Hamburger and cheeseburger: why are they unhealthy. Why are pizzas and hamburgers dangerous? Why burgers are bad

Recently online between Belarusian users there was a discussion about burgers. Businessman Vitaly Shuravko said that he was infuriated when hamburgers are called junk food. When he tries to find out what exactly is harmful there: minced meat, tomato, onion or lettuce, then no one voices intelligible arguments against it. The editors of The Village Belarus decided to find out if a burger is really bad, and turned to a nutritionist for advice.

Anastasia Travina

Nutritionist, nutritionist consultant

You know, I am generally against dividing food into good or bad, because any food is a set of micro- and macronutrients, a certain calorie content and a set of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. And any product, if it is divided into components, cannot be called bad or good. The question is rather what are your goals, in the amount of food you eat, and how often do you eat it. As for the burgers themselves, if you break them down into specific ingredients, you can really wonder what is so harmful about them?

It's about the quality of this burger and the quality of the products used in it. If we are talking about craft burgers that are fashionable today, then very often this is quite a good product and it can be used. Naturally, if you just have a desire to lose weight, then by eating such a burger you will simply get a large number of calories, due to the fact that, as a rule, there are quite fatty and high-calorie sauces, high-calorie buns, high-calorie meat. But if you include it in your daily calorie content, nothing bad will come of it.

In general, the idea that you eat a McDonald's fries or a hamburger, and it immediately ends up on your hips or your waist excess fat, is incorrect. If it fits into your calorie intake, if you eat less than you spend calories per day, even from burgers you will not get better.

As for the composition itself, vegetables are okay, the buns that are used there, if they are baked on the spot, that is, in a restaurant where they cook a burger, are also okay. If there is good meat, they cook the minced meat themselves, they know what it is made of, if it is beef, then this is generally wonderful. Now there are a million burgers with different ingredients: there are fish burgers, falafel burgers, chicken burgers. Lots of options.

The only thing that may not be entirely useful here is the abundance of saturated fats, which are found both in the meat itself and in the oil in which this whole thing is fried. If this is some kind of deep-frying, then it is important that the chef uses fresh oil each time, as rancid and reused oil are the very trans fats that you should be afraid of. What if it's a quick roast? fresh oil even then there is nothing wrong with that.

It is important to pay attention to the sauce that is used there. If it is not some kind of purchased and chemical, then it has a right to exist. You should also pay attention to what you eat a burger with. Drinking this whole thing with a shock dose of sweet soda is not good. If this is a separate, thoughtful meal, then please eat burgers and don't worry, just move more and spend more calories than you consume.

You can make a good burger at home too. You can pervert and replace a wheat bun with a whole grain one, you can find sourdough or rye buns. You can take high-quality meat and twist it into minced meat, take fresh vegetables, make homemade sauce. Experiment and don't think that if it's a burger, then it's a priori something harmful.

As for fast food, why is it harmful? We eat it quickly, consuming a large amount of calories in one meal. At the same time, it is not a very nutrient-dense food. After 2-3 hours, you will want to eat again and there is a risk of going over calories. And if you eat like this all the time, then you will gain excess weight. Everything is good in moderation.

You will definitely say that there is little benefit in burgers, and we will definitely argue with this. Of course, in one burger there is less useful than in a basket of fruits, but no less than in pizza or homemade food. It all depends on where you order burgers and what they are made from.

Moscow consumers of burgers adequately perceive the fact that tasty food of quality products should not be cheap. If you love a burger, don't buy it for 50 rubles - most likely, cheap low-quality products were used to make it. A good burger has fresh bread, farm vegetables, and most importantly, real meat without additives, frosts and preservatives. The weight of a standard burger is about 200 g. This is the total weight of the dish, in which all the above ingredients are present. The calorie content of the product is 269 kcal. Approximately the same calorie content for pizza and pie. And the health benefits are about the same.

At the heart of any burger is a meat patty. It is made from chopped pork, beef, chicken, fish, lamb and maybe even shrimp. The health benefits of meat are controversial. And if you're not a vegetarian, you're more likely to be in favor of including meat products in your daily diet. To find out how a particular product is useful, you can look at the effect that its exclusion from food has in the absence of a full-fledged replacement. Refusal of beef leads to anemia, and the absence of pork at least once a week can provoke the development of impotence in men. Chicken is rich in potassium, magnesium and iron, it is involved in maintaining blood pressure, lowers cholesterol and stimulates the kidneys. In general, you can’t do without meat at all, and good burgers contain such an amount of meat that satisfies the body’s daily need for proteins and trace elements.

