Daily Mail health journalists try vegan fast food favorites for Veganuary… with shocking results

Every year, millions of Americans ditch meat for a month for ‘Veganuary.’

What started as just a new year challenge by a non-profit in 2014 has now become an international phenomenon, with roughly 25million people across the globe participating.

And companies are cashing in, making vegan and vegetarian alternatives available to people who want to indulge in a favorite meal without breaking their diet. 

Advocates say veganism is better for the environment, animal welfare and a person’s health, though studies have yielded conflicting results, with some showing the opposite.

Many vegan substitutes are packed full of processed ingredients in an attempt to achieve the same texture and taste as meat, which could cancel out any health benefits – and actually be more harmful to your health. 

While no one here on the Daily Mail health team is vegan, I am a vegetarian who is vegan-curious. So I (very strongly) encouraged my coworkers to brave the world of vegan fast food with me to see how the alternatives compare on taste and nutritional profile compared to the originals.

We ordered in ‘burgers’ from fast food favorites Burger King, Shake Shack and White Castle. While none offer vegan versions, they do offer vegetarian options that can be made vegan. 

We had to skip other popular chains like Wendy’s and McDonald’s because they either didn’t have vegetarian or vegan options or the availability of the items was limited to certain restaurants.

After several of us tried each burger, there was clear winner and a very clear loser – with one reporter declaring a burger reminded her of her cat’s food.

Burger King’s Impossible Whopper

This ‘burger’ was advertised as being made with an Impossible Foods vegetarian patty – a popular meat-free alternative widely available in grocery stores and offered in many restaurants. 

Though it is not known if Burger King alters the Impossible patty in any way, we all thought as much because the patties on each burger were much thinner than other Impossible products we’ve seen. 

Still, BK’s whopper was the office’s clear winner. 

It was the most similar to the chain’s all-meat version and still came with lettuce, onion, tomato and pickles, as well as ketchup. 

It does come standard with mayo so you’ll have to skip that condiment because it typically uses eggs, which makes it non vegan.

Health reporter Sadie Whitelocks said: ‘It had a fun medley of ingredients and looked like a normal burger. The patty had a good firm, meat-like texture with a tasty flavoring.’

Ellyn Lapointe, science reporter, agreed, saying this one could have fooled her if up against the real thing: ‘This one tasted the most like a traditional beef burger to me. 

‘I feel like in a blind taste test between this burger and a regular Whopper, it would be difficult to tell which one was made with a vegan patty.’

Health reporter Emily Joshu, however, said it lacked some flavor, though she did remove most of the toppings: ‘This one at least tasted generally like a burger, but it strongly lacked flavor. 

‘It wasn’t bad, just bland… with some cheese, however, I think this could at least pass for a normal burger.’

A regular whopper has 670 calories and costs $8.83, while the Impossible Whopper is 630 calories and costs a dollar more.

Overall, the nutritional facts on the vegan version make it a slightly healthier option. It has 32 grams of fat compared to the all-meat’s 39. It also has less saturated fat, 70mg less cholesterol and double the fiber, though it has 3 grams less protein. 

However, some of the additives in the Impossible patty have been linked to health problems. Burger King doesn’t list specific ingredients for its Impossible version, but on Impossible’s website, the company says its patty ingredients are water, soy, coconut and sunflower oils, the binding agent methylcellulose, vitamins and dextrose, which has been linked to liver abnormalities.

Burger King advertises its Whopper meat patty has 100 percent beef with no preservatives or additives.

Shake Shack’s Veggie Shack

Shake Shack’s Veggie Shack burger received mixed reviews from the team.

Looking at it, it’s clearly not a work of art and we all doubted how good it would taste given its depressing presentation. 

Still, some of us were still impressed by its flavor. 

While not vegan, this vegetarian version of the classic ShackBurger can be made vegan by removing the cheese, crispy fired onions, the restaurant’s signature ShackSauce! and swapping the bun for a lettuce wrap. 

