The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are in the final stage of development following public comment and are under review by USDA and the Department of Health and Human Resources.

While the newest guidelines maintain the amount of meat recommended for a healthy diet as in the 2015 guidelines, groups representing cattle producers say the recommendations should go further.

During the USDA and HHS virtual hearing on the guidelines on Aug. 12, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association recommended the federal guidelines encourage beef as a healthy protein choice. 

Kiah Twisselman, a sixth-generation rancher in California, who started on a journey to better health two years ago and lost 125 pounds, testified she knows firsthand how important it is for dietary guidelines to be practical, flexible and clear.

“Balance and moderation are cornerstones of any healthy eating style, and healthy diets are most effective when they include the foods consumers love. Like many Americans, beef is my favorite health food because it delivers big nutrition in a small, calorie-conscious package,” she said.

Federal guidelines should encourage beef as a healthy protein choice and reinforce pairing it with other nutrient-rich foods, she said.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee “recognizes lean meat as part of a healthy dietary pattern, but the 2020 DGAs should build on this recommendation by clearly identifying beef as a lean meat option and highlighting ways to achieve that recommendation, even naming lean beef cuts like sirloin or 95% lean ground beef,” she said.

The committee’s report also identifies nutrients critical for health across all life stages and specifically calls out nutrients of special concern for groups like infants and toddlers, adolescent girls, women of childbearing years and aging adults, she said.

“With 10 essential nutrients and less than 200 calories in a 3-ounce serving, no other protein delivers like beef. Recognizing that people eat food, not nutrients, the DGAs should highlight beef as a common, readily available food source for essential nutrients like iron, zinc, choline and B vitamins,” she said.

U.S. Cattlemen’s Association was more critical in its testimony.

“Regarding beef specifically, we are disappointed in the recognition of only “lean” beef as healthy beef,” Lia Biondo, USCA directory of policy and outreach, said.

It’s important to consider all diet types, including high-protein, high-fat and low-carbohydrate diets, she said.

“We saw a similar revelation occur in the egg industry in the past decade when Americans learned they could enjoy their egg yolks alongside their egg whites as a delicious and healthy part of breakfast, lunch or dinner,” she said.

But USCA has a bigger issue with the guidelines — they only address healthy Americans and not those suffering from declining health conditions. That concern is shared by many groups, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which are calling for a delay in the release of the guidelines.

Citing a letter from Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., Biondo said more than 80% of Americans are overweight, obese or afflicted with Type 2 diabetes.

“By focusing exclusively on prevention, the policy now addresses only a small minority of the U.S. population,” she said.

The committee’s report excludes virtually all clinical trials on weight loss and low-carbohydrate diets and a decade of science on saturated fats. It also makes no accommodations for people of different racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, recommending the same dietary patterns that represent a one-size-fits-all diet for Americans, she said.