Some suggest that eating gluten-containing foods such as seitan could affect gut health or digestion. However, more research is needed, and these side effects are unlikely to affect people without underlying digestive conditions or intolerances.

It's easy to talk about how humans need to eat meat and dairy to thrive — how animal-based foods contain essential nutrients not found in plants and how being vegan can lead to all kinds of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Seitan is high in protein — containing roughly as much as meat, while staying low in carbs and fat. But its protein profile is incomplete: missing some of the essential amino acids of meat and tofu. Seitan is also processed. It's a looong way removed from the wheat it originally was.