If hamburgers and cheeseburgers are your go-to food during grilling season (or, let’s be honest, at your local fast-food joint all year long), you may need to stop and think about just how many you’re eating. They can pile up fast.
Though burgers are delicious and a quintessential warm-weather food, they’re also linked to health issues including heart disease and even cancer.
Because of red meat’s connection to serious health concerns, many people, including some doctors, don’t eat it or severely limit it in their diets.
What’s the best way to go about a summer of grilling and eating burgers? How many is too many? And should certain people avoid burgers altogether? Here’s what experts say:
Red meat does have health benefits.
The news about red meat isn’t all bad.
“Red meat is a good source of protein, iron, zinc and B12, which are nutrients needed for daily bodily functions, cell growth, tissue repair, red blood cell development, etc.,” Stacey Pence, a registered dietitian at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, told HuffPost.
While this is a plus for red meat, Pence pointed out that other animal products and plant-based sources can also provide you with the same benefits.
“Red meat doesn’t have a monopoly on those nutrients,” she said.
Samantha McKinney, a registered dietitian for Life Time fitness centres, told HuffPost that healthy sources of protein can include a variety of options, including fish, poultry, eggs, plain dairy (with no added sugar), shellfish and red meat.
“Most people will want to include a variety of these protein sources in their routine (as tolerated) to maximise variety and nutrient intake,” McKinney stated.
But red meat also has risks.
“There’s a lot of saturated fat that comes as part of ground beef and red meat in general,” said Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and chief medical officer of Step One Foods. “Saturated fat ... causes elevated LDL cholesterol, bad cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol is linearly linked to heart disease risk.”
Additionally, Klodas said, saturated fat is pro-inflammatory, which is not a good thing.
“We know that all of the three major diseases we’re all trying to avoid, whether it’s heart disease, cancer or dementia, these are all driven in part by inflammation,” Klodas said. And we don’t want to be adding inflammation to our bodies.
For most health concerns, how much red meat you should eat varies by person.
Just like other aspects of your life, what is right for you is not the same as what is right for your neighbour.
“There are no hard and fast guidelines,” McKinney said.
She added that for some people — like those with iron deficiency anaemia — eating red meat three times a week is suggested, but for some, that much red meat would be a major health risk.
“Others may have hemochromatosis (a relatively common iron storage disorder) or other health condition that warrants them avoiding it completely,” McKinney said.
And people with heart disease risk factors, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, may want to eat less red meat than folks who don’t have those underlying conditions.
“I know people like to have a hard and fast number, but it does not exist,” McKinney said. “We do not all respond to specific diet patterns in the same way, and different approaches work for different people based on a variety of factors.”
If you need additional guidance about red meat intake, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor or nutritionist.
“It’s appropriate for most people to include [red meat] in their weekly rotation, assuming they’re eating various foods at baseline,” McKinney noted.
But it’s important to limit just how much you’re eating to aid your longevity.
“In general, if you look at the dietary patterns of people who live long well ... their diets are relatively low in ... animal flesh and animal-product-derived calories,” Klodas said. “So probably a good thing to say is the less the better.”
But she noted that she doesn’t think you have to avoid hamburgers, or any red meat, altogether. “We are omnivores. We have canine teeth for a reason, right?”
Klodas said even though it varies from person to person, overall, red meat once a week at most is a good benchmark for most people. And one serving of meat is 3 ounces, according to the American Heart Association.
It’s worth noting that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans do not have specific red meat consumption limits but say you should choose lean meats over fatty meats and limit yourself to 26 ounces of meat, poultry and eggs each week.
Additionally, the guidelines say you should limit your saturated fat consumption to less than 10% of your daily calories. “The main sources of saturated fat in the U.S. diet include sandwiches, including burgers, tacos, and burritos,” the guidelines say and suggest that folks, once again, select lean meats because of their lower levels of saturated fats.
But to reduce your cancer risk, there is a suggested red meat limit.
“According to [the] American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), eating red meat in excess of 12 to 18 ounces per week increases the risk of colorectal cancer,” Pence stated.
“Keep portion sizes to about 4 to 6 ounces cooked or about the size of one or two decks of cards, and stay within that 12 to 18 ounce per week red meat limit.”
She said you can also consider other proteins for a healthier meal. If you’re craving a burger, you can grill a portobello mushroom or a black bean burger instead of the traditional red-meat option.
Additionally, McKinney said, how you cook your red meat can affect your cancer risk.
“Anytime there is charring, burning or high-temperature cooking, it can form heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ... which are compounds that have been implicated in cancer risk,” McKinney said.
These are both known carcinogens, Dr. Otis Brawley, the associate director of community outreach and engagement at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Medicine, previously told HuffPost.
“Development of these compounds can be mitigated and reduced ― but not eliminated,” McKinney said.
You can reduce your risk by shortening the cooking time and avoiding direct exposure of the meat to a flame or smoke, she noted.
McKinney added that these compounds are also created when you grill and char other foods, too, like chicken and fish.
You should think about what you eat with your burger, too.
“There’s also other parts to this ... which is, OK, how are we presenting this, this burger or this meat, right?” Klodas said. “It’s also what it comes with.”
In other words, if you’re eating a 4-once lean ground beef patty over a bed of lettuce, you can eat that more frequently than a bacon double cheeseburger with fries, she noted.
The bacon double cheeseburger with fries “should be a really rare indulgence, right? Maybe once a year. It’s kind of thinking about the entirety of what you’re eating and what you’re surrounding it with,” Klodas said.
Which is hard, she added. You’re probably used to eating and shopping a certain way.
“But you typically serve some vegetables at dinner and meat, and people talk about having meat with vegetables. And I say, OK, well, just have vegetables with meat ... just change the proportions of what’s landing on your plate,” Klodas said. “That’s a significant change because that can have a marked health impact.”
“According to AICR’s New American Plate recommendations,” Pence added, “we should limit animal proteins to a third of our plate or less and make meat the side dish.”
So if you are going to have that burger at a cookout, be sure to load your plate with fresh fruit and veggies, too, and allow those items to be the stars of your plate.