This week we honor America's independence (where is the summer going?!). Many people will celebrate by tossing some burgers on the grill. I mean, what's more American than that? Well, maybe hot dogs I guess...but that's another post! If you've been wondering just what the difference is among all those burgers and which is best, this is for you! Read on for a comparison on burgers!

Let's start with some general health and nutrition basics:

Calories

The "average" person should be consuming around 2000 calories per day. Slightly more for men, slightly less for women. If you're trying to lose weight or are just a small person, your needs might be less. But for the sake of example, let's go with the 2000 calories.

Fats

For people with heart disease, or at risk for heart disease (i.e. most of us), the amount of total fat we should consume is around 30% of calories. That's about 67 grams of fat. Saturated fat should be limited to 5-6% of total calories, which works out to 13 grams (that's part of the 67 grams of total fat, not in addition to). The recommendation for trans fat is 0 grams. Trans fats have been found to both increase LDL ("bad" cholesterol) and decrease HDL ("good" cholesterol). A double whammy to your health.

There is no specific limit on cholesterol, however the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating as little as possible. If you want to learn more about cholesterol, check out this post!

Sodium

Sodium is well-known to cause increased blood pressure in some people, especially those at risk for heart disease, or who already have it. Consider that, unless you exercise intensely, and/or sweat a lot, your body only needs about 500 mg sodium per day. Most people consume well in excess of 3500 mg sodium per day (learn more about how to decrease that here). If you have high blood pressure, or if it runs in your family, the recommendation is 1500 mg or less per day. 

Fiber

The recommended fiber intake is at least 25 grams per day, depending on your age and sex (see page 146 of for a table of recommendations). More is okay, just make sure to increase it slowly, and drink plenty of fluids. Fiber has tons of benefits, and is essential for heart health. More to come in a future post on that, but you can read more about it using the previous link if you'd like!

Protein

Most people eat more protein than they need. Even people following vegan diets (no animal foods), tend to get more than needed. So this isn't a concern for the vast majority of people. The recommendation for protein is 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight. Very active people, and those over 60 may need more (unless you also have kidney problems). If you're not into doing the math, use this handy calculator!

Size Matters!

For our burger comparison, we'll use a reference of ¼ pound, as most frozen patties seem to be that size. Keep in mind, I'm just comparing the burger patties. The numbers do not represent the bun, any fun things you might add to the mixture before cooking, or any condiments you might use. Now that you've got the basics of what we'll be comparing, let's jump into these burgers!

Below, is a table comparing the nutritional content of 11 different popular burgers.

So which is the best one? As with all things related to nutrition, it's not a cut and dry answer. It depends on what your goals are, and what matters to you (your values). It also depends on what you add to the burger before you cook it! Those ranch dressing packets, eggs, and other condiments might add a lot of flavor, but also add sodium, cholesterol, sugar, etc. I like to keep the burgers simple and add tons of flavor with toppings. Additions like hummus, sauteed mushrooms or peppers and onions, guacamole, vinegar and oil cole slaw, quick pickled onions, or whole grain mustard amp up the flavor while still keeping it healthy.

YOUR GOAL:

Weight loss

Since weight loss comes down to total calories at the end of the day, the best burger for weight loss in this list is Morning Star Farms Black Bean Burger at 110 calories. Keep in mind, a bun is likely to add around 200 or so calories, and condiments are a toss-up depending on what you use. Here are some options to keep the calories down:

• Use no bun, or half the bun
• Forgo the mayo, and stick with ketchup and mustard, and lots of veggies - think lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions.
• Are there baked beans or cole slaw there? Try topping your burger with a side dish you were already going to eat instead of condiments and save yourself those calories!
• How important is cheese to you? Make the decision now. A slice of cheese is around 100 more calories.

Heart Health

Heart health is multifaceted. But to keep it simple, the best burgers on this list for heart health are probably either the homemade bean burger, or the ground chicken burger. Both contain similar amounts of fat and cholesterol. The bean burger is higher in sodium, however since it's homemade, that could be lowered - in fact just about all of the nutrition in that burger can be modified. The bean burger gains a slight edge in the fiber department with 10 grams, whereas the chicken has none (try my Mediterranean Black Bean Quinoa Burger for a fun variation!). Here are some tips to help keep your burger heart healthy:

• Try using hummus instead of cheese on your burger. It's slightly salty without being over the top, it's creamy, and it's got none of the saturated fat of the cheese.
• Load up your burger with tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and any other raw veggies. Think long and hard about toppings like cheese, bacon, and fried onions.
• Look for whole grain buns instead of regular white ones.
• Go easy on condiments. A little is fine, but they are usually high in sodium. Consider making your own, like this Healthy Ketchup recipe.

Healthiest Animal Burger

I'm giving this distinction to the ground turkey burger. Despite having a bit more calories and fat than the chicken, it's got less sodium. With the increased fat content, the burger will stay juicier on the grill, while still being relatively low in fat. It narrowly edges out the 95/5 burger though, so if you really wanted a beef burger, that one is the one.

