Science Behind Proposed Dietary Guidelines Questioned

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is reiterating the important role of beef in a healthy diet and is pushing back on what they say is the questionable advice published in the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's scientific report, despite a wealth of high-quality scientific evidence that beef has an important role to play in a healthy diet. The committee is advising that the federal nutrition guidelines include a reduction in red meat consumption. NCBA, Senior Director of Government Affairs, Sigrid Johannes,

“The scientific report that came out is certainly not written in stone. It's not the same as setting federal policy, but it is very influential in this process, and so when we see in that report a whole lot of conclusions that are frankly, completely unsupported by the advisory committee's own science, things like reducing red meat intake and reducing meat poultry and eggs as an entire category, that's pretty concerning to us, and something that we certainly don't want to see survive, frankly, the rest of the process, the next sort of six to 12 months, when the agencies will be writing the actual dietary guidelines themselves that end up dictating that federal policy on school lunch and some other programs.”

Johannes points out that the advisory committee's report goes to both the US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services with the line on agriculture report, I'm Lorrie Boyer.