Wheat, which is part of the burger bun, is a powerful natural antioxidant. In addition, it increases the metabolic rate and prevents the formation of gallstones. A very healthy product.

Often included in a burger recipe, onions are a powerful antibacterial agent. And not only does onion kill harmful bacteria in the body, it also modulates the immune system, activates the body's defenses.

You can write a lot about the benefits of vegetables. For example, tomatoes cheer up. Did you know about it? And what from burgers can be harmful? Supporters separate power supply they will say that the burger contains all the products that are incompatible with each other. However, the theory of separate nutrition is one of the versions of the right way of life, and not the ultimate truth. Someone prefers the theory of proper nutrition depending on the blood type, someone completely refuses non-vegetarian products, etc. If you do not adhere to extremes, you can eat a burger. This is a delicious food that fills the body with energy and necessary substances.

Burgers in good restaurants of author's cuisine can be even more useful: with avocados, premium cheeses, vegetables and steaks delivered directly from Argentina, Brazil, Australia. For those who are still worried about their figure, but can hardly refrain from ordering a burger, Obed.ru will give advice: drink low-fat yogurt without sugar after the burger. The acids contained in this product neutralize the fats contained in the burger. 3 cups of yogurt a day will save you 85 calories!

The hamburger is a favorite treat for children, teenagers and many adults. It's hard to turn down the opportunity to go to McDonald's and eat a signature Big Mac or some other kind of delicious bun with a cutlet.

That's just about the dangers of such nutrition today everyone knows. So why not try to cook exactly the same dish at home, so that it is not only tasty, but also healthy?

What is in the Big Mac?

First, let's figure out what ingredients are included in the most famous hamburger in the world. It is the Big Mac.

There is no secret here - the composition of the hamburger at McDonald's is not hidden by anyone. It consists of:

• buns sprinkled with sesame;
• two beef cutlets;
• slices of cheese;
• lettuce;
• pickles;
• pickled onions;
• sauce.

As you can see - nothing that could not be prepared at home. And if so, then to the point! But first, let's make sure that the homemade analogue will be not only tasty and beautiful, but also useful.

Why homemade fast food is better

Everyone knows that a hamburger is the standard of unhealthy food. But why? After all, if you serve a couple of cutlets with cheese with a side dish of vegetables, sauce and buns instead of bread, you get a balanced meal.

Someone says that this is dry food, which harms the stomach. But after all, no one bothers to drink a hamburger, for example, with tea or coffee (ice soda is definitely not worth it - it's really harmful), nullifying the harmful properties.

In fact, the harm comes not from the hamburger itself, but from the products used in cooking.

On the one hand, in order to increase the shelf life, all ingredients are subjected to special processing. As a result, mold does not appear on the bun for months, and the salad does not fade for weeks - you can experiment.

On the other hand, the composition includes many special flavors. Indeed, as a result of processing, products practically lose their original taste. To restore it, various chemical compounds are used that bring great harm to health.

At home, you get a fresh, tasty analogue, prepared with your own hands from high-quality, natural products. Of course, it will be tastier than a store-bought hamburger.

Cooking cutlets

We start with their preparation. It is best to take beef - it is not as fatty as pork. However, if it seems dry to you, then you can take several types of meat. For example, combine pork with beef.

It is better to chop the meat with a sharp knife. But not everyone has the patience for this, so you can simply pass it through a large grate in a meat grinder.

Some pedants use a special press to fry hamburgers. It allows not only to give the cutlet a perfectly even shape, but also makes the surface wavy, which contributes to the fastest frying.

But if it is not at hand, then you can carefully form a cutlet with your hands. The main thing is that it should be a little larger than the buns - during the frying process, the cutlet will noticeably decrease. No seasonings, except for salt and black pepper, do not need to be added here. Good meat and so has excellent taste.

Let's take care of the buns

The easiest solution is to purchase them from the store. But not the most efficient. Still, homemade crispy buns are much better able to set off the great taste of a homemade dish. So, if you are interested in how to make a hamburger, then it is better to bake them at home. For this you will need:

• 2 chicken eggs;
• 40 grams of margarine;
• 250 grams wheat flour;
• 0.5 cups of milk;
• 20 grams of sugar;
• 4 grams of dry yeast;
• 2 tablespoons of white sesame;
• salt.

