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Why is a burger unhealthy and in which ways specifically?

When I go out and buy a burger. Which part of it is unhealthy? I’m trying to learn the basics of what’s good and bad for health.

The bread - I guess it’s better if it’s whole grain

The meat - is it bad because it’s grilled? Or the meat is processed? And btw when they say processed is bad do they mean the salt they add or something else?

The veg - I can’t see how this is unhealthy?

The dressing - I guess the fat content in this?

Am I missing anything?

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Answer

Convenience food from corporate food service will generally be the cheapest inputs seeking the best flavor. This might mean more fat and salt in the ingredients and more additives to enhance ingredients that have deficiencies or need shortcuts to keep an economy of scale.

For example, non-food (but safe to consume) ingredients in baked goods as a dough conditioner and lets you cut corners, higher fat content ground beef is cheaper, low quality beef and fat have less taste so additional salt is required, less spices in the dressings so more salt, etc.

You can definitely make a healthy burger, but it takes better ingredients and less luxurious accouterments.

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Burgers made in restaurants are typically made for taste, so they use much fattier ground beef. Like 70/30. Of course that varies and each restaurant will do it their own way.

They also very rarely grill them (again, this varies, but I’m talking about your typical bar). Usually cooked on the flat top in oil. That’s additional fat & calories, and probably an oil that isn’t very healthy.

Buns are often supersized. Usually ultra processed white bread.

Veg= good

Sauces & dressings…again, just added fat and calories on top of an already fatty meat and cooked in fat.

So no, restaurant burgers are not a health food. But they are a delicious treat.

I make them at home using lean beef or bison. I usually cook in my cast iron with a bit of healthy oil, but just the smallest amount I can get away with. Grill in the summer.

I often go bunless (my own preference), but I do homemade whole grain buns for the family.

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A burger is so variable that it can be healthy or unhealthy depending on how you make it, and it sounds like you are aware of that.

Grilled chicken with tomatoes, lettuce, avocado and just a bit of honey mustard? Not a bad choice speaking from a caloric and nutritional value standpoint.

Pretty much most burgers at restaurants that are saturated in fat and dressing/sauce? Yeah, probably not the best thing for you, but it could be worse I guess.

Most burgers tend to be eaten with fries, which is important to consider when talking about burgers and nutrition. A healthier side or no fries at all would be much better, but most people want fries with their burger obviously.

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I don’t think it in itself is unhealthy, but with how people make it. Like, you can make a very healthy burger with good ingredients and that isn’t super calorically dense or dripping in oil.

When you look at fast food places, or even smaller burger shops, the story is quite different. The burgers are often dripping in oil, high fat cheese gets added because of how it melts, veggies often feel like an afterthought, and the dressing is often smth like mayo which is also very calorically dense and fatty

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A burger isn’t actually necessarily unhealthy, depending how it’s made. They do tend to be high in fat, but if you balance that out with other meals that are lower in fat, then that’s not necessarily bad either. And they can be very high in calories, especially at a restaurant, but again that can be balanced out. You can find or make pretty healthy burgers with just a little effort. Whole grain bun, less sauce, and lower fat patties are all ways to make them healthier.

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Its a bunch of fatty meat, sauce and bread. Not you perfect meal but not that bad either. But having a soda with fries as well is simply too much with something that’s already quite calorie dense.

And Mickey Ds is bad because of how tf can 10ml of sauce contain over 100 kcals.

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Really comes down to the ingredients. Probably the most unhealthy part of a burger you’d get out is the bun, ketchup/mayo or the slice of boof ass fake cheese they throw on it. Some places char their burgers so that’s not ideal with carcinogens and denaturing the protein. Tbh healthiest option would be making your own burgers at home

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A homemade burger, using fewer processed ingredients, isn’t unhealthy. It’s when you get a burger from a fast food joint, that uses lots of processed ingredients and sometimes not even real meat, that it becomes unhealthy. Even sit down restaurants tend to be healthier options for burgers than fast food.

Also, it’s the soda that will be unhealthy when you go out to eat. All sugar with no benefits.

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A burger can be healthy the same way it can be unhealthy. Adding mayo, cheese, fried toppings, etc. isn’t going to be overall good for your health and it will be high calorie which can lead to weight gain.

