Sound Thinking on Beef

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) and 70 House colleagues recently called for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) to be based on sound nutritional science and not areas such as sustainability and tax policy.

Rep. Hartzler discusses her view of the recent DGA advisory committee report that recommends less meat in the diet."I am a farmer and also a former home economics teacher where I taught nutrition science for 11 years so I am very interested in making sure that these dietary guidelines that are established are based on science. What we have here in the recommendations from the advisory committee is that it strays away from science and gets into policy decisions where they are recommending that the foods that Americans eat eat based on sustainability of the food. These are things that get into policy rather than saying these foods are what are good for the human body. In years past they have encouraged the use of lean red meat. This year they are recommending to decrease the consumption of red meat and then in very tiny print at the bottom they say, lean meats can be a good source of protein. They are trying to marginalize the eating of meat and we know by science that lean meat can be and should be a part of a healthy diet.”