How many teaspoons of sugar in a beef burger patty?

The beef in this dataset is a patty of 85% lean ground beef, which in the UK would be called minced beef, weighing 100g. USDA FoodData Central lists it as containing 0.0g of carbohydrate per 100g (SR Legacy, FDC ID 174032). With no carbohydrate, the glycaemic load is 0 whatever glycaemic index might be assumed, and the teaspoon figure is 0.

Meat is named on two of Dr Unwin’s charts as a food in the very low glycaemic range: the common foods chart and the South Asian foods chart both include it in their side notes. Neither prints a figure for it, so this site calculated one from the USDA composition data.

“85% lean” describes the raw meat by weight: 85% lean meat and 15% fat. Leaner and fattier minces differ in fat and energy, but none contains carbohydrate, so the figure is the same across them.

A plain beef patty is not the same as a burger as served. Many shop-bought burgers and meatballs contain breadcrumbs or other fillers, and UK sausages and burgers commonly include rusk, a wheat-based binder. Those add carbohydrate that the USDA entry for plain ground beef does not include. The bun, ketchup and fries are separate foods.

Beef, like other meat, stores almost no carbohydrate once slaughtered and aged, because the glycogen in the muscle is used up.

The other foods calculated in the same way are chicken breast and salmon.