At Cannes this week there was a no-shock shock when the film version of Eric Schlosser’s
Fast Food Nation was given its premiere. Like the bestselling book, it lifts the polystyrene lid on the fast-food industry to reveal its unsavoury secrets. But the audience felt it had all the impact of a soggy bun, probably because most of us are already all too queasily aware of how the average high-street burger is made.
Certainly the crowd sitting in the sunshine outside the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) in Battersea, South London, had made the move to avoid typical fast food by shunning the McDonald’s 250 yards down the road. GBK attracts an affluent gang of under-forties (including mums with babies) wrapping their chops around huge burgers. The restaurant has a stained teak floor and the latest copies of Vogue and GQ.
The cornerstone of both GBK’s and McDonald’s business is the burger, although the cheapest burger at GBK is £5.45, almost eight times more expensive than the McDonald’s hamburger (69p). If McDonald’s is about mass-produced mastication (2.5 million customers a day in its 1,235 UK restaurants), GBK is part of a small but burgeoning culture of independents that serve high-quality “gourmet” burgers. Others include Oracle in Leeds, Relish and the Gourmet Burger Co in Edinburgh, Ultimate Burger in Nottingham, and the Rhug Organic Burger Bar in Denbighshire, Wales.
But that’s no reason for the GBK crowd to feel entirely smug. Putting the magic word “gourmet” in front of your burger does not guarantee that it’s better for you, in terms of calories, fat and salt, than one from the big high street chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King.
“The fast-food companies are investing a lot in product development and their burgers often come out healthier, with reduced salt and lower fat, than the new gourmet burgers,” says Joanne Lunn, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation. “Gourmet burgers are reserved for special occasions and attract a different type of consumer, one perhaps more interested in ethical and environmental issues, so there’s less emphasis on the nutritional profile and more on where the food comes from.”
Ethics alone won’t keep you slim in the face of a splurge, though: Lunn points out that a burger’s nutritional content depends on the number of its ingredients, how it is cooked and what it is served with. A gourmet burger is on average twice as big as a fast-food burger, and this thudding great size difference obviously means far more fat and calories in the gourmet burger. A 170g (6oz) gourmet patty with mayonnaise and Cheddar, for example, contains more than twice as much fat (55g) as a McDonald’s Big Mac (89.8g), which has only 22.9g of fat. If the two burgers were the same size, both would have similar fat, protein and iron contents. However, the proportion of unhealthy saturated fat is higher in a Big Mac: it contains 9.8g per burger (43 per cent), compared with 16.9g (31 per cent) in a typical gourmet burger.
Despite the much larger size of the gourmet burger, it seems to contain less sugar (about 10g) than a Big Mac (11.6g). Sugar is often used to give flavour to cheap ingredients. “Sugars are present in the bun and burger, but it is the ketchup and relish that contain the most,” says Lunn.
When it comes to cooking methods, most gourmet burger restaurants chargrill their burgers. This allows any excess fat to dribble through the bars of the grill on to the charcoal below, where it burns off. A typical fast-food restaurant uses a flat, solid steel griddle, which is heated by an electric element. “If a burger sits in its own fat on a griddle, it is likely to be higher in fat than a chargrilled burger,” says Catherine Collins, a dietitian at St George’s Hospital, South London.
The nutritional value of a burger meal also depends on the size and type of your nighinevitable side-order. There’s almost as much fat in a large portion of fries or chips as there is in a Big Mac, though if they are cooked in a vegetable oil — such as 100 per cent rapeseed oil used at McDonald’s or the cotton seed oil at a typical upmarket burger joint such as one of the Hamburger Union chain in London — the serving will be relatively low in saturated fats.
“The healthiest choice is thick-cut chips (found in most posh burger places) because they contain more potato and are less likely to have absorbed as much oil as fries,” says Lunn.
In recent years fast-food outlets have extended their drinks menu beyond fatty shakes and fizzy drinks to include fresh juices and semi-skimmed organic milk. But they still serve them in bucket-sizes that the Food Standards Agency says are very high in sugar, about 55g in 525ml of Coca-Cola or Fanta Orange.
In terms of the quality of the ingredients, gourmet burgers win hands down. A GBK burger, for example, uses 100 per cent Aberdeen Angus beef, sourced from traceable grass-reared animals and served in a freshly baked sourdough bun. Vintage Cheddar, aged Stilton and fresh pesto are a few of the toppings available. Unlike their fast-food rivals, the burgers are not frozen and are freshly prepared in house, as are the relishes.
Hugh Fowler, the owner of Hamburger Union chain, is a graduate of the American fast-food giant Wendy’s Management Institute and was part of the team when its first restaurant opened in London in 1980. “For years people never really knew what was in the patty. Apparently, the average fast-food hamburger contains meat from hundreds of different cattle that are raised on milk concentrates and in feed lots (crowded grass-free spaces where thousands of cattle are fed from concrete troughs). Our burgers contain meat from no more than two same-breed cattle that have been suckled by their mothers for 14 months,” says Fowler. Different rearing makes for different fat content. Meat from hand-reared and organic cattle that graze on biodiverse land contains higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids (which help to reduce high blood pressure and lower levels of bad cholesterol) than cattle fed from troughs.
Ultimately, gourmet burgers appear the healthier option — so long as you don’t develop a habit. While in simple terms the fast-food hamburger may be healthier, being smaller, with fewer calories, salt and fat, the gourmet burger offers a superior eating experience. “It comes down to lifestyle choice,” says Collins. “A habit of eating junk food on the move and as snacks between meals may be cheap and convenient, but is not healthy. A gourmet burger, though not necessarily giving you improved nutrition, is mostly eaten as a meal in itself, shared at a table; it’s about enjoyment and taste.”
And any health advantage that McDonald’s has because of its smaller size could soon be eroded: it is supersizing its Big Mac next week, making it 40 per cent bigger for the World Cup.
WHAT'S IN YOUR BURGER?
Typical 'gourmet' burger:
805kcals
Fat 54.6g (of which saturates, 16.9g)
Salt 2.6g
Carbohydrate 37g (of which sugars, 10g)
The 170g burger is made with Scottish beef and a pinch of spices and seasoning. It's served in a sourdough bun with tomato relish, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a thin slice of Cheddar.
Nutritional content estimates by the British Nutrition Foundation
McDonald's Big Mac:
493kcals
Fat 22.9g (of which saturates, 9.8g)
Salt 2.3g
Carbohydrate 44g (of which sugars, 11.6g)
Two 50g beef patties, iceberg lettuce, dehydrated onions with a bun, a processed cheese slice, Big Mac sauce and dill pickle slices. It contains a total of 15 E numbers, mainly in the form of preservatives.
Nutritional analysis from the McDonald's website: www.mcdonalds.co.uk