A lean beef burger (or not if your calories allow it) on a whole grain bun with fresh veggies like lettuce, tomato, onion, fermented pickles, and mustard isn’t going to kill you and it’s not really unhealthy. A side of deep fried potato’s and a mountain of ketchup can turn it into an unbalanced meal easily.

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I would suggest evaluating the totality of food eaten in a day and also daily activity instead of each item to understand what’s healthy or not.

For example, a burger completely lacks dietary fiber, which is a must have for any healthy tummy.

It’s also high on fat, salt, and carbs and cholesterol.

In addition, amount of movement has to be taken into the account.

So if you’re a marathon runner or a heavy weight lifter with extreme metabolism speed and you are eating boiled kale for the rest of the day, a greasy burger is probably exactly healthy for you.

But if you’re an office worker sitting all day long and you’re having another fast food meal later on, you wouldn’t be getting all the tummy needs.

It’s all about getting your own personal food macros and making sure they are met.

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A burger can be perfectly healthy. A burger can also contain an entire day worth of calories. It all depends on the composition.

“Healthy” Burger: 4 oz lean beef, real cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, maybe a bit of ketchup and mustard

“Unhealthy” Burger: two patties of high-fat ground beef, bacon, American cheese or pimento cheese, mayo-based sauce, fried egg, etc.

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I don’t think there is a dogmatic approach other than avoiding fast food chains with low quality ingredients, preservatives, and low transparency. But making your own burger with say local grass fed beef and your own grocery store ingredients, limiting adding salt and sugar is fine for an occasional meal. It’s popular because they taste well and are a balanced meal (meat, veggies, carbs).

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Like many foods quality and freshness matter.

So to the bun, indeed whole grain is better but I believe that maybe most of the health benefits from whole grain are indeed from WHOLE grain. Brown rice, whole oats etc. So while whole wheat bun might be better than a cheap refined white bleached bun it isn’t getting the full benefit of being a WHOLE grain. Some buns might have extra additives and preservatives and even sugar.

Minced beef, while there is not much great evidence that fresh red meat like beef is bad, there are some extra risks from mince, as it’s cut and ground up and exposed more of its internal area to the air and possible contamination and is a cheap industrial factory really got the cleanest grinders? Cattle that are fed the cheapest products and not allowed to free roam and there is some concern about chemicals and grain feeding. More of an issue in America where feedlots are more common. Grass fed, grass finished high quality beef is bit more expensive and maybe less likely to turn up in a cheap burger one might buy from a fast food outlet. The omega balance of fats is thought to be better in grass fed beef.

The cooking method is next, even though I am a meat eater I do believe there is a relationship with how a red meat product is cooked and some cancers, the risk is quite small but is there, the more highly processed the meat is the worse it gets, but there is a big difference between a fresh minimally cut and ground fresh beef to a “frankenfurter” or other bad examples of heavily processed meat. The evidence points to very high temperatures and the presence of nitrates, as well as burning or smoking. So flame grilling, barbecuing, smoking. Roasting, sauté, boiling, stewing, etc are all far safer. Pan frying seems a middle option, very high seer and high temperature oils seemingly implicated although a medium temperature pan might be ok, as in saute. So a high seer, flame grilled or barbecued burger might be the riskiest. This is still controversial though, as a lot of evidence links processed meats but the evidence for less processed meats is pretty poor or weak association. Even the WHO who said they believe that red meat might be carcinogenic admitted as much.

Veg, the salad and tomatoes etc. Are these organic,are they washed, are they stored correctly? These can be contaminated with pesticides, chemicals, e-coli, listeria and other bacteria. A private cook or high end restaurant might take a little more care with these products than another place one might surmise.

Condiments are another product that once opened might not be consumed straight away, leading to contamination and exceeding their safe use by dates, as well as there being a wide variety in the quality of the ingredients and added sugar, preservatives etc. These can really add up especially if one is keen on them.

Then there is the environment and other foods that are commonly consumed with them. Deep fried chips, thick sugary shakes, ice creams and cake. The often “fast” nature of the establishment might make one rush the whole eating experience which could have a negative effect on digestion. Oh yes, onion rings anyone?

