There are lots of choices when it comes to making burgers, but what is the best choice for making a heart healthy burger? There are beef, bison, turkey, grilled chicken, fish, veggie and other new meatless burgers on the market and some of them qualify as a heart healthy burger. Next time you grill a burger, how about making it a heart healthy burger?
To make it easier, let’s look at some of the choices, and see which of them indeed make the cut for being a heart healthy burger. The way we’ll determine whether candidates are a heart healthy burger is by looking at the amount of:
- Protein they contain. We want to get a significant amount of protein from a burger as the main source of protein in a meal. A total of 15-20 grams of protein or more is desirable in a meal.
- Saturated fat in a burger. Saturated fats are fats are known as artery clogging fats and are not healthy fats.
We’ll use the USDA definition of Extra Lean as our main criterion when looking at saturated fats. USDA defines extra lean meats as having 5 grams of total fat and 2 grams of saturated fat per 3.5 ounces.
If the patties below meet the above 2 criteria they’ll be designated as a heart healthy burger. Here are 5 Candidates considered to receive a Heart Healthy Burger label:
Heart Healthy Burger Candidates
Animal Based Burgers
| Item | Size | Calories | Protein | Total Fat | Sodium | Saturated Fat | Fiber |
| Trader Joes Premium Salmon Patties | 3.2 oz | 110 | 15 gm | 3.5 gm | 330 mg | 0.5 gm | 0 |
| Cooked ground turkey | 3 | 173 | 23 .3 | 8.84 | 66.3 | 2.27 | 0 |
| Ground Beef 95% lean | 3 | 148 | 22.3 | 5.7 | 55.2 | 2.53 | 0 |
| Ground bison, grass fed | 3 | 152 | 21.6 | 7.33 | 64.6 | 2.97 | 0 |
| Ground Beef 80% lean | 3 | 230 | 21.9 | 15.1 | 63.8 | 5.7 | 0 |
Plant Based Burgers
Rank order by saturated fat:
| Item | Size | Calories | Protein | Total Fat | Sodium | Saturated Fat | Fiber |
| Dr. Praeger’s All American Veggie Burger | 4 oz. | 230 | 22 gm | 12 gm | 530 mg | 1.5 gm | 6 gm |
| Beyond Beef | 4 | 260 | 20 | 18 | 390 | 6 | 2 |
| Sweet Earth Awesome Burger | 4 | 260 | 26 | 17 | 400 | 7 | 6 |
To find out more about plant-based burgers, click here.
We ranked these heart healthy burger candidates top to bottom in the order of the amount of saturated fats they contained.
Salmon, Turkey, & Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burgers are Winners
The salmon patty, turkey burger, and Dr. Praeger’s All American Veggie Burger (using mixed dark and light meat) met or came close to meeting our criterion and are the best choices when you want to make a heart healthy burger.
Extra Lean (95% lean) ground beef and grass-fed bison are close enough to meeting the criterion that they are also recommended if you are looking for heart healthy alternatives in a burger. Regular (80% lean) and Beyond Beef are not recommended because of their high saturated fat content.
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Together we’ll create your healthy sweet life by building a healthy relationship with food.
Source:
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-search Downloaded on 6/28/20
https://plantproteins.co/healthiest-veggie-burger-bad-for-health/ Downloaded on 6/28/20.
To your Joy and Health,
Kay Loughrey, MPH, RDN, LDN
Transformational Speaker, Breakthrough Coach, Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist