is good for human health.