What Is the Nutritional Value for a Burger King Hamburger?

What Is the Nutritional Value for a Burger King Hamburger?
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Beef, bun, and condiments, exactly what is the nutritional value for a Burger King hamburger? While other fast food sandwiches may pose a greater health risk because of sodium-rich sauces, cheese, and lots of meat, a plain old burger won’t tip the scales too much. The only problem is, if you eat one hamburger, you’ve already consumed one-third of your daily allowance for saturated fat and one-quarter of the maximum amount of sodium. As long as everything else you eat during the day is extremely healthy — fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins — eating a Burger King hamburger isn’t all that bad.

The Good News

It may be surprising to find out that there are valuable vitamins and minerals in a Burger King hamburger. What nutrition does this food have to offer? The bun, beef patty, smattering of ketchup and mustard, and pickles provides:

  • 17 grams of protein
  • 34 grams of carbohydrates
  • 2 grams of dietary fiber
  • 8% of the daily recommended intake of vitamin K
  • 27% of thiamin
  • 16% of riboflavin
  • 24% of niacin
  • 19% of folate
  • 6% of calcium
  • 17% of iron
  • 17% of zinc
  • 14% of phosphorus
  • 43% of selenium

This is a respectable amount of protein, iron, zinc, phosphorous, and selenium from the beef. The bun provides some of the B-complex vitamins. While not the best source of nutrition, as these positive notes come with saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium, they are necessary nutrients for the body.

The Bad News

On the other hand, fast food burgers tend to be high in fat and sodium. One hamburger from Burger King includes:

  • 333 calories
  • 15 grams of total fat
  • 6 grams of saturated fat
  • 1 gram of trans fat
  • 42 mg of cholesterol
  • 550 mg of sodium

This nutrition information is not good news for people with heart problems or any risk of cardiovascular disease. Too much cholesterol in the diet can contribute to atherosclerosis, or a hardening of the arteries. A high-sodium diet can lead to high blood pressure. Also, people trying to lose weight may want to stay clear of such a high-calorie, high-fat food.

As there is some nutritional value for a Burger King hamburger, enjoying one of these sandwiches once in awhile does have something positive to offer, as long as you do not have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart problems. With only one beef patty, no cheese, bacon, or high-salt sauces, it is a much better option than other Burger King choices, such as the Double Whopper, for example, which has 920 calories, 140 mg cholesterol, 19 grams of saturated fat, and 1090 mg of sodium. Now that you know exactly what is in a burger, you can make a choice to have one or not, and to balance it with a low-fat, low-sodium, high-fiber diet.

References

Burger King Menu & Nutrition https://www.bk.com/en/us/menu-nutrition/index.html

Nutrition Data https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fast-foods-generic/9278/2

photo by Vincenzo Iaconianni (CC/wiki) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burger\_King\_Italy\_2.jpg