The latest edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, set to be released by the end of the year, could include recommendations to eat less red meat.
The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee held its final meeting of the year on Oct. 21 to discuss the findings and advice that will be included in its scientific report to help guide the government’s dietary guidelines over the next five years.
The committee’s recommendations help guide the USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in their efforts to craft the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines are used by healthcare professionals to treat patients, by schools and hospitals for meals, and to inform nutrition labels.
During the five-and-a-half-hour-long meeting, subcommittees and working groups shared their advice for discussion. Some of the recommendations included consuming less beef and more plant-based foods. In addition, members recommended beans, peas and lentils leave the vegetable category and take precedence over proteins such as chicken and beef.
“Behaviorally, I think there is sort of a branding crisis when it comes to protein—thinking automatically meat,” Deirdre Tobias, a member of the committee and an assistant professor in Harvard University’s Department of Nutrition, said during the meeting. “And if there are more plant sources of proteins in the protein category that could help overcome that, you know, mislabeling or misnomer or misinformation, by having it more prominently.”
The committee still needs to finalize and submit its report to USDA and HHS. Once it does so, the public will have the chance to share input during a 60-day comment period. USDA and HHS will release new guidelines by the end of the year. It is not guaranteed that the government will include all committee recommendations in its guidelines.
Industry reaction
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) called the committee “unhinged” for suggesting animal proteins be replaced with plant-based options.
“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,” said NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane. “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.”
Shalene McNeill, NCBA executive director of nutrition science and a registered dietitian, said that for more than 40 years the dietary guidelines have given advice, during which red meat consumption has declined, yet obesity and chronic disease remain on the rise.
“Seventy percent of the calories in the U.S. diet are plant based,” McNeill said. “Now, the committee wants to reduce red meat intake even further, marginalizing the 80% of the population who identify themselves as meat eaters.”
McNeill continued that the recommendations put vulnerable people such as older Americans, adolescent girls and women of child-bearing age at risk for nutrient gaps. The dietitian shared that beef contributes only 5% of the calories in the American diet while providing more than 5% of essential nutrients.
“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,” McNeill said. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
