Turkey Tacos?

First off, the picture is not how I actually make my Turkey Tacos (of course not ... the stuffing would fall right out and it would be too hard to get to the wishbone).
 
And this isn't a recipe for how I make them.  In a taco shell my recipe is "Make tacos, substituting ground turkey for ground beef".
 
What the moral of this story is has more to do with helping to answer the question, which is healthier, ground beef or ground turkey?
 
As you might suspect there is no absolute answer to that question. It depends entirely on how each is made (what part of the animal the meat is from, how much fat is included or added, what other things may be added, etc).  And it can even vary from batch to batch.
 
I often use turkey for tacos not for health reasons, and certainly not for the taste because once it's mixed with the spices there is absolutely no difference in taste ... I do it for the texture.  Turkey meat cooks with smaller "lumps" which makes a finer textured filling than ground beef does. I also use turkey often in homemade chili, but sorry, turkey hot dogs are yucky.
 
I was curious so I did a little research. I expected to find results proving that turkey had a huge advantage over beef in terms of being healthier.  What I found was more of a trade-off and no exceptionally major difference that would declare one a winner over the other.
 
As alluded to above, what's in the ground mixture, whether turkey or beef, is important. Regarding turkey, breast meat is lean, but dark meat isn’t. Some ground turkey contains both, some does not.
 
Based on a couple of company's websites stating nutritional value a 4 oz portion of 90/10 ground beef has 197 calories, 22.4 grams fat and 4.5 grams saturated fat while a branded ground turkey has 230 calories, 17 grams fat and 5 grams saturated fat.  Nothing earth-shaking to write home to your Aunt Matilda about.

Here is another comparison, also based on a 4 oz portion (when I make tacos each one has about 3 oz of meat in it so do your own math):

	4 oz. uncooked  ground turkey - 85% lean	4 oz. uncooked ground beef - 85% lean
Calories	203	243
Total Fat (g)	14.2	17
Sat. Fat (g)	3.9	6.6
Cholesterol (mg)	88	77
Sodium (mg)	61	75
Protein (g)	19.1	21
Calcium (mg)	37.3	17
Potassium (mg)	228.3	333.4

So for me the bottom line is the three things I watch most are total fat, cholesterol and sodium to maintain a decent diet.  All things considered ground beef and ground turkey are too close to call for me to make a dietary change for one over the other.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Holy cow!
-Harry Caray

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