It’s common for some places to load up on salt to further drive sales of beverages. Often sugary ones

The quality of the oil might be reduced by over use. Indeed in some countries the recycling of oil as it’s a large part of the expense might have poor quality control. Don’t Google gutter oil if you have a weak stomach. Some oils are more stable for longer use but have a far poorer nutrient profile. Fat is really important part of the diet. There is much controversy about what the right type of fat to consume might be.

Fast food and deep frying seem to go hand in hand. Where I am more likely to oven bake some wedgies and grill or fry my burger at a lower temperature at home.

Packaging might be another source of issues, cheaper plastic utensils, boxes and chemicals. And just general cleanliness of cooking establishments. We do have some trading standards but often these are poorly enforced or when enforced it might have been a long time after the quality slipped and many customers served.

Price might well effect many if the issues above, a high end restaurant serving you a burger is unlikely to have the same issues of a late night greasy spoon one might frequent after too many beers and lower inhibitions and good choice making capacity.

There is probably more to consider but that might be enough for now. While there might be nothing wrong with the individual components if they are handled or combined badly as well as the original quality, will all make a difference.

So imho, it’s not the “burger” that’s the issue. It’s just a method of combining foods, beef pie and salad, wellington boot, beef en cruet, pizza with beef topping, beef sausage and mash, a roast beef with Yorkshire puddings all might have similar ingredients

Answer

Non of it is “unhealthy”

You aren’t looking at it the right way. Your diet may be healthy or unhealthy, but foods are just the puzzle pieces that make up the diet. And what determines whether something is going to be a healthy or unhealthy addition or deletion, really depends on all the other nutrients in the equation.

If you are low on protein but high on carbs in a given day, the meat might be healthy, and the bun not so much. If you’ve consumed a ton of protein , but very little fat, the cheese might be a bigger mover towards health. It’s all dependent on the other factors in the equation.

Answer

The bread - Usually very white, refined, spongy with lots of additives, high glycemic food (spikes insulin)

The vegetables - Usually poorly washed if served at a restaurant, probably still have pesticides all over them, cheapest possible lowest quality veggies without much nutrition

Dressing - Almost all sauces and condiments on store shelves and at restaurants are just different flavored soybean / canola oil with sugar. Like 99% of them. It is not natural, cold-pressed canola oil, it is treated with multiple different solvents / bleaches to get an edible product. It is an Omega 6 oil exposed to high temps and pressure, which causes oxidation and release of free radicals.

The meat - 99% of the ground beef from the store or restaurants is low quality, the animals are raised inhumanely in disgusting conditions which find themselves covered in shit and parasites. Steak is safe to eat if cooked well, since the integrity of the meat is preserved and only the outside is exposed to grime, which is cooked off. Ground beef has all of the gross shit that was on the factory floor and equipment tumbled up inside the meat, the whole thing is “inside-out”, so eating burgers that aren’t cooked well enough is easy way to be eating shit and problematic microbes.

The meat is also commonly extra processed, with added preservatives, colors, or even fake flavorings. There is a direct connection between processed meats and cancer. Grass-fed, humanely and cleanly raised beef isn’t bad.

The whole thing is probably doused in more canola and soybean oil, which is also reused multiple multiple times in restaurants until the oil is black in color. This constant reheating and reusage of the same burnt out oil also results in trans fats.

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Make your own burgers at home, do not eat any fast food burger ever unless you enjoy eating cow shit, parasites, and carcinogens “in moderation”.

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Much like all questions about nutrition it depends. Is the burger 90/10 ground beef or is it 70/30 ground beef? Are you just eating it once a week or are you eating it 4 times a week. What sre you eating with? A large fries and shake? Having a burger once in a while is not unhealthy. You’re a human. Be a human. If you’re craving a burger once or twice a week its fine as long as you’re leading a healthy lifestyle and are eating a solid diet.

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A burger in and of itself, is not unhealthy. As you’re starting to learn more about healthy eating, keep in mind it comes down to dietary patterns

So questions to ask yourself when you’re wondering where you are in your health journey:

  1. What is the food and what nutrients does it have? So starting with some basics in your burger — You know there is protein in beef, carb in bun, fat including saturated fat from dressing & beef, some micronutrients from all including the veg—although small amount, little fiber. Fiber & micronutrients deficiency is pretty common in the Standard American Diet (SAD).

