There aren’t many foods more American than a burger and fries. Our country has been shaped by the locations of McDonald’s. If you go to almost any restaurant they will have a burger on the menu. I love a good burger every once in a while. I prefer a big juicy burger, about an inch and a half thick and cooked medium rare. Others prefer there burgers to be charred to a crisp. Personal preference aside, there are many different beliefs on the health aspects of burgers and red meat in general.

My opinion is that red meat has many important health benefits. Red meat is a great source of iron, which is especially important for women. Red meat is also a great source of natural creatine and protein, which is ideal for active men and women. People in the past have raised concern about the saturated fat levels in red meat, but in my opinion this is an unfounded concern. Studies are starting to come out that leads to the idea that trans fat has been giving saturated fat its bad reputation. The past studies never differentiated saturated fat from trans fat, which led to the misdiagnosis.

Looking at native Inuit tribes will provide evidence that a diet high in saturated fat doesn’t pose health risks. The Inuit’s survived on a diet primarily of animal blubber, which is almost exclusively saturated fat and there was little incidence of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. My advice is to do your own research and always question the recommendations of others. Check websites like www.westinaprice.org or www.mercola.com to get the latest information on nutrition.

Examine a typical burger from a fast-food restaurant and you will find a greasy burger topped with American cheese, ketchup, mustard, and/ or mayonnaise. This is the problem with today’s hamburgers. We have taken red meat and put a bunch of nutritionally pointless condiments on top of it. The intent is to add flavor, but the health benefits of the food are compromised by the classic choice of condiments. It is important to find other condiments that add flavor while adding nutritional value.

The first step is picking the ground beef that you want to use for the burger. Generally the higher the fat content the more natural flavor will be in the meat. One way to compromise with the reported health risks while still getting the flavor is to choose a lean ground beef like a ground sirloin. For those of you who want to create a phenomenal burger I recommend buying a good steak and grinding up yourself if you have the capability. That way you ensure the highest quality burger. A word of advice, you need a little fat in the meet to act as a binding agent to prevent the burger from falling apart. Try some different kinds of ground beef until you find the one that you like the most.

The classic burger usually has some form of cheese, even though this recipe does not. I hate to break it to you, but American cheese really isn’t cheese. Go to almost any other country and it will be labeled as “cheese food.” Learn to appreciate a good cheese if you can’t have a burger without it and try cheddar, Swiss, provolone, or something more exotic like a boursin or gouda. Expirement using different cheeses with different toppings until you find the perfect burger.

After cheese people typically put ketchup or mustard on their burgers. Unfortunately, today’s ketchup and mustard is nothing more than a pile of colored high fructose corn syrup. The same goes for barbecue sauce. The idea behind the condiments is good, but large companies have destroyed the nutritional value of them. My recommendation, if you can’t live without ketchup, mustard, or barbecue sauce is to read the labels and find a brand with few ingredients, especially one without high fructose corn syrup.

For those of you who are a little more creative or daring, pass on the traditional condiments and add some variety. A great condiment to replace the traditional toppings would be a good hummus. Hummus comes in lots of different flavors, so you can add a lot of variety. You could stick to just adding lettuce and tomato. Or you could use the world’s greatest condiment, salsa. There is an endless variety of salsa that can be made, each having lots of flavor, while maintaining lots of nutritional value. I put salsa on almost every food I eat. Spend some time learning how to make your own salsa and you will increase the nutritional value and potential for variety even more.

As with any food, don’t be afraid to try something new and experiment a little.