I do a moderate-fat low-carb myself, so regardless of whether fat factors into your consideration, I was just pointing out that from a health standpoint, there's no inherent health benefit to turkey over beef, and as pluckypear mentioned, there's not necessarily a monetary advantage either.
In our area, turkey (when you match for protein and fat content) is as expensive or more expensive than beef. I actually preferground chicken best, but it's the most expensive (in my area), and the hardest to find.
Cheap ground turkey (in my area) tends to be made from the dark meat only and also has a lot of skin added, and it tends to have a "funkier" taste, which makes me suspect that internal organ meats are also ground into the mix. In itself, neither is necessarily a bad thing, but I also find there's rarely a cost savings over ground beef with a similar percentage of fat.
I think many people compare the cost of even the cheapest ground turkey to the cost of very lean (and expensive) ground beef, and a better comparison is comparing the cheapest ground turkey to the cheapest ground beef - or to look for labels and compare the protein and fat content. You also have to be aware that sometimes, cheap ground turkey has water added, which can make it harder to compare cost/value ration (which is why comparing fat and protein content will help).
I buy whatever is cheapest, which may be turkey, beef, or pork, which generally ends up being around 75 - 80% fat. Sometimes premium beef and turkey is on a particularly good sale, and I'll buy that. If there's only a small difference between the 80% and the 90%, I might buy the leaner cut, but usually only if I'm making hamburger patties. For ground meat, I almost always buy the cheapest, because I'm going to combine it with the tvp anyway.
Per serving, tvp is about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of even the cheapest ground pork (usually the cheapest ground meat in our area, often less than $1 per pound - well, at least until this past year, now it's usually a little higher than $1).
By combining the tvp with cheap, fattier meats I can choose the fat content simply by adjusting the amount of (virtually fat-free) tvp that I combine with the meat.
TVP can be substituted for ground meat, but it doesn't have much flavor of it's own, and it doesn't have a true meat texture. I don't mind, but hubby HATES tvp on it's own, but when I mix it with meat, he doesn't mind, and usually can't even tell. There's enough meat flavor and texture to keep him happy up to about 3 to 4 parts tvp to 1 of meat. More tvp than that, and he'll start to complain, "how much tvp is in this? It tastes a bit bland."
We used to eat recipes using the ground meat/tvp mixture almost every day, along with beans, because they were the cheapest and most filling protein sources.
Now that I've found that I do best on a pseudo-paleo diet, I have cut back on the meat/tvp mix, but it's just too affordable to give up entirely. (I do still eat small to moderate amounts of cultured dairy, legumes, sweet and waxy potato, and high protein grains like quinoa and wild rice).
My main point was to compare the cost and nutrition of ground turkey against beef (or any other meat including other brands of ground turkey) you can't just compare cost per pound without also knowing the protein and fat content. For example if you compare two brands of ground turkey, you might find that one has less fat AND less protein per pound, that's a sure tip-off that the one with the lower nutritional value has added water to their product.
While I don't worry much about fat content, it's the protein count that matters to me for meal proteins, so I often judge value by cost per gram of protein.
If you were more interested in fat than protein, you could judge value by cost per gram of fat. If you're going to be draining off even some of the fat, it would still pay to judge based on protein count.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mariposssa
....fat/calories don't really factor into my decision. I get ground turkey because it is cheaper; then I add things like garlic, onions, peppers and flax seed to make it healthier. I'm not on a low fat plan and a lot of low carb people actually do high fat instead of high protein now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pluckypear
Where I live ground turkey and or chicken are more expensive then ground beef. Even ground beef is expensive. I just eat it rarely but DH is a meataholic. Lol