Why are burgers considered 'junk food'?

This one comes from my 5 year old son, who has been learning about healthy food vs unhealthy food, and he said burgers are unhealthy, which they are so often considered to be.

But why? It seems to me that a good burger is just beef with a bit of onion in it. Most of the fat melts and drips out while it is cooking. Contrast this to a comparable size of lovely roast beef that we might have with our sunday dinner. Most people take measure to prevent too much of the fat from leaking out because that's considered to be where the flavour is, and what keeps it moist.

Ok, so we'll stick the burger in a bread bun, and maybe add some relish. All those carbs from the bread. Just like all the carbs in the yorkshires and spuds on our sunday dinner. And relish, lovely chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions. Compared to the lovely fatty gravy we pour all over our healthy sunday dinners.

What am I missing?

 

I suspect they are referring to take-aways where the quality of the ingredients and cooking methods are unknown or very unhealthy.

There is nothing wrong (as far as I'm concerned) with a nice homemade burger using quality ingredients and cooked in a healthy manner.
One can also replace the normal burger buns with healthier breads and use real butter instead of that synthetic stuff known as margarine.

 

And the more meat there is in it, the worse it is for you - bulk it out with non-meat non-fatty stuff. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/04/animal-protein-diets-smoking-meat-eggs-dairy

 

@Scrungee

I reckon part of the problem is not just the quantity of the meat, but the other stuff that is in it that they ain't telling us about.
Have you tasted the "meat" from that specific restaurant (and I use the word restaurant very liberally) without any of the condiments or sauces?
You might as well take a bite out of the nearest cardboard box, tastes pretty much the same.

It breaks my heart to see obese youngsters when it can be avoided simply by having a proper diet.

 

http://calorielab.com/restaurants/mcdonalds/1

Is this web site any help?

Apart from worries about what exactly is -or isn't- in a MacDonald's it's general eating patterns that might be the problem: many people would eat a Big mac and chips as a light snack and then go home and follow it up with a full meal plus more snacks. Or eat them late-night after a skin-full of beer.

If you just ate a Big mac as your main meal the calorie content is about right - but you wouldn't be getting nearly enough roughage and vegetable matter from it, and proportionally too much fat.

 

I don't eat meat [1], but do eat fish (as I'll catch it myself), for 3 reasons, (1) meat production is an incredibly wasteful use of resources, (2) I married a vegetarian and we compromised on eating fish (I'm a keen sea fisherman) & crustaceans (I trap prawns & crabs) and (3) I'm not impressed with how animals reared for meat production are treated and also how this production impacts on wildlife.
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[1] I shoot rabbits, pigeons, etc., but I'm bordering on eating them again, rather than just using as dog food.

 

If I was closer to the ocean I would have a crack at a spot of fishing myself but being some 600KM away, it's cheaper just to pop down to the supermarket.

Rabbit as dog food?
Rabbit casserole with some spuds is very nice and rabbit meat is quite lean or am I mistaken?
What we eat a lot of here is ostrich, that is a much healthier meat than beef.

 

Our dog caught and ate a whole rabbit 3 weeks before she died. Try telling a dog that rabbits aren't dog food. I'm a dab hand at skinning and filleting them using a sharp knife and pair of pliers, the remnants being fed to the local Red Kites.

 

@Scrungee

I had assumed that you hunted the rabbits then used them as dog food.
Yes you certainly can't stop a dog doing what it's "wired" to do.

 

It's illegal here to use a dog to hunt rabbits, but we'd always advise her of her legal responsibilities before slipping her off the leash.

 

Is it illegal even on private property with the owner's consent?

 

Makes sense.

See, to me, a burger is almost exclusively made at home, by my own hands. I take minced beef, finely chopped onion, a bit of garlic, and if the mood takes me, some herbs. I shape the burgers myself and then grill them. They are served in a bun (not buttered), with some salad and home made relish.

We do very ocassionally eat MacDonalds or Burger King burgers, if we're out and about and aren't going to get back in time or are too tired to make tea at home, but then that is the main meal, and not a snack.

In any case, burgers, or indeed any beef product, does not make a frequent appearance in our diet. In fact these days, we tend not to eat much meat of any kind except fish (which also comes from a sentient creature, so I can't see any ethical difference between fish and other meat, but that's another debate).

Sometimes it feels like I'm in a tricky situation, with the lad's school teaching him one thing (that burgers are unhealthy) and me teaching him that many 'healthy' foods can be unhealthy, and many unhealthy foods are actually ok. I think it must be a nightmare for him, trying to make sense of it all in his (only just) 5 year old mind

 

Yes. Hunting with dogs, which make sure the kill is certain and rapid, got banned, but its fine to shoot and wound a rabbit that will then limp off injured, and die some weeks later from an infection from the wound.

Please nobody interpret that as me being one side or other. I mean that purely as an objective analysis of the situation.

 

I know exactly what you mean.
How I approach is to tell them that at school they teach general things about good and bad foods but everyone is different so what may be good for one person is not for another and if in doubt ask.
Then when they do ask, explain in simple terms things like cholesterol, possible allergies and the essential food groups.
You will be surprised what youngsters can understand if explained in simple terms using analogies that they can relate to.

 

Good old nanny state hard at work.
I don't quite know what the laws here pertaining to that kind of thing are, but I suspect that unless someone lodged a formal complaint with the authorities, doubt very much the coppers would bother as they are so understaffed and ill equipped to deal with serious crime, that some rabbit hunting won't even feature.