When 80% Lean = 70% Fat
For: Ask the Experts,
August 2002
Ground beef is probably the single most damaging food in the American diet, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Americans eat, on average, 27 pounds of it a year—that's nearly half the beef we eat. Most of it ends up as burgers.
Here are some of ground beef's demerits:
• It is the third biggest source of saturated fat for the average American (after cheese and whole milk).
n Unlike whole cuts, which have trimmable fat, ground beef has fat that can't be trimmed away (only some of it drips away during cooking).
• Ground beef can, misleadingly, be labeled "80% lean" or "85% lean." Those claims are not allowed on other foods unless they are low in fat. Beef that is 80% lean is 20% fat by weight, but that fat contributes 70% of the total calories (see below).
• Also misleadingly, ground beef can be labeled "lean" even if it is 22% fat by weight. Other foods can be labeled "lean" only if they are less than 10% fat by weight.
• Ground beef is more likely to contain dangerous E. coli bacteria than any other food. Grinding equipment may be a source of contaminants; and ground meat offers bacteria more surfaces on which to multiply. This makes adequate cooking—well cooked, even in the center—a must.
What does 80% lean mean?
Don't be fooled by ground beef labeled with its
fat content, such as "10% fat," or conversely "90% lean."
This is the percentage of fat by weight, not the "percentage of calories
from fat." A 3.5-ounce patty of this raw meat actually derives about
half of its calories from fat.
The chart below shows what the various fat contents really mean. It is
based on 100-gram patties (3.5 ounces) of raw meat, since then the percentage
of fat by weight and the number of fat grams are the same (for example,
10% = 10 grams). The percentage of fat calories is computed by multiplying
the number of grams of fat by 9 (the calories in a gram of fat), then
dividing the result by the total calories.
| FAT CONTENT (BY WEIGHT) |
|
TOTAL CALORIES (PER 100 GRAMS) |
|
% CALORIES FROM FAT |
| 10% | 175 | 51% | ||
| 15% | 220 | 61% | ||
| 20% | 260 | 70% | ||
| 25% | 300 | 75% |
By the way, when you cook the patties (to medium doneness), they shrink by one-fifth to one-third, and the fat and calorie content may shrink almost that much, too. But cooking reduces the percentage of fat calories by only about 10%, on average.
UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, May 2000
Warning: Failed opening '../sc_footer.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in /home/httpd/wellnessletter/subCorner/RA2001/RA2002/scRA0802_06.php on line 141