The cattle industry has heavily invested in research that highlights the nutritional benefits of beef. According to National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Dietary Lead Dr. Shalene McNeill, one such study known as BOLD, has been a powerful tool in educating the scientific community on beef’s role in a well-balanced diet. She explained that effort in a recent interview with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays.
“The Beef at an Optimal Lean Diet study (BOLD) was one of those great studies that was able to show that when you include beef as part of a heart healthy diet, you will lower your cholesterol and improve your blood pressure,” McNeill said, adding that both consumers and physicians still fear beef will negatively impact those areas. “But, the science has shown very convincingly that just is not true.”
To combat that negative image of beef in people’s minds, McNeill works directly with physicians and scientists to share the research in the BOLD study and others like it, educating them on all that beef can offer nutritionally. This task is very important because coming up, there will be a new set of updated Dietary Guidelines that will be published to replace the current set in 2020. Those that McNeill is working with are the same people who will potentially be making the decisions on the next set of guidelines. She says that if those people are chosen to serve on the committee responsible for delivering those guidelines, it is imperative they are educated and up to date on beef’s nutritional value. The current set of guidelines recognizes lean meat’s role in a healthy diet but McNeill hopes to improve beef’s position in this next set of guidelines.
“We believe information is power. It’s very important to us that any study of science that’s published on beef is getting out there,” she said. “We need to weigh in on what science is available so we make sure they don’t miss anything important. We know the science for beef is on our side.”
Click here to see more...