The Florida Beef Council shared the value of beef with dieticians at a recent event. We caught up with Jamie Lee McIntyre Registered Dietician Nutritionist who presented on behalf of the Florida Beef Council at the event to learn more.
McIntyre said, “We spoke at the Florida Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics annual symposium to about 200 to 250 dietitians in attendance, and our Sunday morning speaker session, which was sponsored by Florida Beef, was all about protein in practice. And so this presentation really spoke to my colleagues about how right now we’re seeing a lot of people trying to prioritize protein. And simultaneously on the market, we have a lot of ultra-processed, protein-fortified foods showing up in clear liquid beverages, in cookies, in pretzels, in coffees, our powders, in our bars. And the message here wasn’t that those things are inherently bad, but they’re not nutritionally interchangeable with whole food protein sources, like beef.”
“There are certain nutrients that are very important, specifically with beef, iron, zinc, B vitamins, choline, that come along with beef. The digestion is different. The metabolism is different. So my morning session really spoke on knowing the difference between the two, knowing how to help counsel clients and speak to audiences about protein nutrition, what’s available, and how to really lean into our whole food protein sources to build our balanced meals and our day-to-day eating patterns and all throughout the day, rather than just relying on the ultra-processed, protein-fortified varieties of foods that keep popping up on the market,” said McIntyre.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.