A federal government committee intends to issue dietary guidelines that recommend beans, peas, and lentils — plant-based proteins — take precedence over meats like chicken and beef, per new guidance obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is helmed by 20 individuals who all voiced support for moving beans, peas, and lentils into the protein category for American nutrition guidelines. The directive came after a meeting hosted by the National Institutes of Health.
The committee’s recommendations will go into effect in early December and will be in effect through 2030.
According to the guidelines, beans, peas, and lentils would leave the vegetable category and be prioritized over soy products, seafood, meats, eggs, and poultry as optimal sources of protein. Previous guidelines placed meats, poultry, and eggs as the highest level of protein sources in the American diet.
Not a single member of the 20-person panel suggested leaving the standards as they are.
The White House announced this committee’s creation in 2022 and said the committee’s goal was to reflect “racial, ethnic, gender, and geographic diversity” and that its actions would help to “encourage plant sources of protein foods.”
The guidelines are set to be finalized after election day, but before the new president takes office.
“Behaviorally, I think there is sort of a branding crisis when it comes to protein — thinking automatically meat,” Deirdre Tobias, a member of the committee said. “And if there are more plant sources of proteins in the protein category that could help overcome that, you know, mislabeling or misnomer or misinformation by having it more prominently.”
“I also think that that’s where we would probably offer more flexibility — where we would have an increase in plant-based. That’s going to be increasing beans, peas, and lentils at the expense of some of those other meat products, right?” she continued.
