Variety is great, but too much variety can be overwhelming. Take beef sticks and beef jerky for example. They are sold side-by-side, have similar flavors, and are made by the same brands. When you are standing in front of the display at the store, there are a mind-boggling number of choices.
We know that some people are beef stick people, others are jerky people, but a lot of us are somewhere in between. Making the choice between one and the other can be a challenge when you are searching for a healthy, nutritious snack on the go. We are going to break it down for you so you'll know what to look for in order to get exactly what you want from your meat snack.
What is Beef Jerky?
Beef jerky is a dried meat product that is often made from lean cuts of beef like sirloin and top round. The meat is thin sliced and dried using one of several methods. The process removes most of the fat, leaving you with a delicious, beefy snack that has a long shelf life ideal for on the go snacking. Jerky is high in protein and low in calories and fat, but can contain high levels of sodium from the preserving process.
What are Beef Sticks?
Think of beef sticks like long, thin smoked sausages. This is a product made most often from ground beef, spices, and curing agents that are fed into a casing. The result is high protein meat sticks that are packed with flavor. Beef sticks have higher fat than jerky, but lower sodium. They have equivalent caloric content. It makes a healthy snack that is easy to take with you when you are on the go.
Are Beef Sticks Bad for You?
Like any processed meat product, you'll want to read labels carefully when choosing whether the beef stick you want is a healthy option. You'll want to avoid products with lots of artificial ingredients, artificial preservatives, and high saturated fat. It's important to pay attention to the serving size because you can easily exceed recommended amounts of sodium and fat snacking on jerky or beef sticks.
What Makes the Bearded Butchers Beef Sticks Special
If you haven't taken an opportunity to try some of our delicious and nutritious snacks, you're missing out. Take our brand-new original beef sticks for example: we use only the finest beef for our meat snacks. We season them expertly with our favorite Bearded Butchers Original Seasoning and cook them perfectly so they have the ideal smoke flavor you'd expect from a high-quality snack. We also have a Honey Beef Stick option that is just as high-quality and just as delicious.
When you look at the ingredients we use, you'll see that we use celery powder instead of adding artificial nitrates to preserve the beef sticks. Our ingredients are all-natural for a good snack you can be happy eating. Our beef sticks are uncured which means we don't add curing salt (which can increase the sodium level). Because they aren't cured, you should refrigerate the package after opening.
Some things that you won't find in our beef sticks – nitrates, hydrolyzed corn fillers, soy protein, or other weird and nonsensical ingredients.
Is a Beef Stick the Same as Beef Jerky?
In some ways, the two products share many similarities, but the cooking process results in different types of popular snacks. Some types of jerky are made with ground beef that is pressed into snackable bites. Beef sticks tend to be softer and easier to chew than dried strips of jerky. Beef sticks offer the opportunity for lots of new flavors and make a paleo-friendly snack. Healthy beef sticks have fewer ingredients.
Both jerky and sticks can be made from grass-fed, organic beef. You'll find many beef jerky flavors that have added ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, but rarely will that be an ingredient in beef sticks. Whether grass fed beef jerky or beef sticks are better for you is debatable, but you'll find examples of both on the market.
The main difference between beef sticks vs beef jerky is the way the two popular snacks are made. While jerky is hung and dried, sticks are smoked. The smoking process cooks the meat and infuses a delicious combination of flavors. Our beef sticks with our Original seasoning flavor are a premium example of what a good quality and all natural beef snack can be.
Beef Stick Nutrition
CalorieKing.com says that a three-quarter ounce beef stick provides 110 total calories. Around 80% of the caloric content of the beef stick comes from fat with a near-even split between saturated (less unhealthy) and unsaturated (more unhealthy) fats. You'll get an average of 10 grams of fat from every 110 gram beef stick.
The average beef stick provides about 12% of your daily sodium intake. This amount may be more or less depending on a few factors and whether a product includes curing salt in addition to salt for flavor. Carbohydrates are low in beef sticks since sugars are not often added with the exception of some of the most common flavors.
Just As Good As Jerky
Beef sticks are an excellent alternative snack to beef jerky. They provide an excellent source of protein for energy when you are on the go – like hiking, hunting, or hitting the gym. They are as delicious as they are nutritious, particularly when you choose a high-quality product like our beef sticks that are made with all-natural ingredients. They make a great snack and can even be a meal replacement when you are following a Keto diet.
