Evening Edge

Chances are you will be firing up the grill on July Fourth — hot dogs, burgers and steaks will be sizzling. You can enjoy your cookout and not sacrifice your health by making a few substitutions for your usual fare. Take this little quiz to see how much you know about the meats on your grill.

Which burger has more calories and fat — a Bubba burger or a turkey burger?

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This was an easy question and I'm sure you guessed the Bubba burger, but check out these differences.

A one-third pound Bubba burger has 420 calories with 35 grams of fat or 75 percent of its calories from fat. Add in the 15 grams of bad, saturated fat and 110 milligrams of cholesterol and you've got one fatty burger. A Honeysuckle turkey burger weighs in at 4 ounces (it weighs slightly less than the Bubba burger but since most of us eat a burger as it is packaged I didn't adjust for the weight) and has 160 calories with 8 grams of fat (2.5 grams of saturated fat and 80 milligrams of cholesterol). You could eat two turkey burgers and still have less calories and fat than one Bubba burger. By the time you load your burger with lettuce, mustard and pickles, you can still have a tasty, juicy burger.

How about a Johnsonville bratwurst or a Ball Park Frank? Comparing one link to one frank, the hot dog wins on calories (180 versus 270), but both weigh in fatty with 75-80 percent of calories from fat. The brat really scores worse on the sodium at 810 milligrams (versus 560 milligrams for one frank) at 34 percent of the entire amount of sodium needed for the day.

Steak or ribs?

I compared 6 ounces of beef sirloin steak with 6 ounces of country-style pork ribs. Beef is the clear winner; especially when you consider that 6 ounces of ribs also contains bone so you get less meat. Both are high in fat at about 55 percent of calories, but the sirloin contains less saturated fat and three times as much iron as ribs. For those of you who only eat "white" meat (i.e., chicken breast), an occasional steak won't kill you. It's a good way to boost iron intake.

If you want to be adventurous this year, try turkey breast tenderloin with barbecue sauce. This cut of turkey is low in calories and fat and makes a tasty change from chicken breast.

Barbecue Turkey Breast Fillet | Serves 2

Hands on: 20 minutes Total time: 20 minutes

2 4-ounce turkey breast tenderloins

4 tablespoons barbecue sauce

Lightly spray grill with vegetable spray. Grill fillets uncovered over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes per side until cooked thoroughly. Brush with barbecue sauce after the first 5 minutes of cooking and continue to brush with barbecue sauce until the meat is cooked.

Per serving: 170 calories (percent of calories from fat, 10), 27 grams protein, 12 grams carbohydrate, no fiber, 2 grams fat (less than 1 gram saturated fat), 60 milligrams cholesterol, 445 milligrams of sodium.

Nutritional bonus points: This quick tasty turkey tenderloin contains only 10 percent of calories from fat compared to 75 percent for a Bubba burger.