Texas ranchers are stewing over a new set of dietary guidelines that discourages red meat and doesn’t highlight lean meat as a protein source.
According to the San Antonio Express News, a 571-page set of recommendations was compiled by a committee of scientists that will be the basis of USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services dietary guidelines. Issued every five years, the guidelines affect federal food lunch programs and are blueprints to educational campaigns.
Those recommendations have caused a stink in Texas, the largest cattle-producing state.
“I think it’s a conspiracy by a bunch of granola-eating liberals,” said Pete Bonds, who serves as president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “I mean it doesn’t make sense when you’re supposed to drink more than you’re supposed to eat meat.”
The committee identified a healthy dietary pattern as higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or nonfat dairy, seafood, legumes and nuts; moderate in alcohol (among adults); lower in red and processed meat; and low in sugar-sweetened foods and drinks and refined grains.
Ramifications are potentially huge, a nutrition scientist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association told the Express News.
“If it’s not recommended in the dietary guidelines, it’s not going to be encouraged in the school lunch program or the federal military feeding programs and other federal nutrition programs,” the scientist said. “If your food is discouraged in the federal guidelines, it makes it really hard to tell a positive nutrition story.”