Beef Producers Help Share Nutrition Information

Health professionals are often key to keeping beef on the tables of Americans.  That’s why America’s beef producers, through their beef checkoff, have coordinated presentations by leading nutrition experts to thousands of health professionals attending state dietetic association meetings across the country.

The state health professional associations are not charged for the speakers or the information they present to the professionals about beef’s role in a healthful diet.  The nutrition experts also supply free checkoff-funded client education and resource materials to these health professionals, who counsel many Americans on how best to manage their diets.

During the last three years, the checkoff has sponsored these kinds of seminars to more than 4,500 health professionals and distributed more than 2,500 nutrition kits to them.

“These are qualified, notable speakers who are experts in the topics they are presenting,” says Wade Zimmerman, a beef producer from Colorado, a Cattlemen’s Beef Board member and chair of the industry’s Joint Nutrition & Health Committee. “One of the best things about this program is that it addresses a cutting-edge issue in accordance with each state’s needs.”

The topics range from childhood obesity to cancer prevention to moms as Everyday Heroes. The Nutrition Seminar Program reaches nutrition professionals in areas such as wellness and community nutrition.

“This program reinforces the commitment of America’s beef producers to providing health professionals with high quality references and instructional materials,” Zimmerman says. “Families trust dietitians to provide them with quality information.  By speaking to dietitians, we are getting the message out that beef is part of a healthful diet.”