is hamburger bad for you? well, i try to stick to whole cuts of meat for 2
reasons (which may or may not be valid reasons, but, hey, they're *my* reasons):

1. when the meat is ground, any pathogens, like E.coli, get distributed all
throughout the beef, and may not be destroyed by heat if they remain in the
center.  whereas with a whole cut of meat, any surface pathogens are quickly
destroyed, and it's ok if you like it pink in the middle.
2.  i worry about mad cow disease, and i heard that ground meat is ground up
everything, and this may include part of the spinal column.  kind of put me
off eating it.

hth, JoAnn.