The sporadic technological advancement witnessed worldwide since the beginning of the twenty first century has encouraged civilization and urbanization culminating into changes in lifestyle from active to sedentary globally. People now prefer instant foods and eating out in different food service units to home cooked meals. Burger is a special delicacy which is seldom prepared at home but commonly purchased from restaurants. The need to encourage human consumption of soybean cannot be over emphasized due to the unrivalled nutritional and health benefits derivable from it especially in combating some communicable diseases, the epidemic of which is becoming alarming globally, hence, harnessing soybean potentials in the production of burger is of pertinent importance. This experimental study was therefore designed to compare the nutritional, physical and sensory properties of soy burger with those of the conventional beef and chicken burgers. Soy cheese was prepared from soybeans using appropriate culinary procedure. Equal portions of minced beef, minced chicken and soy cheese were processed into burgers using basic recipe. Beef, chicken and soy burgers were subjected to proximate, thiamine, riboflavin, cholesterol, colour, texture and sensory evaluation using standard methods. Mean data were compared using Analysis of Variance at p≤0.05. Protein content (Dry Weight Basis) for Beef burger (BB), Chicken Burger (CB) and Soy Burger (SB) were 57.87, 50.36 and 53.89% respectively. In similar sequence fat content were 10.02(BB) 10.15(CB) and 8.58 (SB). SB was significantly higher than the other two samples in crude fibre, riboflavin and niacin while its cholesterol content was negligible. There was no significant difference between SB and CB in lightness and redness while the values for yellowness were 10.60, 25.12 and 18.25 for BB, CB AND SB respectively. In the same vein there was no significant difference in chewiness, cohesiveness and springiness of the three burger samples. For overall acceptability BB was most acceptable followed by SB and then CB. The nutritional, physical and sensory properties of soy burger were comparable to that of beef and chicken burgers, hence, soy burger may compete favourably with the conventional types of burger and is hereby presented as a cholesterol-free alternative with higher health benefits suitable for all even vegans. Household and commercial production and consumption of soy burger is hereby recommended.

Dyslipidemia is a risk factor of concern in public health even in a state of anomaly in blood glucose level. The effect of different ginger extracts on body lipids has been reported, few scientific studies have documented the effect of raw ginger extracts while the effect of cooked ginger extract (the form in which the spice is commonly consumed) is yet to be explored. This experimental study was therefore designed to determine the effect of raw and cooked ginger extracts on serum triglycerides and total cholesterol in diabetic rats and compare this with that of non-diabetic rats. Fresh ginger rhizomes were washed peeled, washed, wet-milled (without addition of water) and sieved to give the raw extract. A portion of of the extract was boiled for one hour and cooled to give cooked ginger extract. Seventy male albino rats of weight range 155g-195g were divided into 7 groups (n=10) with 3 groups kept as normal or non-diabetic while the remaining 4 groups were rendered diabetic by intraperitoneal administration of 60mg/kg body weight of streptozocin (STZ) to mimic Type 1 diabetes mellitus. These were repeated with another set of seventy rats but diabetes was induced in the 4 diabetic groups here with a 12 week consumption of high-fat diet (HFD) to mimic Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Serum total cholesterol and triglyceride were determined before and after diabetes induction as well as at the 2 nd and 4 th weeks of extracts and diabetic drugs administration using standard methods. Mean data were compared using Least Significant Difference at p≤0.05.Raw and cooked ginger extracts significantly reduced serum total cholesterol and triglyceride in both medium (2 weeks) and long (4 weeks) terms administration in non diabetic rats. In STZ-induced diabetic rats only raw ginger extract lowered these parameters significantly while the cooked extracts and glybenclamide increased these significantly. However, in HFD-induced diabetic rats, raw, cooked ginger extracts and Metformin reduced both serum total cholesterol and triglyceride significantly. Ginger in both raw and cooked forms may therefore be useful in ameliorating hyperlipidemia which commonly associates diabetic state. Human trial is hereby recommended.