Because its French fries aren’t cooked in animal fat like some other popular chains – McDonald’s – they are vegan. So we added those to our order. 

The original ShackBurger has 500 calories and the Veggie Shack has 630, though our vegan version inevitably contained less without the bun (175 calories) the sauce (60 calories), fried onions (unspecified calories) and cheese (70 calories). 

This brings our vegan total to 325 calories.

The original burger also has 30 grams of fat, 1250 mg of sodium, 26 carbs and 29 grams of protein. 

Compare that to the veggie version, which has 31 grams of fat, 1630mg of sodium, 53 carbs and 20 grams of protein.  

The veggie burger also cost about one dollar more than the meat burger.

ShakeShack said its veggie patty is made with sweet potatoes, carrots, farro and quinoa, compared to the original’s ‘100 percent all-natural Angus beef.’

Ellyn said: ‘The vegan Shakeshack patty tasted delicious, and distinctly different from the Impossible patty that Burger King uses. 

‘But not having a vegan bun option really detracts from the whole burger experience. I want a real sandwich, not a salad with a fake beef patty on top of it.’

Cassidy, a senior health reporter added: ‘The burger was good, and I liked the texture. But the sandwich itself was really boring – lettuce and pickles. I would definitely recommend finding a vegan bun and cheese. 

Sadie said: ‘It was difficult to make out the burger element of the meal due to the bush of lettuce. But once discovered, the patty was pretty tasty, with a firm texture. 

‘Overall though, the presentation of this meal looks more like a growth in the garden than something tasty to eat.’

And Connor Boyd, our fearless leader whose never met a burger he didn’t love, concluded: ‘I was let down by the burger’s presentation. The lettuce-to-patty ratio was way off and I had to take several mouthfuls of flavorless leaf before actually getting a bite of the patty.

‘The use of lettuce leaves instead of a vegan-friendly bun also meant the pickles came flying out every time I raised my hand to take a bite.

‘That was a shame because the traditional Shake Shack burger is known for its perfectly formulated potato buns which are famous for preventing spillage.’

White Castle’s Impossible Slider

This one, we mostly all agreed, was the saddest and least and appetizing ‘burger’ of all. 

At $3.22, the Impossible Slider – also made with an Impossible Foods patty – is more than double the price of the Original Slider, which sells for $1.22 at our New York City location, and each burger is bite-sized – small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. 

The Original has 150 calories – 170 if you add cheese – compared to the Impossible Slider’s 190 calories without cheese, and 30 more of those calories come from fat. 

It also has more than double the amount of sodium – 540 mg per one patty versus the Original’s 230 mg. 

But all that added salt does nothing for taste.  

Ellyn said: ‘This thing should not be marketed as food. Not only did the patty look utterly inedible, but it was flavorless, mushy and all around super unappetizing.’

Cassidy added: ‘I think the burgers had an odd sort of mealy texture, almost like pate. They also had kind of a mushroom-y taste that I wasn’t a fan of.’ 

Emily had a similar opinion: ‘Usually when I bite into a burger, I expect there to be some sort of bite there. But as soon as I bit into this one, it melted in my mouth in the way meat never should. 

‘The texture was like what I imagine my cats’ food to be. While the taste was just bland… the pate-like texture immediately threw me off.’

Sadie said the same: ‘The patty looks like cat food and the texture was vaguely disgusting. Very mushy… like an old, warm pate left out in the sun.’

Not only was the patty bland and mushy, but there were no condiments or toppings to salvage it like the other burgers had. 

Ketchup, which is typically vegan, pickles, onions and tomatoes don’t come standard and need to be individually requested – which I’ll admit, I missed when ordering – and while White Castle rolled out vegan cheese in some of its locations in 2020, that wasn’t an option when we ordered sliders and fries via Uber Eats. 

The restaurants ‘Original Slider’ automatically comes pickles and onions with an option to add cheese. 

As a vegan-curious vegetarian, this is one alternative I would definitely avoid. 

Luckily, the chain’s French fries are vegan, so we all dug in to those.