Americans Eat 50 Billion Worth Of Bugers A Year

Earth-Friendly Burgers

Who doesn't love a good burger? Clearly, most Americans do because they eat an estimated 50 billion a year. That's a lot of beef, which just happens to have one of the largest environmental footprints of all animal-based foods people eat. To help, chefs are reinventing burgers to be healthier and more sustainable – without compromising taste.

Pack in the protein.

If you only swap your Kobe burger for a vegetarian variety on Meatless Monday or at a plant-based pal’s barbecue, you won’t shake your overall nutrient intake much. But if you’re regularly trading meat for “meat,” keep in mind that the latter often packs a fraction of the protein of the former, Palmer says. “People just assume they’re a protein replacement,” she says, “but they could have other ingredients in there like brown rice.” Palmer recommends products with close to 12 grams of protein – still about one-quarter of the protein in an 8-ounce beef patty.