  2. How much am I eating?

  3. How often am I eating it?

  4. What else am I eating with it and in the rest of my day & overall diet?

The others have already discussed Sat fat & red meat, white bread. And suggested ways to make it healthier so won’t repeat that. But that’s also a good question to ask with your food choices in general: How can I make it healthier? Or more nutrient dense?

Eating one burger doesn’t make one unhealthy just as eating one salad doesn’t make one healthy. It comes down to overall patterns…

…And your progress & achievable goal. Emphasis on you and not the other people around you.m cuz it’s your body & journey. Healthier for one person may mean whipping up their own burger using quality ingredients at home. For another it may mean holding off on the bacon. Another chooses the burger every other day instead of daily. And yet another foregoing the fries & soda it comes with.

Answer

A lot of people are saying fat is bad, which is not true. Fat is a vital nutrient. The brain is 80% fat. It’s essential for cell membranes and production of hormones. Fat also assists digestion and improves nutrient absorption of other food we eat. When you eat salad without dressing or drink skim milk, you’re not absorbing all of the nutrients.

It’s important to distinguish between Animal Fats (Saturated fat) and Industrial Seed Oils (Polyunsaturated fats). Animal fats, coconut oil, and olive oil are healthy. Industrial Seed Oils are toxic because they are unstable and oxidize easily which causes inflammation, oxidation, and premature aging.

Restaurant burgers are often made with industrial seed oils in the bun, sauce, and fries, which makes them toxic. (Safflower oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, shortening, hydrogenated vegetable oils, margarine).

Humans have been eating animal fats for thousands of years and didn’t have health problems until recently, and that’s because saturated fat was replaced with Industrial Seed Oils.

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In all ways! Bread : they use white bread which is highly processed , with additives / added sugarMeat : grilled foods are the highest in carcinogenic PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, produced by burning) AND the quality of the meat is very bad + very processed - you get an accumulation of all sorts of carcinogenic compounds like PCBs and dioxins from animal feeds the animal is given PLUS the effects of pesticides (obviously the meat won’t be organic!) in combination with nitrates and nitrites preserving the meat which interact with other compounds to form carcinogenic nitrosamines in the body. Veggies : same for meat in terms of pesticides and carcinogens. Not only are their veggies not organic, but they DO NOT wash their veggies properly to wash off pesticide residues which you will then consume.Dressing: mostly the same issues, just compound more sugary and processed foods on top of it all.

Some comments say it can be healthy if you choose nutritious ingredients like tomatoes. The truth is how healthy it is has nothing to do with the foods you choose, because after all the biggest issues are not with the nutritional value / calories, but with the horrible QUALITY of the raw ingredients. You could only be eating salads at restaurants and still be adding the same carcinogens in your body as if you ate a burger. Less saturated fats and cholesterol but cancer is a huge problem and that’s why we see such exponential increases in rates and prevalence.

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Well, to start off, I would not consider white flour or red meat health promoting substances. White flour is generally associated with greater mortality, more diabetes, more cancer etc, while whole grains are protective and associated with positive health outcomes. I simply cannot picture calling foods that increase your risk of dying healthful.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/risk-red-meat

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/whole-grains/

I realize not all will agree, but I would consider red meat unhealthy, and certainly white flour. Not to mention, a restaurant burger will likely be far higher in calories than one made at home. With the current rates of obesity, the majority of folks simply don’t need an additional 1,000+ calorie bomb in their diet. And most people are eating that burger with a side of fries and a soda, making it even worse.

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Red meat, and meat in general clogs arteries. Arterial plaque can not be removed unless you are eating a verified plant based whole foods diet, and there is only a 33% chance of that happening.

Cheese can also heighten cholesterol.

Mustard and condiments are filled with sodium, depending on what you put on, mayo has lard.

Plus there is very little micronutrients in a burger. Unless you pile on carrots, other green vegetables.

https://newsroom.heart.org/news/increased-heart-disease-risk-from-red-meat-may-stem-from-gut-microbe-response-to-digestion#:\~:text=They%20found%20that%20eating%20more,every%201.1%20serving%20per%20day%20.