Healthiest Vegetarian Burger

For this I'll go with the homemade bean burger. I know it's more work, but not much more than making hamburgers from scratch. Making them yourself gives you complete control over the ingredients and nutrition. By using dry beans instead of canned, you can cut the sodium content drastically. Using ground flax instead of egg will remove the cholesterol. And this version has more protein and fiber than the frozen options.

There aren't right or wrong answers here. My general rule of thumb is of give and take. So maybe for your next picnic, you have the burger with cheese in a lettuce wrap, but maybe next time you want the burger with a whole bun and no cheese. You choose what's right for you!

What's your favorite type of burger for picnics, and how do you keep it healthier?

You eat well all day. You stick to the plan. You have willpower of steel at work, and decline all offers of food from coworkers. You only eat what you planned to eat. You even avoid snacking while making dinner, and eat a healthy meal instead. Then it all goes downhill. After dinner you have a dessert. Then some of the leftovers before you put them away. Then later you open a bag of chips while you're watching tv.

Sound familiar? You're not alone! Many people find the time of the day that's hardest to stick with their healthy eating plan is the evening! Read on for some tips on how to stop snacking at night!

What's the problem with snacking at night?

Inherently, there's nothing wrong per se with nighttime snacking. Contrary to popular belief, your metabolism doesn't go down while you're sleeping, such that anything you eat before bed gets stored as fat.

However, eating before bed can, in fact, lead to weight gain (2, 3) and other chronic diseases. What gives?

Let's consider the above example: sitting down on the couch with a bag of chips. While chips can fit into a healthful lifestyle in limited quantities, sitting on the couch with an open bag is a recipe for mindless snacking, and thus, no portion control. A handful of potato chips is around 150 calories. How many handfuls would you mindlessly munch? This type of habit makes the calories add up fast, and those are usually calories over your "budget" for the day. The story is the same for most other snacks: ice cream, cookies, crackers and cheese... the list goes on.

So snacking at night can cause weight gain because of all the extra calories (2, 3). After all, how many people do you know snacking on carrot sticks at night?

Another potential issue with snacking too close to bedtime is, for some people, it can cause heartburn or sleep disturbances. If you experience either of these, you might want to try not eating so close to bedtime and see how it affects you.

Why is it so hard to stop snacking at night?

For the most part, the difficulty lies in some deep seeded habits. And habits are hard to change, especially when we don't recognize them! Our whole lives are built around habit (routine), some of them contribute to our success and well-being, and some of them do not.

Most of us have stress in our days, even if it's little stresses. Someone cuts you off in traffic, a coworker doesn't show up and you have to do extra work, your cat throws up on the carpet... We do a good job of keeping it together throughout the whole day, and when we get home, we just want to relax and unwind. Herein lies the habit part. When we relax, we often revert back to unconsciously learned behaviors. When you were a kid and had a hard day at school, how did your mom (with the absolute best of intentions) try to make you feel better? With a cookie or other snack? While this example may not resonate with you exactly, I bet you can pinpoint something in your past that solidified your turning to snacks in times of stress.

Another thing I can often identify is simply that sitting in front of the tv and snacking in the evening has just become "what I do" over the years. It's as much part of the daily routine as brushing your teeth.

Regardless of how snacking in the evening came to be a reality for you, the truth is, that it's still a habit. And habits can be broken!

How can I break the habit?

First, let me give a few caveats here.

If you are truly hungry (and I mean actual physiological hunger, not boredom) in the evening, you should have a snack. Going to bed hungry won't help you sleep well. Plan the snack into your calorie budget for the day so it doesn't contribute too many calories. This also applies if you have diabetes or another condition in which you must eat more regularly.

If you've identified snacking in the evening as a problem for you, do not replace snacking on something unhealthy with snacking on something healthier. It's a real slippery slope back to unhealthy snacks.

Now, let's get to the part you probably came here for. Below are some ideas for how to stop snacking at night. Write down the ones you think would work for you, make a plan, and start tonight!

•  Put all your leftovers away after you serve yourself and family dinner, before you start eating. You will be less likely to snack on them after dinner if they're already in the fridge.
• Do the dishes immediately after dinner. If the kitchen is clean, you may be less inclined to dirty more dishes.
• Brush your teeth or chew gum after dinner. Clean, fresh breath is a snacking deterrent.
• Make a list of things that need done around the house. When you're feeling "snacky" pick something on the list and do it instead.
• Get a new hobby. Take a class for painting, drawing, etc. Something to keep your hands busy is ideal.
• Build a puzzle (again, it keeps your hands - and mind - busy!).
• Read a book.
• Mix up your evening routine - sit somewhere different, watch a different tv show, etc. Be mindful of what you're watching. Watching Food Network might contribute to impulse snacking. Also look out for well-placed commercials for fast food and pizza joints. Running those ads between 8 and 10 at night is no accident!
• Play a board game.
• Take a dance class, exercise class, or try an exercise program on DVD.
• Go for a brisk walk.
• Take a bubble bath.
• Try yoga or meditation.
• Enjoy a cup of herbal tea (with no additions).

