# Saturated fat content



## gogreen1 (Jul 29, 2015)

When ground beef lists saturated fat content, I assume that content  means before cooking, right? Suppose the saturated fat content in 4  ounces of ground beef is 4 grams. When that 4 ounces of beef is cooked  on a grill, how much saturated fat is left? In other words, after grilling, how  much saturated fat is one actually consuming?


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## RPCookin (Jul 29, 2015)

gogreen1 said:


> When ground beef lists saturated fat content, I assume that content  means before cooking, right? Suppose the saturated fat content in 4  ounces of ground beef is 4 grams. When that 4 ounces of beef is cooked  on a grill, how much saturated fat is left? In other words, after grilling, how  much saturated fat is one actually consuming?



That would depend on how done you cook it.  Rare would render a lot less fat out than well done.  As far as numbers, I haven't a clue.  If I was truly worried about it, I wouldn't be eating ground beef in the first place.  

Despite loving ground beef, out of just these concerns I don't eat it nearly as often as I once did.  I've decided that what I get is what I get, and as long as my health is good, I'm happy with it.  I'm 68, a bit overweight, but otherwise healthy as a horse.  I believe that sometimes people can get so caught up in the numbers that they forget to enjoy eating.


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## Andy M. (Jul 29, 2015)

Welcome to DC.

Click on the link http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search  to go to the US Dept. of Agriculture's nutrition database.  There you can enter a food product and see the nutritional make up.  For your ground beef, first look up the ground beef raw then compare the values to the same ground beef cooked to see the change.


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## gogreen1 (Jul 29, 2015)

I usually pick chicken, turkey, or ground beef that's no more than 4 grams of saturated fat per 4-ounce service. And I usually grill these things well-done. I wonder if I'm actually consuming about half of the listed content then.


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## gogreen1 (Jul 29, 2015)

Thanks, Andy. I'll check out the website.


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## Cheryl J (Jul 29, 2015)

RPCookin said:


> That would depend on how done you cook it. Rare would render a lot less fat out than well done. As far as numbers, I haven't a clue. If I was truly worried about it, I wouldn't be eating ground beef in the first place.
> 
> Despite loving ground beef, out of just these concerns I don't eat it nearly as often as I once did. I've decided that what I get is what I get, and as long as my health is good, I'm happy with it. I'm 68, a bit overweight, but otherwise healthy as a horse. I believe that sometimes people can get so caught up in the numbers that they forget to enjoy eating.


 
Welcome to DC, gogreen!  

Just my opinion, but I'm with RP here.  You don't really know exactly what's in ground beef from the supermarkets, and how you cook it makes a difference.  I don't buy ground beef from the grocery store very often, but every now and then I want to grill a burger and I enjoy it.   I agree that it would be mighty hard to tell the exact fat content once it's on your plate.


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## gogreen1 (Jul 30, 2015)

Cheryl J said:


> You don't really know exactly what's in ground beef from the supermarkets


Do you mean saturated fat content, or other things? I usually cook all meats, fish, and poultry well done.


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## RPCookin (Jul 30, 2015)

gogreen1 said:


> Do you mean saturated fat content, or other things? I usually cook all meats, fish, and poultry well done.



Really?  I can't imagine eating everything cooked to death (sorry for the superlative, but that's how I see it).  

Poultry must be cooked through, but not to point of being dried out.  

Most beef I prefer medium rare, or medium when cooked in some dishes.  The exception is something like pot roast or braised short ribs or the like, which are slow cooked long enough to be well done.  Ground beef I do about medium in hamburger sized patties, but it will be more well done when crumbled and browned for a casserole, or roasted as in a meat loaf.  Beef cooked too far done becomes tough and dry. 

Lamb is usually medium rare.  

Fish is usually just cooked until it flakes, often only 2 or 3 minutes depending on the type of fish and the size of the cut.  Some, like tuna steak, is cooked rare (and not my favorite fish by a long way).

Pork is no longer required to be well done as it was in the past either.  I usually cook it medium unless I'm smoking it.  

Any way you look at it, by cooking everything well done, you are missing out on many of the flavors and textures that define good, properly prepared foods.


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## CWS4322 (Jul 30, 2015)

Welcome to DC! I grind my own meat if I want a burger. When I buy from the farm gate and pick up at the abattoire, I know the meat hasn't gone through one of those tenderizer machines. And, I control the percentage of fat.


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## dcSaute (Jul 30, 2015)

if the label says 
"ground beef" the USDA has a whole lotta' one idea of what "can be in the meat" - beef, that's it, that's all.  no additives, no binders, no flavors, no enhancement of any kind or type.  

and for the conspiracy that they add lots of ice to increase the weight, USDA also sets a maximum free water content.  so if the local meat cutters are bragging to you about how they add a lot of ice to increase profits, you might want to make a couple phone calls.

I suppose it could be 'mechanically tenderized' - but why make that effort for something that is going to be ground up in to fine itty-bitty pieces comma anyway....

stuff labeled hamburger / beef patty / Bubba's Sliders / etc and kazillions of other creative "names" is not subject to the same regulation.

and in every market I've seen in the last few billions years, including my local butcher, the fat content is clearly shown.  93/7 - 80/20 - 70/30 etc.


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## RPCookin (Jul 30, 2015)

I can't imagine grinding up my own meat for a hamburger, and I'm a burger lover from way back.  I can get good ground beef in just about any reasonable fat ratio at the grocery store, and if that isn't good enough, I can to to a specialty butcher and pay more for ground beef which I probably won't be able to tell from what I got at the store.  