When everything you need is at hand, get to work. And remember: a hamburger is a symphony of taste, in which there are no trifles. And the bun plays the role of the first violin here! So the steps are:

1. Melt the margarine in a water bath, and sift the flour through a sieve.
2. Add sugar, salt and yeast. Pour melted and slightly cooled margarine, 1 egg and warm milk here. Mix thoroughly until the dough becomes elastic, dense and pliable.
3. Cover the dough with a clean towel, leave for 2 hours in a warm place.
4. Lubricate a baking sheet with vegetable oil, cover with parchment paper.
5. Form 10 buns. Put on a baking sheet and put in the oven for 10 minutes, preheating it to 180 degrees.
6. Whisk the remaining egg. Brush the buns, sprinkle with sesame seeds and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

It remains only to let the buns cool down a bit, and then you can cook hamburgers! Knowing how to bake hamburger buns, you can proceed to the next step.

Making sauce like McDonald's

A hamburger is not only the main ingredients, but also the sauce! Without it, the dish will never turn out as tasty as in a cafe.

To make the mustard sauce (which is the one used in Big Macs, Chickenburgers, and Cheeseburgers), use:

• 1 tablespoon of sweet mustard;
• 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise;
• 1 small pickled cucumber;
• ½ teaspoon paprika;
• dried garlic and onion - to taste.

Preparing the sauce is very simple - put all the ingredients in a blender and beat until smooth.

Assembling the finished hamburger

We're heading to the finish line! After all, in order to know how to make a hamburger, you need to properly lay the layers. To do this, cut the bun lengthwise into three parts and fry a little so that it crunches. Also prepare all the ingredients that are put in the "Big Mac" - the list is given above. The sequence is this:

• the bottom layer of the bun;
• sauce;
• salad;
• pickled onion;
• meat cutlet;
• middle layer buns;
• sauce;
• pickle;
• cutlet;
• the top layer of the bun.

Everything is ready, you can invite guests to the table! As you can see, a hamburger is very tasty, simple and quite healthy! Therefore, you can spoil your loved ones with them more often.

The hamburger was invented by Danish immigrant Louis Lassen, who arrived in the United States in 1886. Unfortunately, his venture failed. The newspapers of that time shouted with one voice that eating such food was like eating garbage. But worldwide fame still came to the hamburger, and the brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald contributed to this when they opened a chain of fast food eateries at the beginning of the 20th century. McDonald's became wildly popular, and other chains of restaurants and eateries began to prepare hamburgers. Depending on the content, a cutlet with two buns began to be called chickenburger, cheeseburger, and the like.

The harm is in the meat

Years passed. And everything would be fine, but the producers supplying meat for burgers stopped feeding the cows with grass. Instead, they placed them in cramped quarters and literally fed them grains and anabolics, which led to a rapid increase in their mass. When grain prices rose, sawdust, manure, slop, etc., were used as feed. All this resulted in tragedy in the United States in the 1990s, when several thousand people were hospitalized with poisoning after visiting fast food restaurants. Examination showed that up to 78 percent of minced meat sampled at these establishments across America was contaminated with fecal bacteria. This, of course, was a grandiose scandal, the consequences of which were tried to be eliminated as quickly as possible. However, it is clear that meat producers will never give up quick profits. Perhaps now they are trying to avoid very dangerous additives in the form of manure and other organic matter, but the fact that their meat grows by leaps and bounds is a fact.

American cookbook assistant editor Stephanie Pixley explains that ground meat or hamburger meat is often the cause of foodborne disease outbreaks, as the process of preparing meat for burgers is sometimes disrupted. Large pieces are crushed into small ones, or ground into minced meat. During this period, most of the meat is exposed to air, from which all kinds of viruses and bacteria easily enter the meat. Finely chopped meat or minced meat are ideal conditions for their instant distribution. According to Pixley, to be sure of the safety of a burger, it is necessary that the temperature inside it reaches 160 degrees during frying.

