NCBA slams Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommendations

Recommendations propose replacing high-quality proteins like beef with beans, peas and lentils.

BEEF Staff

October 23, 2024

2 Min Read
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The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is slamming the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for its “unhinged” recommendations that propose replacing high-quality proteins like beef with beans, peas and lentils. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is tasked with delivering recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the agencies craft the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

“The preview meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee this week stands out as one of the most out-of-touch, impractical, and elitist conversations in the history of this process,” said NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane. “After 22 months of public discussion and lip service to transparency, we are disappointed by the number of chaotic new directions that were proposed at the literal last minute. We would laugh at the suggestion that beans, peas, and lentils are going to replace lean red meat and fill all the nutrient gaps Americans are facing if it weren’t such a dangerous and deceptive idea.”

 

NCBA Executive Director of Nutrition Science and Registered Dietitian Dr. Shalene McNeill pointed out: “We’ve had more than four decades of Dietary Guidelines advice, and during that time red meat consumption has declined, yet obesity and chronic disease is on the rise. 70% of the calories in the U.S. diet are plant based. Now, the committee wants to reduce red meat intake even further, marginalizing the 80% of the population who identify themselves as meat eaters.”

According to McNeill, the latest recommendations put some of the most vulnerable at risk for nutrient gaps, especially older Americans, adolescent girls, and women of child-bearing age.

Beef contributes only 5% of the calories in the American diet, but more than 5% of essential nutrients like potassium, phosphorous, iron, B6, niacin, protein, zinc, choline, and B12. “It’s baffling that we are trying to get Americans to cut out red meat when the evidence indicates nutrient deficiencies and chronic disease are increasing as red meat consumption declines,” she added.

As a registered dietitian and nutrition scientist, McNeill said she is concerned that basing guidelines on “highly academic exercises, hypothetical modeling, and weak science” on red meat will not produce relevant or practical guidelines and will also not help achieve healthier diets.

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