I’d rather avoid them whenever possible. Fortunately, that is relatively easy as industrial farming is something I avoid. My diet is also not that rich in soybean & corn.
I don’t worry much about the GMO thing, but the crops which are heavily GMO (soy beans, sunflower, rapeseed for canola oil, to name a few) go into the production of those industrialized oils I mentioned earlier, which I am convinced are horrible for you, and are present in pretty much all processed food.
I get them from White Castle when it’s late and there is nothing else open or I’m driving on freeways. I don’t pretend they are healthy, but they are tasty. We are family friends with the Ingram Family whom owns White Castle and there is an urban one (with a drive through in a parking garage) less than a block from my home. If you aren’t health consciousness, I’d encourage you to give it a try. In my opinion, it’s the best hamburger from a large fast food chain with a drive-through
While I’m not vegetarian I’ve been a semi-regular buyer of the various Praeger burgers for years both because I think they taste good and with the vague idea that they’re relatively healthy.
So long as we’re getting more informed opinions here anyone have input on the healthfulness of Praeger burgers?
Jay, they are better than Impossible Burgers, that’s for sure. Looking at it from a content perspective, it’s not too bad, but there’s still a ton of sodium, and some versions have both sugar and molasses added. I’m not big on any of the vegetable protein isolates that they use (pea, in this case), though it’s better than some of the alternatives. I honestly think a relatively lean grass fed beef burger is healthier (putting aside environmental or philosophical questions for the moment). It’s natural, not lab manipulated, and has comparable calories and fat - forget about the saturated-fat-is-the-devil myth - provided you make one of comparable size. It has no sugar, and has naturally occurring niacin, vitamin B12, zinc and selenium, as well as vitamin B6, iron and phosphorus. If you’re having the occasional burger as a treat, just eat a good version of the real thing. Of course if you prefer a Praeger burger, that’s different.
I used to make my own with a burger press from Sur La Table. The main ingredients were quinoa and (spicy) smashed black beans, nuts and cooked green vegetables. Freezing them held the ingredients together nicely and it was worth the effort to make a large batch. Different binding agents like quinoa or almond flour were experimented with.
Thank you Sarah!
I’ve had Impossible Burger meat twice (only version 1) in the Boston area: a meatball sandwich at Clover (a local vegetarian chain); and a burger at Little Donkey (owned by James Beard Award-winning chefs Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette).
Meatballs: If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn these were made from some sort of meat! On one level, that is amazing considering that it contained zero meat. However, they were just not good meatballs (tasted more of liver than beef or pork, rather dense and chewy). Your Italian grandmother would laugh them. More akin to something you might get in a school cafeteria. Or what would happen if falafel had sex with a meatball.
Burger: Little Donkey is a hip, trendy place so it was $16, with the usual fancy toppings/bun. But unfortunately it didn’t have the grace to “bleed” for me (it was a thin patty, so maybe it needs to be thicker to do that). Reminded me of a well-seared patty from Wendy’s, rather flavorless other than the char, but definitely meat-like in texture (but we are talking Wendy’s meat here). Considering you can get one of the most famous burgers in America a couple of blocks away at Craigie on Main for $22, I think I’ll save up my pennies.
Speaking of which, Tony Maws of Craigie has recently started serving a vegetarian burger, which he says took 3 years to develop. Only 18 available a day. Now that is a great vegetarian sandwich! Not because it mimics meat, because it doesn’t, but because it is just a delicious vegetable sandwich. I would definitely order that again. But don’t call it a burger.
Will have to try Version 2 next.
Tony is a good friend from high school and a crazily talented chef.
Cool! I went to a wine dinner at Craigie with Jean-Francois Bourdy not too long ago and the food was spectacular. He’s about to open a new burger-centric place in one of our food halls soon.
I am just jealous that you get to eat at his restaurants more than me.
I had to move here from Seattle to do that!
What are the odds that a non-GMO version of any of those crops processed into oils would be much better from a health perspective?
None, as far as I know. It would be unhealthy either way. We just don’t really have industrial scale non GMO on those crops anymore, I don’t think.
Sarah, I don’t think that’s accurate either. We’ve had industrial scale cropping of all of those for years through hybridization.
Jim, I apologize - perhaps I misunderstood the question, and I don’t really understand what the argument is here. My only real point was that I object to highly processed oils such as soybean oil, sunflower oil and canola. I think the way they are made results in unhealthy products, regardless of GMO. That is my concern. I don’t think much, or know much, about GMO versus not, so I am not trying to make any point at all on that subject as it’s not my particular concern. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.
I think we’re mostly on the same page… my point (which you did support earlier) was that GMOs are a phony boogeyman. I’m really just re-emphasizing my point, since there’s really nothing here so far that can actually be attributed as a specific problem of GMOs.
I grilled a couple of the Beyond Meat burgers last night. If you served it to me blind I might have thought it was a bit odd, but with some cheese pickles etc it definitely passed for meat. There’s a local shop that specializes in meat substitute products, and this beat the vast majority of their products (save for their fried chicken; that thing’s a pure miracle). I didn’t feel that great later in the evening though, and chalked it up to ‘what exactly did I just eat’? I try to minimize meat consumption A) for environmental reasons, B) for animal welfare reasons and C) for health reasons (in that order), but also try even moreso to minimize consumption of processed foods and as others have noted this just doesn’t fit that bill.
I can see ordering again in a restaurant if the vegetarian options are otherwise quite limited, and will also try the Impossible burger at some point (have heard multiple reports their v2 is the best of the best), but can’t see any of these being a regular buy for us.
I did Beyond Burgers recently for the family – went for a classic cheeseburger with a thin patty. It was pretty good, oddly a little crispy/crunchy. The other thing is the smell of the raw patty which is quite sharp and pungent, almost chemical. There is a lot written about the pea protein and why it smells that way. I would classify it as interesting.