To honest, I don't even know what he was talking about above with "farm gate" and "abattoir" - those terms went right past my head.  I've bought beef on the hoof before, but we no longer eat enough of it to make that practical.  It would be easy-peasy to get beef and pork from the growers here where we live, but it's easier for us to just buy the little we need from the market.  When I need a special cut that I can't get there, then I go the the butcher shop, or to one of the custom packing houses dotted around the country here, but that is rarely needed.

We are having friends from Denver out for the day on Saturday, and I'm going to grill burgers and veggies - I bought 3 pounds of 93/7 ground beef today to make the burgers out of.  It's probably going to work just fine.


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## CWS4322 (Jul 30, 2015)

From the farm gate means you by direct from the Farmer.  The Farmer arranges for the animal to go to slaughter at the abattoire. The abattoire is authorized to slaughter the animal. You call the abattoire and specify the cuts you want, how thick you want the cuts, etc. In Ontario, Canada, beef can only hang for 14 days because it is inspected ever 7 days. There are ways to stretch that to 17 or not 21. You pay by hanging weight and pick up your steer or whatever once it is cut and wrapped. I don't get any ground meat and specify I want the trimmings fresh so I can package them for grinding, stew, etc.
 If you go to an apple orchard and buy apples at the orchard, you are buying at the farm gate.   An abattoire is the French word for a facility that can also kill the animal. The ones that have butchered animals for me have been small, rural operations. The bull calf taxi and I split last August was a grass feed Highlander named "Conrad." I like buying meat direct from the Farmer and dealing with the folks at the abattoire.


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## Cooking Goddess (Jul 31, 2015)

RPCookin said:


> I can't imagine grinding up my own meat for a hamburger, and I'm a burger lover from way back...


I've done it a couple of times, using my Mom's old Oster Kitchen Center grinding attachment. You really can tell a difference between store and home ground. 




RPCookin said:


> ...To honest, I don't even know what he was talking about above with "farm gate" and "abattoir" - those terms went right past my head...


That's what "google" is for.


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## dcSaute (Jul 31, 2015)

we used to have a full service meat depart at our local Giant.  which they shut down and out-sourced to some mega-meat-doer-of-absolutely-awful-stuff.  the ground beef has no flavor anymore and I'm tempted to put the dental floss right next to the plate because it has so much gristle and 'weird' stuff in it.

do not buy much meat there anymore - using local butcher shop.  however for really really good burgers I buy a decent steak cut and hand (double) grind it at home with the old' clamp on, hand cranked meat grinder.

it makes a _huge_ difference.


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## gogreen1 (Aug 1, 2015)

OK, so for the sake of argument, suppose I cook all my meat, fish, and poultry on the grill to well done (sorry). Is there a general estimate I could make about the difference between the saturated fat content raw and the saturated fat content now cooked?


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## GotGarlic (Aug 1, 2015)

No. What you can do is look up the saturated fat content of specific foods on this site: http://nutritiondata.self.com/


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## Silversage (Aug 1, 2015)

For sake of not arguing, I won't ask why anyone would categorically overcook all proteins.  But if you do, you have cooked out almost all fat & moisture.  It will now have nearly the fat content of totally lean meat.  It's the fat that give it moisture, taste & mouthfeel.  Cook it all out, and you just have dry strands of protein.  

Weigh the meat before cooking, then again after cooking.  The difference is fat & moisture.  

If you want to identify just the fat, try this.  Weigh your patty then put it on a rack over a small pan.  Cook it, either in an oven or on a grill, until well done.  The rack will allow the fat to drain, and the pan will catch it.  A lot of the moisture will evaporate, but at those temperatures, the fat will only melt, not evaporate.  Now weigh the dry meat patty.   Then chill the drippings from the pan so you can easily separate the fat from the water.  Weigh the fat.  You will now know how much fat actually cooked out.  This won't separate saturated from unsaturated, but most beef fat is saturated.  Now, if you add the weight of the cooked meat to the weight of the fat, and subtract it from your original weight, you'll also see how much moisture you lost, and why your well-done beef patty is so dry.  (Sorry, that Harvard food science class is on my brain).

This all begs the question, Why are you so worried about the saturated fat levels?  I assume (I know...) that you are concerned about diet & cholesterol.  Recent studies have debunked the idea that saturated fats are necessarily the evil that they were purported to be in the 1980's.   Rather, it's trans fats that are proving more harmful.  There are also indications that genetics are proving to be a more critical factor than diet.  Genetic disposition doesn't respond well to dietary adjustments, but does respond very well to medication.  

Here's some recent reading on the subject.  Granted, *some of these sources are more reliable than others*, but there's a lot of new information available about diet & cholesterol.  Read stuff published since 2013 & 2014, not the old stuff.  

Don't Fear The Fat: Experts Question Saturated Fat Guidelines : The Salt : NPR

Saturated Fats: Should I Eat Them or Avoid Them?

New Science Destroys the Saturated Fat Myth

How did we come to believe saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for us? - The Eating Academy | Peter Attia, M.D. The Eating Academy | Peter Attia, M.D.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/study-questions-fat-and-heart-disease-link/

Time Magazine: We Were Wrong About Saturated Fats

Saturated fat's role in heart disease is a myth, says heart specialist - Medical News Today

Saturated fat is not the major issue | The BMJ

For more personal anecdotal information, ask several folks here what happened to their LDL when they went on high fat, low-carb Keto diets for diabetes & weight loss.


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## GotGarlic (Aug 1, 2015)

+1, SilverSage.


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## Andy M. (Aug 1, 2015)

gogreen1 said:


> OK, so for the sake of argument, suppose I cook all my meat, fish, and poultry on the grill to well done (sorry). Is there a general estimate I could make about the difference between the saturated fat content raw and the saturated fat content now cooked?




You could create a general estimate (rule of thumb) of your own using the link I gave you above.  You'd have to create one for each type of protein (beef, chicken, fish, etc).


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