I can't figure it out. 1 pound of *good* ground beef (93/7) has 680 calories a pound and 1 pound of ground turkey has 676 calories a pound. They are about the same on fats but ground beef outweighs ground turkey on protein. So if unless you are eating fatty ground beef they are basically the same nutritionally except the beef is the heavy hitter on protein. They both have animal fats so they both are sources of cholesterol. Why do people assume that ground turkey is better than lean ground beef? I just don't get why it's getting the bad wrap.

I eat the 93/7 ground beef. I try to limit myself to 2 days a week and not 2 days in a row. I understand that ground beef stays with you a bit longer in the digestive system.

Well, personally I am a vegetarian, but I think a lot of it may be marketing from the turkey industry combined with people not historically buying as lean of meat as 93/7.

Because sliced turkey (deli meat) is so low calorie, I think people's perceptions just extend that to mean all turkey. My fiancee wanted to buy turkey bacon last week...I've heard most brands have more fat then traditional pork bacon.

I think the turkey industry is just riding the "eat more white meat" campaign, as the pork industry is trying to do. Suddenly pork is a white meat (is it really though?) I think it was just their marketing campaign.

I had no idea they were so similar! Thank you for sharing. It is amazing how easy it is to get swept away in marketing and assumptions.

Though, my first thought to the title of your post was: Ground meat is just nasty. Lots of bacteria gets ground up into the meat. With that being said, sometimes I just gotta eat a nice, juicy, beef burger and there ain't no substitute!!

I hate fatty meats too which is why I buy the 93/7 and ensure proper cook temps. I feel the same way, there are no substitutes that can replace my burger or a nice, juicy steak. YUM!

I guess I am just like that with food. I'd rather modify the actual food than make substitutions for it.

Even as a kid (I'm 28) we didn't eat too much ground beef. My mom didn't like it much, and my dad didn't care... And I grew to not like its taste. To this day, in all of my relationship with my hubby, I have never bought ground beef! My poor DH. We do, however, eat steak from a local butcher that raises the cows right there on the land he owns in front of the store.. If I did buy it, I would buy it from there.

Besides, gound beef creeps me out!! I'm so strange. HAHA.

Living in the land of Nebraska Corn Feed Beef, I have NOTHING against ground beef....or any beef for that matter. I love it, and eat it several times a week. It did not hamper my weightloss and it hasn't been a problem to maintain my current weight eating it. We do however buy locally grown beef that is hormone free and slaughtered and butchered to our specification.

That being said...I do have a problem with whole cows milk and corn....lol Cows milk is for calves...it makes them...well, fat as a cow. Corn is fed to feeder cows to make them even fatter. It works well, and I so I try to avoid them both as much as possible.

The thing is. . .you can even buy the fatty beef and rinse it after cooking and reduce the fat to about the same as the 93%. I remember reading an article somewhere about it. You cook it without added fat in the pan, drain off excess oil, place in a colander, fill pan with water and dump over the meet, repeat a few times, return meat to pan and add seasonings, etc and reheat. They had done nutritional testing and found that it was essentially the same fat and caloric content as 93% beef. It wouldn't work for burgers, but this is what I do if I'm cooking meat for tacos or chili or something like that. Then it's cheap, too!

What an interesting thread! In our house we do eat primarily ground turkey, but only because of hubby's Crohn's (beef products bother him). However: I miss beef! If this trick really works, I might just have to bring beef back into the house for me and the kids. It kind of sounds like a lot of work to do all that rinsing though. Maybe I will try it with a small package and see how it goes.

Thanks for posting this.

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I almost always drain and rinse my burger if it is for in a sauce or chili, or tacos. it really does get rid of much of the fat. I love turkey and chicken, but cannot stand either of them ground up. To me, the grinding totally changes teh flavor, and the texture is unpleasant to me. I would prefer to go without the meat totally than to replace ground beef with either ground turkey or chicken. I love good ground beef. I have found that a little can go a long way. I use ground beef in my spaghetti sauce, but it only takes about 1/3 of a pound to add a nice meat sauce flavor to a rather large pot of pasta sauce. If drained well, the added calories and fat are definitely low enough to justify the flavor boost. Turkey is great as a slice of turkey, or on a nice turkey wrap..but keep it away from my hamburger bun!!

I have to giggle at the folks who say ground beef has bacteria and seems icky, but poultry GROSSES me out. It just seems that it's always full of food-borne illness-causing bacteria. I eat chicken breasts, but I get SO disgusted handling it.

Yes! Chicken is gross, too! I kinda wish I could raise my own... but who has that kind of time/money/space? I just try not to think about it and make sure to cook it thoroughly... And my mom ALWAYS rinses her chicken, but I have read that you shouldn't b/c you just spread the germs. But my mom talks about how there is poo on chicken and she likes to rinse it off. Rinse or no rinse??

I totally agree. I once had a checker mention to me I should try ground turkey instead and that it tastes the same and is sooo much healthier, etc. I said I'm sure my husband can tell the difference. He is doing atkins so my shopping always looks very meaty and veggie filled which I think is a good thing. I try to get a mix of leaner meat for cooking and fattier meats for burgers. anything under 80/20 or 85/15 min make really dry burgers. Since my husband is doing Atkins he isn't too concerned with the percentages so I am glad I do the shopping!

Meanwhile I have discovered a love for pork vs beef. I was never a big beef eater (i just dont like the taste) but I have been getting sick of chicken and pork is my new fave. pork chops, pork steaks, ribs, etc. and its relatively lower in cal/fat than beef depending on your cut.

Is it really cheaper though if you're paying by the pound and you're getting rid off a bunch of weight in fat runoff, not to mention all that work to make it less fatty? IDK, just seems in the long run it'd be the same price to buy the leaner version.

I've never been afraid of beef. But I do sometimes like the taste of ground turkey in a meal

I sometimes rinse my cooked ground beef in a colander as well and then put it back in the pan to add seasonings, etc.

There isn't a huge different in calories between ground beef and ground turkey, but I think there is a much bigger difference if you buy ground turkey BREAST. It has to say specifically on the package that it's breast meat. It's quite a bit leaner than ground beef or regular ground turkey.