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The bread and dressing is processed. Consider the bread to be sugar, and the vegetables to be water. (unless it’s a couple big leaves of spinach, in which case you’ve had a 10th of a salad) The meat is red, which is a little bad.

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It’s not. The fries are a ton of somewhat empty calories. Even high fat ground beef has a lot of health benefits. So can cheese. Bacon is not great for you but it’s like 1 slice. 1 slice of bacon won’t kill you. Lettuce onion, tomato, pickles, avocado. All health benefits. I’d argue what would make a burger unhealthy is a ton of bbq sauce, thousand island, or mayo.

You can make burgers at home that are extremely healthy and delicious.

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You can absolutely make a “healthy” burger:

  1. Leaner meat, with much less sodium than what you get in any burger restaurant
  2. Sourdough bun where the dough proofed for 2\~3 days before being baked
  3. Fresh organic vegetables (no pesticides / waxes)
  4. Things like Sauerkraut and/or pickled onions to balance your microbiome
  5. Yogurt based dressing can be delicious! And if it’s a Kefir based yogurt, even better! You can flavor this with dry onion and/or dry garlic

A lot of the ingredients I mentioned above are bursting in flavor, and this means you can almost eliminate sodium entirely and still enjoy an extremely tasty and relatively healthy burger!

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All beef does not have to mean all meat. All “cow parts” can be marketed as “all beef” in many places. Ground organs held together with meat glue and colored to look as expected made a certain burger chain alot of $. Meat glue is denatured cell material left after higher value products are centrifuged from slaughterhouse blood. The high amount of solluable fiber results in quick evacuation from your gastric system.

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Burgers, especially fast food burgers, are generally unhealthy for a few reasons.

-the meat: red meat is generally unhealthy. It increases risk of colon cancer as well as other cancers, heart disease, and diabetes. The meat at fast food restaurants is also more likely to contain higher levels of saturated fat, which can increase the risk of heart disease for certain populations. It is also more likely to be highly processed with harmful chemicals like nitrates/nitrites which cause cancer. It may also be low-quality meat that contains antibiotics and hormones that can have unpredictable negative health impacts on consumers. Additionally, when red meat is charred like on a grill, harmful trans fats (heart disease) and aromatic hydrocarbons/amines (cancer) are produced.

-the bread: bread is a great example of a food rich in highly-processed simple carbohydrates. The only type of food that is less healthy would be refined sugar, which fast food bread also likely contains. The starch found in bread consists mostly of amylopectin, a branched-chain polysaccharide that can be rapidly broken down to glucose in the body, causing it to have a high glycemic index. Whole wheat bread is better given that it has some extra fiber and nutrients from the whole wheat germ, but it doesn’t do much to change the overall negative health impact of the bread.

-the sauce: fast food sauces are likely to contain large amounts of refined sugar, as well as trans fats and other harmful chemicals and preservatives.

-the veg: probably the only harmless thing on the burger, but never included in large enough quantities to noticably slow the absorption of all the sugar.

TLDR: (fast food) burgers are unhealthy because of the saturated fat, trans fat, antibiotics, hormones, preservatives, and aromatic compounds in the grilled red meat, the sugar and amylopectin in the bread, and the sugar, trans fats, and preservatives in the condiments.

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The ratio of bun and meat and all is good, I’ve heard one professor say it was sort of a life saving gamechanger for poor ass immigrants. Chat gpt alludes to this

> The history of hamburgers in the United States is closely tied to the history of immigration. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of people came to the United States from Europe, many of whom were poor and looking for a better life. Hamburgers, which were cheap and easy to make, became a popular food among these immigrants, as they provided a source of protein and other nutrients when other options were limited. As immigrants settled in cities and towns across the country, they opened restaurants and food stands that served hamburgers, and the popularity of the food spread. Today, hamburgers are a staple of American cuisine and can be found in nearly every corner of the country.

