A new study has found meat is being given a bad wrap and can increase life expectancy. Photo: Scimex

THE United States cattle industry has welcomed the Trump administration’s second ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report, which has made some positive recommendations about beef.

Headed up by prominent political figure Robert F Kennedy Jr, this week MAHA Commission released its second report about its strategy to make the American population more health. The report has particularly taken aim at ultra-processed foods and reductionist attitudes towards foods high in saturated fats like beef.

The second MAHA report takes a holistic approach to the health, safety, and security of our food supply chain. Highlights from the report include:

• Stressing the need for a diet high in whole, unprocessed foods like fresh beef, fruits, and vegetables to support Americans’ health at every age and stage of life.
• Encouraging innovation that helps American agriculture stay at the leading edge of safe, healthy, nutritious food production.
• Jumpstarting gold-standard scientific research to answer targeted questions on the connection between diet, other lifestyle choices, and health outcomes.
• Exploring ways to boost consumption of fresh, healthy, locally produced foods.

“This report confirms the science-based recommendation that making America healthy again has to start with safe, nutritious, fresh, whole-ingredient and American beef hits the target on all of the above,” said National Cattleman’s Beef Association Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane.

“As this administration has pointed out before, beef is the crown jewel of American agriculture. Millions of American families build a healthy plate around our product every week. We will continue working with President Trump’s administration to keep the supply chain moving and keep the safest, highest quality beef in the world on grocery store shelves.”

A group of scientists last year highlighted similar concerns about the way dietary guidelines are handled across the world, urging policymakers to re-think the way they handle them. The Denver Call to Action called for a “nourishment” based approach, by recommending people priorities whole foods and make sure they eat enough nutrient dense foods like meat.

Source: NCBA