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South Korean scientists have created a bizarre meat-rice hybrid — and Arnold Schwarzenegger, of all people, is calling bull.
With beef protein hacked to grown inside grains of rice, the mad scientists behind the purportedly “nutty”-tasting meat-rice told Nature that it could be a means of making the food staple pack a greater nutritional punch without the environmental price tag of other lab-grown meats.
According to their paper about the research, published in the journal Matter, 100 grams of the meat-rice has 0.01 grams more fat and 0.31 grams more protein than the regular meatless version, which represents a seven and nine percent change, respectively. It’s like eating a normal serving of rice with a small portion of beef brisket, the researchers claim.
A very small serving, that is. As the former Terminator and California governor points out in his newsletter — which is literally called “Arnold’s Pump Club” — that’s actually an extraordinarily small serving of protein.
“We dug into the numbers, and — strictly from a nutrition-label standpoint — we’re not sure how much this makes sense,” the Austrian-born actor wrote, using the royal “we,” for some reason. “In other words, this sounds cool for people who want more protein, but — in practical reality — you’re not adding enough protein to offer any nutritional benefit.”
To be fair, the guy does know his stuff. Along with his career as an international action star, acclaimed writer, and foray into American politics, the 76-year-old Schwarzenegger is also a lifelong and renowned bodybuilder. His competitive weight-lifting prowess was, famously, the precursor to his success as an actor, and as his blog indicates, he’s still very much into that lifestyle.
He’s right that the math is dicey. A cup of rice — that’s a very hearty serving, for those of you who don’t cook rice at home — works out to about 190 grams of the stuff. That means even if you pound down a whole cup of rice, you’re getting less than one extra gram of protein.
Sure, it’s something, but barely. For perspective, 100 grams of tofu has about 10 grams of protein, and 100 grams of chicken packs around 31 grams of the stuff. So is there any reason to be messing around with genetics, or should you just visit a different aisle of the grocery store?
Schwarzenegger isn’t alone in his expert criticism, either.
“The product is still basically rice and would be used to replace rice or other carbohydrate sources in a meal,” Nanna Tuomisto, a sustainable food researcher at Finland’s University of Helsinki, told the New York Post. “For replacing meat, the percentage of the protein in the final product would need to be higher.”
Beyond the critique of the actual protein content, there could be another source of Schwarzenegger’s ire: though he doesn’t mention it in this particular blog post, the septuagenarian is mostly vegan, though he reportedly gets some of his protein from eggs, fish, and the occasional steak.
Reminding us of his body-sculpting prowess — and, perhaps, his penchant for denouncing meat — Schwarzenegger wrote that “there are more effective ways to give your diet a protein boost” than the meat-rice. Given how gross that pink, grainy, ground beef-looking grub is, it’s hard not to argue.
“Technology is fascinating and can help people in many ways,” the famous bodybuilder wrote. “But just like supplements that promise the world and provide a dose that won’t do anything, oftentimes, the potential of an idea far outpaces the actual benefits.”
More on protein: Too Much Protein Actually Damages Your Arteries, Scientists Find
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