Whatever you decide, the key is to do something so you're not sitting there focusing on not snacking. Get busy doing something enjoyable. Create new habits by doing it consistently. In addition to avoiding the extra calories by not snacking, you'll also be burning additional calories AND enjoying it!

If you have more tips for how to stop snacking at night, let me know in the comments!

Have you heard about the recent study linking eggs and heart disease? Of course you have. It's everywhere. Have you been wondering what it's all about and why on Earth we keep hearing conflicting recommendations about eggs and cholesterol? Let's break it down.

The Study

The study aimed to answer the question: Is consuming dietary cholesterol or eggs associated with incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality? It was conducted using data pooled from 6 prospective cohorts, and followed over 29,000 people for 17.5 years. This is quite a large sample size, with a long follow up time; both strengths of the study. The study relied on self-reported diet data, a potential limitation (self-reported information is notoriously flawed), which was controlled for using standard protocols.

In analysis, the authors found a significant association between higher dietary cholesterol or egg consumption and higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death, in a dose dependent manner. That means that the more cholesterol or eggs someone consumed, the greater their risk for heart disease and death. More specifically, every additional 300 mg of cholesterol consumed per day increased participants' risk for cardiovascular disease by 3.24%, and death by 4.43%. Each additional half an egg per day increased cardiovascular disease risk by 1.11%, and death by 1.93%.

What was notable about this particular study, was that the authors controlled for factors like saturated fat intake, fiber intake, sodium, and animal protein intake. That's important, because diets high in cholesterol are often also high in saturated fat, animal protein, and sodium, and low in fiber, making it difficult to know what exactly contributes to the results. When these factors were controlled for, the association between dietary cholesterol or egg consumption and cardiovascular disease and death remained.

The Controversy

So why can't researchers just make up their minds on whether eggs are good or bad, and whether or not cholesterol affects heart health? As simple as that question seems, the answer is complicated. First, it's important to know that recommendations for healthy eating rarely change based on a single study, not matter how much publicity it gets. That's because sometimes inaccurate results occur by chance, or a study may not have been well-designed, so results are flawed. We have to look at what the majority of well-designed studies conclude. Well-designed studies with accurate results must be able to be replicated and get the same results. This study pooled the results of numerous other studies, which helps us to see the "preponderance of the evidence" (what the majority of research concludes).

Another challenge in research on dietary patterns is that, as mentioned above, it's often difficult to separate different lifestyle factors. For instance, people who tend to eat fewer eggs also tend to have healthier dietary patterns overall, get more exercise, smoke less, are more educated, and have more income. All of those are well-documented factors that contribute to better health. This study teased out those factors, and found the association still exists.

A third point of controversy may lie in simple misunderstanding of what the results actually mean. This study found an association between dietary cholesterol or egg consumption and cardiovascular disease and death. All that means is that, as a person eats more eggs and cholesterol, their risk for heart disease and death increases. That does not mean one caused the other. To find out if there is a causal relationship, a study would need to include at least two groups of people, one as a control, that would receive a placebo, and one as a treatment group that would receive the "treatment" - in this case eggs or cholesterol. This is called a placebo-controlled study. Ideally, you would want a double-blind placebo-controlled study. That means that neither the researcher nor the participants know who is getting the placebo or the treatment to avoid skewing the results.

What Does It Mean For Me?

While this report doesn't show causation, when it comes to heart disease I believe it's wise to err on the side of caution - since it is the number one cause of death in Americans. Should you give up eggs? That's probably not necessary. But I do believe there's enough research to recommend consuming less than 250-300 mg of cholesterol per day if you already have heart disease. And indeed, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend consuming as little cholesterol as possible. For reference, one egg contains 186 mg cholesterol.

Keep in mind that cholesterol isn't one of those things we need to eat for health, like fat. Our bodies can make all the cholesterol we need, so there's no lower limit.

Reducing saturated fat will have the greatest effect on cholesterol levels for most people. But some people are much more sensitive to dietary cholesterol than others. So if you've been having trouble getting your blood cholesterol numbers down, it's definitely worth a try. Remember that cholesterol comes from all animal foods naturally, so just reducing egg consumption may not do it. In particular, take a look at cheese, full fat dairy, red meat, shellfish, butter, and sour cream. It's also helpful to bump up consumption of soluble fiber, because it tends to remove cholesterol from our bodies. Foods like dry beans (black beans, Lima beans, etc.), oatmeal, nuts and seeds (like hazelnuts and sunflower seeds), fruits with edible skins like apples and nectarines, and chia and flax seeds. Check out our high fiber archives for more recipes!

Wondering what the best diet is for heart disease? You might be interested in our article: The 3 Best Diets for Heart Health!