Ground Turkey vs Ground Beef

[Iggy aka IG]

For years TV (The Biggest Loser for instance), advertising and the media have indicated ground turkey is better for us than beef.  Out of curiosity, I did some research last week, and concluded it's not necessarily true.

I'm curious at to what your thoughts are. 

[Shooby]

I like beef so it's a non issue for me.

[dee27]

I don't like the taste of ground turkey so I use lean ground beef.

[Iggy aka IG]

Right, similar to DH, he doesn't like ground turkey, but will tolerate it if I spice it well.

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the nutrition and health benefits between the two.

[Gardening Grandma]

Ground turkey breast is certainly lower in fat - but oftentimes, the "ground turkey" sold is not breast.

It has no taste to me.  If I'm going to substitute something for lean ground beef, I'll use ground chicken breast.  We generally do not eat beef more than 2x/week.

[dee27]

I don't worry about the benefits since I eat very small portions of meat, and I eat a lot of veggies every day.

[Iggy aka IG]

Mar 7, 2017 15:49:04 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

Ground turkey breast is certainly lower in fat - but oftentimes, the "ground turkey" sold is not breast.

It has no taste to me.  If I'm going to substitute something for lean ground beef, I'll use ground chicken breast.  We generally do not eat beef more than 2x/week.

Ah, the caveat.  Thanks, GG.

[buystoys]

If it's for a casserole, soup, or anything OTHER than patties or meatballs, I use whatever ground meat is least expensive. 

That is a health benefit because I don't have a heart attack thinking about how much it just cost me to make chili or hamburger soup! 

[andi9899]

We don't eat very much red meat, so I use ground turkey.

[andi9899]

Mar 7, 2017 16:04:22 GMT -5 buystoys said:

If it's for a casserole, soup, or anything OTHER than patties or meatballs, I use whatever ground meat is least expensive. 

That is a health benefit because I don't have a heart attack thinking about how much it just cost me to make chili or hamburger soup! 

I made hamburger stew with ground turkey last night.

[Iggy aka IG]

Mar 7, 2017 16:04:22 GMT -5 buystoys said:

If it's for a casserole, soup, or anything OTHER than patties or meatballs, I use whatever ground meat is least expensive. 

That is a health benefit because I don't have a heart attack thinking about how much it just cost me to make chili or hamburger soup! 

  POTD!

[andi9899]

I've been thinking about making chili. I'll have to do that this weekend. Yum.

[sesfw]

I switched from grn beef to grn turkey when DH had his heart attack.  We eat very little beef at all.

I put the turkey in chili, spaghetti sauce, and buy grn turkey meat balls from Costco.  If it's spiced correctly there is no difference in taste.  Don't use sodium and buy low sodium products at every opportunity.

Even our turkey burgers are lettuce wrapped and Italian spiced

[buystoys]

Mar 7, 2017 16:18:14 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

I've been thinking about making chili. I'll have to do that this weekend. Yum.

We just finished the last batch from the freezer.  I should make another batch before it gets too warm.

[Iggy aka IG]

I made this last night, which sparked my research and this thread, LOL.

Cincinatti-Style Turkey Chili

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Mar 7, 2017 16:41:02 GMT -5 Iggy aka IG said:

I made this last night, which sparked my research and this thread, LOL.

Cincinatti-Style Turkey Chili

Normally, I make chili out of chuck, not ground meat.  However, TD smoked a HUGE package of chicken thighs several months ago and went a little crazy on the spices.  They were inedible to me and even he had a hard time eating them.

i wound up making chili out of it, and it turned out quite good.  I didn't have to add many additional spices.

[Iggy aka IG]

Mar 7, 2017 18:21:58 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Mar 7, 2017 16:41:02 GMT -5 Iggy aka IG said:

I made this last night, which sparked my research and this thread, LOL.

Cincinatti-Style Turkey Chili

Normally, I make chili out of chuck, not ground meat.  However, TD smoked a HUGE package of chicken thighs several months ago and went a little crazy on the spices.  They were inedible to me and even he had a hard time eating them.

i wound up making chili out of it, and it turned out quite good.  I didn't have to add many additional spices.

Genius!   

