lean beef – The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal

The makers of imitation meats such as Impossible Burger are running into more competition from grass-fed meats, reports The Food Institute, a food news site.

McDonald's third-pound sirloin burger has too much salt and fat for me to eat it.

“Growing interest in sustainably-raised meats, including grass-fed beef, is challenging meat alternatives, which continue to struggle with adoption and repeat purchases among their primary consumer base – flexitarians.

“Sustainable meat production is rising across the food industry, as products with Regenerative Organic Certification experience significant growth.

“Several major food companies have made regenerative commitments in 2024—including big meat players like JBS and Tyson—and some QSRs (quick-serve restaurants) have also revamped their menus to include more ‘climate-friendly’ animal products,” the Food Institute reports.

I’ve had the alternative meat products and worry about the salt in them. An ultra-lean grass-fed burger seems to me a better alternative to traditional 80% high-fat ground beef when you get that urge for red meat.

I’ve written about my quest for beef lean enough to fit into my low-fat diet. I now buy 96% lean ground beef [4.5 grams of at per four-ounce burger] for my occasional made-at-home hamburger and have given up eating hamburgers out [a Wendy’s single has 24.8 grams of fat], a sad turn of events since I once had them weekly.

Lean grass-fed ribeye from New Zealand, sold at Trader Joe's for $12.99 a pound. — Lean grass-fed ribeye from New Zealand, sold at Trader Joe’s for $12.99 a pound.

And when it comes to steak, another old favorite, I now only have fillet mignon because it is the leanest cut available on restaurant menus [4 ounces has 14.1 grams of fat]. But recently I found another alternative which I really enjoyed, a grass-fed Angus beef ribeye from New Zealand sold frozen at Trader Joe’s. You can see on the nutrition info for it here that four ounces has 10 grams of fat, less than a traditional fillet.And it had a good beef flavor. At that level, it’s leaner than a bison steak I had at Ted’s a while back, which had 14 grams of fat per four ounces. Continue reading “Steak: here’s a lean alternative from New Zealand, via Trader Joe’s” →

My trio of nutritionist don’t agree on eating beef on my restricted diet. The first told me straight out to eat vegetarian, which I do not want to do. The other two were more understanding and suggested limiting beef intake to six ounces a week and finding the leanest beef possible.

For me, six ounces is one serving, even though for nutritionists, it’s two. So I’ve bought some six-ounce fillets as a weekly treat.

But I also love hamburgers and wanted a way to continue eating those. Hamburgers you eat out can range from 75 percent to 80 percent lean, which means they’re 25 to 20 percent fat. That’s not doable for me, so I’ve cut out McDonald’s, Wendy’s and White Castle burgers.

A lean burger, along with peppers and asparagus.

At home, I had been buying 90 percent lean ground beef, thinking it was the leanest available. But as I’ve scouted my local stores with the new eyes of someone on a no-salt, no-fat, no-sugar diet, I discovered that one Chicago supermarket, Jewel, sells a leaner ground beef, 96% lean in fact.

It’s the most expensive of course, as healthy items invariably are, but I’m paying the price to keep hamburgers in my life.

I buy packages a bit over a pound to make four burgers and freeze them for future use. My first nutritionist, the nutrition nazi as I call her, said the only type of hamburger bun I can eat is something called an Ezekiel bread bun, available frozen only at Whole Foods in my area. Continue reading “How Lean Can Lean Beef Be?” →

Tag: lean beef

Fake meat meets grass-fed, which would you pick?

Steak: here’s a lean alternative from New Zealand, via Trader Joe’s

How Lean Can Lean Beef Be?

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