BEEFED UP NUTRITION SEMINAR PROGRAM SHARPENS MESSAGE FOR 1999

CHICAGO (October 13, 1998) - An expanded seminar program funded by the beef checkoff has been refocused to provide an even stronger message about beef to nutrition professionals this fiscal year. The seminar program reached 30,000 professionals in 43 states over the past year, providing a greater understanding of beef’s role in healthy diets.

Initially developed for dietitians, the program has been expanded to reach a greater number of health and nutrition educators, according to Dave Bateman, a beef producer from Elburn, Ill., and chairman of the beef industry’s Health and Nutrition Committee. The Nutrition Seminar Program for fiscal year 1999 (which began Oct. 1) takes a focused approach to delivering cutting edge information on beef’s health benefits to the diet, the role of fat in a healthy diet, or ways that all foods can fit into a healthy lifestyle.

"We need to be even stronger in countering some of the biggest misconceptions about beef," Bateman says. "Nutrition professionals have always valued our seminars and the beef information they’ve received. They will come away from the new seminars with an even better awareness of the valuable contributions beef makes to our diets."

At each session, nutrition education materials are provided to reinforce the beef industry’s messages. These materials, along with the presentations themselves, are having an impact. Research in 1997 demonstrated that after attending the seminars and receiving materials, 55 percent of nutrition professionals were more likely to recommend meat.

Dayle Hayes, M.S., R.D., a nutrition consultant from Billings, Mont., is a speaker in some of the seminar sessions. She says nutrition professionals who attend the meetings welcome the information -- and the beef industry should appreciate the opportunity to reach this wide-ranging, influential audience.

"Dietitians and others value the science-based information they get from these seminars," Hayes says. "They recognize that the beef industry is not just out to promote beef, but wants to promote a healthy eating style that everyone can enjoy." At the same time, she says, the value of the seminars to the beef industry is multiplied many times, since the information goes to professionals who carry the messages forward to clients and patients.

Hayes has been involved with the seminar program for more than four years, and says that the various seminars have done an excellent job of delivering credible messages. Program improvements are now increasing its effectiveness, however. "Program changes will allow additional beef-positive messages. That will create even more effective use of promotion dollars," Hayes says.

Last year, 42 seminars were conducted in cooperation with state beef councils and/or dietetic associations, one at the 80^th National Meeting of The American Dietetic Association (ADA) and five with other allied health professional organizations. Dietitians receive continuing education credits from ADA for participating in the sessions.

"Response to our seminars has been excellent, and reinforces the fact that it’s important to continue stressing to health professionals the value of beef in the diet," says Bateman. "The checkoff-funded Nutrition Seminar Program is one way beef producers are providing facts and information to this important audience."

-- NCBA --

The Nutrition Seminar Program and other beef nutrition education programs are funded by the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board. The 111 members on this board are volunteers and checkoff-payers appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

Coordination of the Nutrition Seminar Program is conducted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. NCBA is the marketing organization and trade association for America’s cattle ranchers and farmers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.