WASHINGTON (TNND) — The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) on Tuesday decried potential guidance by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for Americans to substitute red meat for beans, peas and lentils.
USDA is currently working to create its 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a set of recommendations featuring “robust scientific reviews of the current body of evidence on key nutrition and health topics for each life stage.” The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) is expected to offer input on the guidelines and has held meetings this week to discuss its plans.
These meetings, according to NCBA, are considering whether to recommend Americans substitute beef for plant proteins.
Such a plan, the group wrote, could have significant nutritional impacts on Americans who rely on meat as a source of protein.
“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,” NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane wrote in a press release. “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.”
“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,” NCBA Executive Director of Nutrition Science and Registered Dietitian Shalene McNeil said. “As a registered dietitian and nutrition scientist, I am 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 not help us achieve healthier diets.”
USDA did not respond to a request for comment from The National News Desk (TNND) Thursday seeking its reaction to NCBA’s comments
NCBA last year slammed the U.N. for weighing guidance asking Americans to cut their meat consumption.
“Reducing beef consumption in the U.S. is not a realistic or impactful solution for climate change,” NCBA spokesperson Hunter Ihrman told TNND in November. “America’s beef producers and consumers around the globe deserve real solutions to the climate issue, not artificial barriers to protein consumption that will do nothing to solve the world’s climate issues.”
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