What’s Best – Turkey or Beef Burger?

So you’re in your local burger joint and are salivating for a burger. Should you be “good” and choose the turkey burger over the beef burger? Will this save you a ton of calories and fat? Not necessarily! It really depends upon the type of ground turkey or ground beef that is in the burger.  Some turkey burgers can actually contain more calories and fat than beef burgers.

Have you ever had a really juicy turkey burger? Here is why it was so juicy … it contained some dark meat and skin.  However,  same goes for a beef burger. The juicer it is, the more fat the meat contains.  

In general,  a turkey burger that you get in a restaurant has fewer calories and fat than a beef burger – but probably not as big a savings as you would expect. For example, the classic burger at Ruby Tuesdays has 1015 calories and 71 grams of fat and the turkey burger has 815 calories and 45 grams of fat (and this doesn’t include fries). To really save calories and fat, skip the cheese and order a salad – minus the fatty dressing – instead of the fries!

Your best bet would be to make the burger at home. This way you can go to the store and scrutenize the food label to make sure you are buying the leanest cut of meat. 

The following table lists some comparisons between ground turkey and beef. Keep in mind that these comparisons are based on eating  pure meat. Some burgers that you would get  in a restaurant would contain other ingredients such as eggs and breadcrumbs.

Comparison between ground turkey and beef:

*The above nutrition info is based on a 4 ounce raw portion. Since we (hopefully!) don’t eat raw meat, cooking it may shrink the burger by an ounce or so. In general, the fattier the meat, the more it shrinks in cooking. So here’s my point – when you order a burger in a restaurant, it may be as large 8 ounces cooked. This means that you will need to calculate the amount of calories found in ~ 9-10 ounces  of raw meat. So you will have to multiply the above number by 2.4. So or example, if you ordered a good sized turkey burger in a restaurant (8 oz), it would have 526 calories, 41 grams of fat and 12 grams of saturated fat. I am assuming it is not really lean turkey meat. Make sense?

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