Bread is Pain

The hamburger is one of, if not the most iconic fast food menu items. To the health conscious, it is an easily targetable scapegoat for all that is wrong with food in America. At its heart is what’s oft-cited as ingredients for a heart attack: greasy beef sandwiched in refined flour buns and stacked with cheese and bacon. Even with a tapanade topping of the current trendiest superfoods it would still be nutritionally irredeemable.

Burgers have since expanded from fast food and diner fare to the gourmet, dressed up with signature extravagant fare from truffled aioli to seared foie gras, making them ubiquitous in any culinary landscape. You can find them as tiny sliders or mammoth record breakers. No matter what the size or establishment, burgers are always the worst item to choose from a menu. Or are they?

Let’s be frank (is that a hot dog pun in a hamburger post? It may be…): there may often be healthier options than a hamburger, and indeed there are many things emulsified into those patties and thrown between the buns at your average fast food haunt that you should probably avoid putting into your body with any regular occurrence. The thing is, for the most part, people are aware of that. Everyone might not know to what extent a hamburger is detrimental or not, but a hamburger is not masquerading as health food. In fact, a lot of companies somehow make their money strictly by promoting how unhealthy their hamburgers are.

For a lot of people the clear alternative to a hamburger is a Caesar salad. The very word “salad” conjures up images of something healthy and nutritious, like crunchy greens picked fresh from the garden. This image can be deceiving. It’s definitely never been disputed that vegetables are good for you, but a Caesar salad consists in large part the same refined flour (croutons), cheese (Parmesan), bacon and fat (creamy dressing) as a hamburger does. So to be fair, let’s look at how a hamburger and Caesar salad compare nutritionally.

First, since it’s easier to define and measure the source ingredients, let’s compare a homemade version of each of these foods, and then we’ll do a breakdown of some common fast food variants.

 

Hamburger Ingredients	Calories	Fat	Protein	Carbohydrates
1 white sesame seed hamburger roll	120	1.9g	4.1g	21.3g
4 ounces (1/4 pound) regular ground beef (seasoned)	288	22.7g	19.5g	0g
1 ounce slice of cheese	102	8.0g	5.9g	1.4g
2 slices of bacon	54	4.2g	3.7g	0.1g
1 slice of tomato	3	0g	0.1g	0.6g
1 leaf of iceberg lettuce	2	0g	0.1g	0.4g
1 slice of pickle	1	0g	0g	0.2g
1 teaspoon ketchup, mustard and relish	18	0.2g	0.4g	4.2g

Hamburger Total: 587 calories, 37.1g fat (15.5g saturated), 33.9g protein and 28.1g carbohydrates

Hamburger significant (>10% RDA) nutrition: 38% B6, 122% B12, 27% calcium, 26% copper, 53% iron, 12% magnesium, 50% niacin, 58% phosphorus, 12% potassium, 37% riboflavin, 68% selenium, 72% sodium, 26% thiamin, 58% zinc

 

Caesar Dressing	Calories	Fat	Protein	Carbohydrates
1 garlic clove	4	0g	0.2g	1g
1 teaspoon mustard	3	0.2g	0.2g	0.3g
1 egg yolk	55	4.5g	2.7g	0.6g
4 fillets anchovy	34	1.6g	4.6g	0g
1 lemon, juiced	6	0.1g	0.1g	2g
½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce	6	0g	0g	1.7g
½ cup olive oil	955	108g	0g	0g

Recipe courtesy of Food Network Canada

Yields 10 ounces

Caesar dressing total: 1063 calories, 114.4g fat, 7.8g protein and 5.5g carbohydrates

Caesar dressing significant (>10% RDA) nutrition: 20% B12, 11% vitamin C, 110% vitamin E, 12% copper, 30% iron, 21% niacin, 18% phosphorus, 13% riboflavin, 41% selenium, 50% sodium

 

