Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to submit report as meat, potato groups criticize proposals
The next step in the development of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will be the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s submission of its scientific report to the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments, according to videos of its last meeting.
The supervisors of the process did not say when the advisory committee would issue its report, but did say there will be a period of public comment on it. Meanwhile, potato, beef and pork groups criticized some of the proposals discussed at the meeting.
The National Potato Council welcomed the advisory committee’s abandonment of an attempt to make starchy vegetables interchangeable with grains within its recommendations. “Potatoes are a vegetable. Period.,” said NPC CEO Kam Quarles. “Despite some initial views to the contrary, we are pleased the full committee rejected attempts to place potatoes and other starchy vegetables in a different food category. Doing so would have made potatoes less affordable for schools and other feeding program managers who struggle to put nutritious, cost-effective, and appealing vegetables on Americans’ plates.” But Quarles added, “the panel’s report reduces the starchy vegetable consumption recommendation. This conclusion is unsupported by nutritional science and will confuse consumers.”
“Instead of reducing recommendations for any vegetable, USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should focus on increasing Americans’ intake of vegetables overall,” Quarles said.
“As USDA and HHS work to complete the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we urge the two secretaries to discard this erroneous recommendation in any final report.”
National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) CEO Bryan Humphreys said, “The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has the opportunity to benefit public health by following sound science.”
“While pork producers support the committee’s recommendation to increase protein intake, their recommendation to replace animal proteins will severely compromise the American diet, as plant proteins are not nearly as nutritionally rich.”NPPC explained, “The committee recommends moving beans, peas, and lentils from the vegetable group to the protein group. While this increases the amount of recommended protein intake, this would be deceiving to Americans, as there are essential nutrients in animal protein that plant proteins do not provide. “This also puts at risk infants, young children, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and older adults, as they require higher amounts of protein and nutrients that are provided by animal-based proteins. Pork can fill the gap in protein deficiencies, as well as provide amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) called the recommendations proposing the replacement of “high-quality proteins like beef” with beans, peas and lentils “unhinged.”
“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.”
“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,” Lane said.
“Now, the committee wants to reduce red meat intake even further, marginalizing the 80% of the population who identify themselves as meat eaters,” said NCBA Executive Director of Nutrition Science and Registered Dietitian Shalene McNeill.”
These 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. 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.”
–The Hagstrom Report
