Burgermeister

It seems that the humble burger, made from healthy, unprocessed lean meat, may still be bad for us. Research published this week has in the Thorax journey suggests that there is a link between eating burgers and developing asthma.

Eating fresh fruits, vegetables and fish can protect you from getting asthma but burgers can make asthma worse. In the research children that ate more than 3 burgers a week were more likely to be wheezy and have other asthma symptoms.

Whether it is the high level of unhealthy fats found in some fast food burgers or that a higher consumption of burgers is associated with poorer social standing and in general a poorer diet is not clear. But there is a link.

Also, children’s weight is closely linked to asthma, so it could just be that eating too many burgers makes us fat, which increases risk of asthma. Maybe burgers are no the problem, but fast food and processed food.

Burgers can be healthy. Make a burger yourself using lean meat, serve with salad in a wholemeal bun and you have a healthy meal. Seems that these researchers do not know how to make a good burger. What we need to see is another study of the variation in health between people that buy fast burgers (like McDonalds and Burger King) and those who make their own. I reckon in such a study the home made burger eaters will be a much healthier group.