Burger wars.

The early days of hamburger chain restaurants were pretty rough for vegetarians. Back then most people had never seen or heard of a burger without meat. The only commercially made vegeburgers were found in the freezers of tiny health food stores.

"My mom used to order vegeburgers by the case, since we couldn't buy them in our town," remembers Colleen, a lifetime vegetarian. "Now they're everywhere." Restaurants across the country are placing vegetarian burgers on their menus. Major grocery stores have been stocking Morningstar Farms and other brands for more than a decade. Even fast-food chains such as Burger King have started testing meatless burgers in some cities.

While being a vegetarian is more convenient now, it's also more confusing. Do you want soy or gluten patties? rice or nuts? with eggs or without? The baffling multitude of vegetarian burger ingredients can include zucchini, couscous, kidney beans, ginger, black olives, peanuts, corn, seaweed, tahini, water chestnuts, and even Anaheim chilies.

So which vegeburgers deserve a spot on your picnic table?

We tasted 23 varieties to help you sort them out. Our testers included men and women, children and adults, vegetarians and meat eaters. The results? That depends on whether you ask the health-conscious mother of four or the meat-loving young man who has never before eaten soy protein.

Dr. Ron McDermott, vice president of research and technology at Worthington Foods, explains that vegeburger consumers fall into two basic categories -- those who want a realistic meat imitation and those who want an alternative to meat. Those in the second group are usually more willing to try unique burgers based on vegetables or grains.

Still, a few overall trends emerged in our test. Almost everyone preferred burgers with at least some textured soy or wheat protein. "The patties with just rice and vegetables are mushy," said one tester.

Many people said they'd rather have their carrots in a salad than chopped up in a burger. One man said, "Vegetables are fine, but they don't need to hide them."

As for kids, they preferred the familiar flavor of Worthington FriPats and Morningstar Grillers. Most also liked the mild taste of Natural Touch Okara Patties and Longa Life Notburgers.

And, not surprisingly, the higher-fat burgers usually received better. taste scores than the lower-fat versions, especially among meat eaters. Two exceptions are the black bean burgers from Natural Touch and Morningstar Farms, which contain just one gram of fat per serving and also received high taste scores.

Even vegeburgers with six or seven grams of fat per serving are much leaner than beef hamburgers, which typically contain between 10 and 18 grams of fat. Dr. Ceorgia Hodgkin, a registered dietitian and associate professor at Loma Linda University, points out that while beef hamburgers are high in saturated fat, vegetarian burgers contain mainly unsaturated fat.

"And not every food in your menu has to be low-fat," she says. "Think in terms of total fat for the meal."

Another concern is sodium content. Most vegeburgers contain 200 to 370 milligrams per serving, which is within the 400-milligram limit dietitians recommend for entrees. However, this amount can more than triple when you're done adding ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, cheese, and pickles. "Why not just eat the patty with tomato, lettuce, and maybe avocado slices?" Hodgkin recommends.

She also says that people should pay attention to the protein content of their vegeburgers. Patties based on soy usually have plenty of protein, but rice-based patties can have as little as 4 grams. You may want to serve them with beans or another source of vegetable protein.

Finally, many experts believe that the health benefits of soy isoflavones are reduced in highly refined products. Some companies make their burgers with a water-washed soy protein concentrate, which seems to retain more of the helpful isoflavones. Currently most frozen vegeburger labels do not indicate which refining process was used, so Ron McDermott recommends calling the manufacturer if you'd like to know. "Not all products are equal," he says.