A McDonald’s burger has an ingredients list that isn’t one item , burgers with bunhave a lot of low quality oils, lot of added sugar and salt. Ketchup with sugar etc etc lots of modern food processing yuk in there. Some are against saturated fat in a big way, so burgers are a terrible idea bc butchers just throw in all the fat they trimmed for nicer cuts bc modern ppl don’t make tallow or have any uses for fat besides burger and animal food.

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Stop thinking in terms of good and bad for you and think in terms of food quality and freshness (in terms of how long it was made from raw ingredients). Many studies have shown corporations prepare food in a way that is damaging for our health. In my opinion the main issue is shelf life. Many foods with long shelf lives are way cheaper but generally don’t have the same amount of nutrients or a ton of preservatives / pesticides.

-Most fast food buns if you leave them out don’t decay meaning that bacteria don’t want it. That means the same bacteria in your microbiome are not going to want to eat it as well (look up bromine and bread).-Most of the meat in fast food burger is highly processed (meaning fillers), from cows that are fed growth hormones and antibiotics. Those antibiotics are still in the meat and overtime wreak havoc on the microbiome (imagine taking medicine that constantly kills your good bacteria while not being able to effect bad bacteria that have become resistant or live in colonies protected by a biofilm). Quick search shows even after bans it remains a huge problem: https://amp.theguardian.com/global/2022/nov/21/mcdonalds-and-walmart-beef-suppliers-put-public-health-at-risk-with-reckless-antibiotics-use-what kind of vegetables do you get in a burger? Are they frozen or fresh?

So I’d turn this discussion towards are you willing to cook Your own food so you can manage ingredients and freshness? If not, then all corporate foods is basically questionable.

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Perfectly feasible to make a healthy burger.

Organic whole grain or alternative grain free bun without any HFCS, preservatives or processed oils

100% grass fed burger grilled or cooked on a flat top using unprocessed oil like avocado oil. Meat doesn’t even have to be lean as a lot of the nutrients and healthy amino acids of grass-fed beef are concentrated in the fat.

Organic veggies, mayo made with avocado oil, ketchup without added sugar or HFCS etc etc

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I would say avoid the bread and use unprocessed meat, if cooking in pan use tallow. I think there is a reasonable amount of bread and carbs that are not horrible for you if the bread is natural and isn’t full of preservatives, seed oils, glyphosate ridden soy or corn oil. If you eat a burger with fresh made bread and cook it with tallow, no issues. Just don’t eat it with sides fried in canola oil or other shit oils and don’t wash it down with 50 grams of sugar and fructose corn syrup.

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Like everything. It all depends. If you use normal meat, normal brown bread. Veggies. No extra toppings (which ruin the taste IMHO). You have a healthy burger. Sure it’s got calories from meat and brown bread, but overall, the macro/micro nutrients are what’s important. And with the veggies, you have vitamins and minerals. Meat for protein. And brown bread for fiber and carbs. There are plenty of good tasting, low calorie sauces/toppings. You can always try that. Some are even really healthy (usually the more spicy tasting).

Like everything. It depends. Nothing is black/white.

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My main issue with burgers is that they’re filling and usually without providing much fiber. It may contain plenty of other nutrients and macros but it’s critically missing the fiber, like a lot of other “unhealthy” foods.

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Burgers are not unhealthy inherently.

Its the cheap, vegetable oil filled, hyper processed burger, low quality ingredient stuff of McDonald’s and frozen nonsense out there.

A burger made with whatever red meat, a bun (made from only wheat, water and yeast), real cheese and good salad is healthy and complete.

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It’s not man they been lying to you. Cept like Burger King quality.

If you buy your own and get lean meat good bread and vegetables no problem. If your diet can’t fit ketchup or mayo then… idk man move more haha

The less ingredients on the package generally the better. It’s when you got the paragraph of added crap on the bread and meat that make it bad

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Bread isn’t great unless it’s main ingredient is whole wheat, or another form of complex carb. The meat in burgers is usually something like 70/30, which has a lot of saturated fat. Red meat has some good nutrients in it, but can also detrimental to health. Toppings are generally not too bad, unless you get a load of bacon, cheese, mayo, etc. Good rule of thumb with food is moderation. Enjoy a burger every now and then, but dont eat them every day. Red meat shouldnt be a staple of anyones diet.

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