Burgers: add balance to yours

Thanks to fast food chains, burgers have a bad rap. They contain few or no vegetables, fatty, processed beef and cheese, sugar-laden sauces, and high-glycemic white flour buns, often with a sugary glaze on them.

It’s time we stopped demonising the humble patty and bun combo. Burgers can be healthy, if you choose the right kind. That means stepping away from the fast food joint, and into a gourmet burger shop or your own kitchen.

The problems with burgers

Burgers are not typically healthy. The cuts of beef used in your average patty are loaded with fat – around 25 grams of it, 10 of which are saturated. A Big Mac comes in at 494 calories, half of which can be attributed to its fat content.

One serving of sauce has around 10g of sugar – that’s more than an average chocolate biscuit. Most burger condiments, such as barbecue and tomato sauce, are at least a quarter sugar.

Then there are the buns. Refined white flour that instantly gives your blood sugar levels a surge, with little nutrition. When combined with high-fat meat and high-sugar sauce, a burger is basically as bad for you as eating a huge slice of cake.

The environmental concern

The US Geographical Survey states that to raise a cow for a single hamburger, a farmer will use between 15,000 and 68,000 litres of water.

The global demand for meat increases two per cent each year and, in New Zealand, cattle and sheep livestock amounts to almost a third of all greenhouse carbon emissions, according to the Ministry for the Environment. That makes cows our largest single contributor to climate change – more than keeping our cars on the roads.

Upsides of the standard burger

Primarily, there’s the protein content. In New Zealand, chains such as Mcdonald’s and Burger King make their patties from 100 per cent beef (there are no fillers), meaning they are an excellent source of protein. There’s a whopping 26.4g of protein in a Big Mac, for example.

Red meat is also a dense source of iron. Your body will absorb as much as 35 per cent of heme iron from animal-based protein, whereas from plant-based protein it will only take in 20 per cent. A large beef patty will have around 4mg of iron per serve, which is half of what males need each day (women, however, need around 18mg of iron a day so a burger patty will provide less than a quarter of that).

Vitamin B12 is also plentiful in a burger patty. Essential for production of new red blood cells, adults need 2.4mg of B12 a day and a burger provides you with nearly three milligrams. That means you can meet your daily requirement.

Choosing a healthier burger

One of the big advantages of going to a gourmet burger shop (or making burgers at home) is the vegetable content of your meal. You can stock your burger buns with healthy greens and vegetables such as onions, quality cheese, and can include avocado or beetroot. You could also choose an alternative meat such as chicken for your burger, or go vegetarian – such as lentil, pumpkin, or chickpea-based patties.

Skip the sauce

Naturally, you’ll need to pass on the sauce to make your burger healthy. Hopefully your patty is succulent enough on its own. If you need a dressing, find out what is sugar-free. Anything yoghurtbased might do the trick.

Bun choices

Most people think it’s not a burger without a bun, although many restaurants now offer ‘‘lettuce buns’’. Failing that, choose a whole wheat/multigrain bun if available.