Hamburger: Hypervegetarian?
Fun fact, rather unexpected, just slipped in here because it amused me right now:
An analysis of a classic meal that, in evaluations of “Food Frequency Questionnaires”, tends to get simplified to “meat”: the hamburger.
Hypercarnivore? Hypervegetarian?
Let me start with a common definition: a species counts as a hypercarnivore (1) when more than 70% of its usual diet comes from animal sources.
There is no definition for “hypervegetarian” - but it’s not hard to derive one from the above: so, entirely arbitrarily, I’ll use a definition of “more than 70% from plant sources”.
Composition of a hamburger
It’s hard to find an itemized breakdown of a hamburger’s ingredients - here is what I dug up:
| Ingredient | Weight | Calories | Carbs | Protein | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bun | 38 g | 140 kcal | 26.0 g | 4.5 g | 1.5 g |
| 1 beef patty | 30 g | 78 kcal | 0.0 g | 7.0 g | 5.5 g |
| Ketchup & mustard | 12 g | 30 kcal | 3.5 g | 1.0 g | 1.5 g |
| Onions & pickle | 10 g | 5 kcal | 0.5 g | 0.5 g | 0.0 g |
| Total (hamburger) | 100 g | 253 kcal | 30.0 g | 13.0 g | 8.5 g |
| rest of the combo meal | |||||
| Fries (medium) | 114 g | 340 kcal | 41.0 g | 4.0 g | 17.0 g |
| Soda (0.4 l) | 400 g | 168 kcal | 42.0 g | 0.0 g | 0.0 g |
Interesting to look at the makeup of a hamburger: the meat accounts for 30% of the weight and 30.8% of the calories.
Factor in that a hamburger usually isn’t eaten on its own but as part of a combo meal, and only 10.2% of the calories are left coming from meat.
By that logic, a hamburger combo would basically be a hypervegetarian meal, and a single hamburger without sides sits right on the edge of hypervegetarianism 🤯.
Big Mac?
Well, at least the Big Mac doesn’t fall into the category - when eaten on its own…
| Ingredient | Weight | Calories | Carbs | Protein | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three-part sesame bun | 74 g | 210 kcal | 41.0 g | 6.0 g | 3.0 g |
| 2 beef patties | 60 g | 155 kcal | 0.0 g | 14.0 g | 11.0 g |
| Big Mac sauce | 25 g | 105 kcal | 2.5 g | 0.3 g | 10.5 g |
| 1 slice of processed cheese | 14 g | 50 kcal | 0.8 g | 3.0 g | 4.0 g |
| Lettuce, pickles, onions | 30 g | 5 kcal | 1.0 g | 0.2 g | 0.0 g |
| Total (Big Mac) | 203 g | 525 kcal | 45.3 g | 23.5 g | 28.5 g |
If I generously count the processed cheese as 100% animal product, and as counter-weight the sauce as plant-based, then 39% of the calories or 36% of the weight come from animal sources.
But look at the same combo meal, and we’re back on the hypervegetarian side of the equation:
20% of the calories, 10% of the weight come from animal sources.
If someone had told me that McDonald’s standard menu items are hypervegetarian, I wouldn’t have believed it.