[Happy prose]

I don't see that lean beef is really bad you. I don't eat too much meat of any kind, but when I do, it's beef. 

[chiver78]

I'm not a fan of beef, so I use turkey. sometimes pork. my roommate doesn't like turkey, so I don't make too many batch things out of it unless I know it will freeze well (chili, for example). I do make a lot of turkey burgers during the summer, though. tons of seasonings, veggies mixed in. very tasty.

[countrygirl2]

I have never eaten ground turkey, I use ground chuck or sirloin and ground pork.

[NoNamePerson]

No help here. I don't eat either.   But Think I would just eat the one that you truly like.!

[weltschmerz]

I don't eat beef, so I use ground turkey for things like tacos.

[CCL]

I like to grind my own turkey. I usually add onions, bell pepper and jalapeño. I'm thinking I'll try making some sausage next.

[msventoux]

I've never eaten ground turkey. I tried turkey bacon once, and it was such an insult to bacon that I had no desire to try ground turkey. I don't eat much meat anyway, so I figure my chocolate weakness is more likely to kill me than the occasional burger or bacon.

[gooddecisions]

I have bought ground turkey when it is on sale and they are practically giving it away. every recipe I have ever made with it taste like garbage. I really hate ground turkey and 5 star reviews on recipe.com are lies!

[thyme4change]

The health benefits are not what they advertise. It is just one more thing in the long list of crap we have been told that makes it so nobody really knows anything about nutrition.

That said, the environmental impact of beef is worse than turkey. If you eat turkey instead of beef, you will save the earth a ton of water, and you can justify taking extra long showers. Cows are the real reason that people in California get fined for having green grass.

[Iggy aka IG]

Mar 12, 2017 11:56:31 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

The health benefits are not what they advertise. It is just one more thing in the long list of crap we have been told that makes it so nobody really knows anything about nutrition.

That said, the environmental impact of beef is worse than turkey. If you eat turkey instead of beef, you will save the earth a ton of water, and you can justify taking extra long showers. Cows are the real reason that people in California get fined for having green grass.

That's pretty much what my research concluded. 

[Anne_in_VA]

We've tried ground turkey several times and DH and I both didn't like it.  We tried turkey bacon too and didn't like that either.  We don't eat a lot of beef anyway, so it doesn't make that much difference in our diets. We mostly eat chicken, fish, lamb and some pork (sausage and pork chops).  When I do eat beef, it's usually out and a cheeseburger with fries at someplace like McD's or 5 Guys. 

[shanendoah]

I don't buy ground beef. I do occasionally buy beef burger patties (especially ones that already have bacon and cheddar bits molded into them), but that's it for my ground beef eating. The fat content in ground beef, if I am not careful, will mess with my stomach.
When we stopped being vegetarian (and using s soy product in place of ground beef), we made the decision to stick with ground turkey. I do get my ground turkey from CostCo, and I guess I can't tell you for certain it is breast meat, but I can tell you that I have never had to drain my ground turkey after browning it, and no matter how lean the ground beef I used to buy (though we are talking close to 10 years ago now), I always had to drain it.

I use ground turkey in tacos, chili, cream of "beef", meatballs, cheddar sausage cheesecake (we mix the sausage spices into the ground turkey over 24 hours before we cook it), enchilada casserole, etc. I like it for just about everything. The one thing I don't like (or don't like as much) are the pre-made turkey burger patties.

Of course, it also makes a difference that one of our closest friends (who we cook for on a regular basis) is allergic to red meat. So it just makes sense for us to have ground turkey instead of ground beef.


Edited to add: I don't like turkey bacon. Or, better said, it is possible to make turkey bacon in a way I like, but possible and probable are not the same. And I pretty much like regular bacon any way it is cooked. So "real" bacon for the win.

[wvugurl26]

I've heard that if the turkey is made from dark meat it really isn't that low in fat. I think it's hard to tell when you buy it at the store. I do like a turkey burger now and then but that's about it.

Immediate family on dad's side bought a cow this year and had it all packed as ground beef. It's very lean, no draining required. I ran out of last year's before we got the cow this year and bought grocery store stuff and it was hard to go back.