Mycotoxins and me

As someone who has returned to more traditional vegetarian foods after reducing plant-based meat alternatives, I found this paper on mycotoxins in UK meat substitutes and plant-based beverages particularly thought-provoking.

I was struck by the headline finding that detectable mycotoxins were present, and fascinated by the possibile implications of chronic low-level co-exposure from highly processed composite foods.

I am keen on selecting vegan alternatives. As the meat-free landscape changed in supermarkets, at first I was thrilled. Then I began to experience unexplained abdominal pain, with standard clinical investigations returning negative for an internal cause. Yet I’ve noticed a significant improvement after removing the newer plant-based meat alternatives from my diet.

Of course that does not establish causation, and there are many possible explanations. But studies like this are a useful reminder that food systems are biochemically complex, and that “plant-based” and “healthy” are not always interchangeable concepts. My mother would say they never were - 35 years ago she would describe me as a ‘junk food vegetarian’ as I ate fried tofu during every shift working at the petrol station while studying for my A-levels. Back then as today, I would patiently explain that I’m not vegetarian. I just don’t eat meat. The blank stares remain the same. These days I would still argue for a climate impact benefit though.

It also highlights how much we still have to learn about cumulative exposure, emerging contaminants, and interactions between multiple compounds present at low concentrations

Many modern meat alternatives are highly engineered foods containing concentrated plant proteins, fibres, emulsifiers, flavour systems and multiple agricultural inputs. This paper adds another dimension to that conversation by identifying low-level co-occurrence of mycotoxins across a range of products.

My own experience of abdominal pain being associated with the more meat-like plant based alternatives proves nothing by itself, although it is supported by other independent reports of the same experience and the reduction in pain when I stopped eating them. But I do think it raises an interesting scientific question, and the findings of this research may play a part in informing that.

Meanwhile, I’ve happily rediscovered lentils. Humble little biochemical veterans that have quietly sustained humans for millennia without pretending to be bacon.