Without preservatives - nowhere

British scientists emphasize that even if burgers are made from the best and highest quality meat, it still doesn’t change anything. They studied the composition of the patty and came to the conclusion that the whole chopped meat revised according to special technology with a huge amount of additives, preservatives, all kinds of chemicals that allow the meat product not to deteriorate for a very long period. In particular, a huge amount of hydrogenated trans fats was found in a hamburger, which, once in the body, quickly turn into deadly carcinogens.

As for the cheeseburger, it is the same hamburger, but with the addition of cheese. And the cutlet in it remains the same. And not only figuratively, but also in the literal sense. For example, Melanie Hesketh, an employee at the Windsor Health Center, once left a purchased cheeseburger on the table in her dining room. When, a day later, she discovered that he had completely retained his original appearance, Melanie decided not to touch him out of curiosity. As a result, the cheeseburger lay for more than a year and practically did not change: it did not dry out and did not mold, it did not emit any unpleasant smell. True, the cutlet darkened slightly and seemed to have slightly decreased in size, but it still looked appetizing. Melanie's work colleagues joked about this: "Probably, even bacteria do not like such food."

Memory burgers

Researchers at the Bonn Research Institute analyzed the health effects of foods like hamburgers and cheeseburgers. To this end, experiments were conducted on mice that were fed exclusively on fast food, which contains a large amount of unhealthy fats and carbohydrates, but almost no fiber. In the scientific world, such food is called the "Western diet." Very soon, the rodents developed a severe inflammatory reaction, similar to that which occurs when dangerous bacteria invade the body. According to Anette Christ, one of the authors of the study, this diet caused a significant increase in the number of immunoregulatory cells in the bloodstream of mice. To put it simply, a hamburger and a cheeseburger provoke the body to mobilize a huge amount of immune cells. Interestingly, even after stopping the use of such food, the body keeps immune cells in a state of alert for a long time in case you again have to process food that looks more like dangerous bacteria.

Australian scientists have found that the frequent use of any burgers by teenagers aged 14-15 after two or three years leads to a decrease in their cognitive abilities. Researcher Dr. Anette Nyaradi told Science Netwo about this. The University of Western Australia and the Telethon Institute (Kids Institute) followed up more than 600 teenagers. The experiment, called Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort, lasted three years, during which young people actively ate all kinds of burgers. By the age of 17, the abundance of heavy saturated fats and carbohydrates significantly impaired their memory and negatively affected their learning abilities. In addition, some teenagers have decreased visual attention and slowed down the reaction.

obesity and diabetes

But that's not all. The rumor that burgers make you fat is slightly understated. They make you very fat, and this is due to the fats and carbohydrates contained in them. In one sitting, a person can "eat" two or three days, or even a week's calorie intake. And an excess of carbohydrates very quickly turns into a poison for the body. Because of him endocrine system carries enormous burdens.

The journal Science Translational Medicine published the results of a study showing that after the substances in burgers enter our bloodstream, there is a powerful increase in the amount of glucose. And then the chain starts. The body immediately converts glucose into energy, which, in turn, is the impetus for the release of insulin. If the surge was very strong, insulin is released in excess. Because of this, after a short time, a person again experiences a feeling of hunger. The repetition of such processes very soon leads to insulin resistance - a harbinger of diabetes.

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The experts explained what is the hidden danger of excessive addiction to "junk" food. It is important to ensure that such nutrition does not become a habit.

Pizzas, hamburgers and other dishes fast food They can be very tasty and convenient, but we constantly hear that they are dangerous to our health. Fast food has become especially popular these days when we are constantly in a hurry to get somewhere. At any time, we can buy delicious and inexpensive food, saving time. Also, many restaurants are happy to deliver their products directly to your home and office.

First, most fast food meals contain too much oil and fat. Cholesterol, which is found in fatty foods, is one of the causes of heart disease, hypertension and atherosclerosis.

Secondly, prepared food manufacturers do not skimp on salt. Everyone needs salt, but too much salt can lead to health problems, such as high blood pressure. In addition, a large amount of salt is harmful to the kidneys and can cause kidney failure.

As a rule, to enhance the taste, junk food manufacturers use a lot of additives and preservatives. These substances are harmful to health and, according to some studies, increase the chance of developing cancer.

Desserts that are served in fast food restaurants are very tempting, but the abuse of sweets can lead to weight gain and health problems such as diabetes.

Of course, we are all very busy and we are constantly short of time, but we must remember that proper nutrition is the key to health.