Caesar Salad	Calories	Fat	Protein	Carbohydrates
4 ounces Caesar dressing	425	45.8g	3.1g	2.2g
3 cups Romaine lettuce	24	0.4g	1.7g	4.6g
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated	118	7.8g	10.7g	1g
½ cup croutons (plain)	61	1g	1.8g	11g
2 slices bacon (made into bits)	54	4.2g	3.7g	0.1g

Caesar salad total (without dressing): 257 calories, 13.3g fat (6.6g saturated), 18g protein and 16.8g carbohydrates
Caesar salad total (with dressing): 680 calories, 59.5g fat (13.6g saturated), 18.9g protein and 19.3g carbohydrates
Caesar salad significant (>10% RDA) nutrition: 50% Vitamin A, 13% vitamin B6, 23% vitamin B12, 38% vitamin C, 29% vitamin E, 43% calcium, 14% copper, 31% iron, 16% niacin, 48% phosphorus, 21% riboflavin, 37% selenium, 113% sodium, 21% thiamin and 16% zinc

All nutritional information tallied through Fitday

Obviously not everyone makes their burgers the same way or dresses their salad with the same amount of dressing, but this is a reasonably fair comparison. Since this can be difficult to read at a glance, I will highlight the significant information.

Calories
Burger: 587
Salad: 680

Fat
Burger: 37.1g
Salad: 59.5g

Protein
Burger: 33.9g
Salad: 18.9g

Carbohydrates
Burger: 28.1g
Salad: 19.3g

Overall Nutrition
If we dropped an ounce of dressing, both the burger and salad are more or less equivilent in calories and fat. Adding a comparitive amount of chicken (4 ounces) to the salad would add 200 or so calories and bring the protein content up to exceed the burger. Overall, the salad trumps the burger with significantly more vitamin A from the lettuce, vitamin C from the lemon and vitamin E from the olive oil, but the burger beats the salad, in large part due to the beef, with significantly more B12, iron, zinc and magnesium.

So let’s call it a draw.

Fast Food Comparisons

I’ll list the total calories per available serving using the same fast food restaurants I used in my French Fries Versus Onion Rings post. There will be omissions for A&W and Dairy Queen, who don’t have a Caesar salad-like option, and Arby’s, who doesn’t make hamburgers. Otherwise, I’ve tried to align 1/4 pound burgers with cheese and bacon versus their Caesar salad counterparts (who are usually cheaped out of their bacon and cheese, but I digress).

McDonald’s Mighty Caesar Salad with Dressing (0.439 cal/g)
Serving size: 224g
510 calories
45g fat
17g carbohydrates
7g protein

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese (0.377 cal/g)
Serving size: 200g
530 calories
28g fat
41g carbohydrates
30g protein

Wendy’s Bacon Deluxe Single (0.416 cal/g)
Serving size: 266g
640 calories
36g fat
43g carbohydrates
35g protein

Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad (0.554 cal/g)
Serving size: 421g
760 calories
49g fat
43g carbohydrates
39g protein

Burger King Whopper with Bacon and Cheese
Serving size: ?
770 calories
47g fat
52g carbohydrates
34g protein

Burger King “Garden Salad” with Caesar Dressing
Serving size: ? (small container)
280 calories
24g fat
12g carbohydrates
6g protein

A&W Cheddar Bacon Uncle Burger (0.424 cal/g)
Serving size: 301g
710 calories
46g fat
39g carbohydrates
37g protein

DQ Bacon Cheese Grillburger (0.386 cal/g)
Serving size: 243g
630 calories
37g fat
44g carbohydrates
30g protein

Most calories per serving: Burger King Whopper with Cheese and Bacon (770 calories)
Most fat per serving: Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad (49g), runner up: Burger King Whopper with Bacon and Cheese (47g)
Most protein per serving: Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad (39g), runner up: A&W Cheddar Bacon Uncle Burger (37g)
Most calories per gram (cal/g): Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad (0.554 cal/g)

Conclusion

What does all of this prove? Not much really. Fast food, nearly all fast food, is not a particularly healthy choice, and, if you looked at the ingredient lists for these items, you’d know to be better off invariably making these foods at home. That, and I like to take a really long time to illustrate very little: Caesar salads are not health food — the end!