2001 News Archive
Checkoff Targets Beef`s Nutrition, Health Image -- October 1, 2001
DENVER, Colo. (September 28, 2001) – One of the goals targeted by the beef checkoff program over its 15-year history has been to boost the image of beef as a nutritious and healthy food. Many people believe it has made progress in this direction, including Jay O’Brien, chairman of the industry’s Nutrition & Health Committee and a beef producer from Amarillo, Texas.
“Initially, checkoff-funded research proved what we in the industry already knew – that beef is a nutrient-rich food that provides vitamins, minerals and proteins in a bioavailable form,” said O’Brien. “Next, checkoff dollars were used to provide factual beef information to important thought leaders to whom many consumers look for advice and direction, and to demonstrate that modern beef is higher in essential nutrients and lower in calories, fat and cholesterol than many people realized.
“In the last two years, we have expanded the message directly to the consumer,” said O’Brien. “We are presently targeting moms, with the hope of influencing both them and their children regarding beef. This consumer advertising echoes the messages in the convenience advertising.
“Any work to change nutritional attitudes has to be a long-term project,” O’Brien said. “The thought-influencer and targeted consumer advertising will continue and be expanded until the beef industry recaptures the generation of consumers we lost.”
The national beef checkoff program is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board. The Board contracts with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) to conduct nutrition and health information efforts funded through the program.
Research Points the Way
“Checkoff-funded research has helped us discover new health benefits of beef, changing the way beef is perceived,” said Wade Zimmerman, chairman of the industry’s Health Professional Influencers Subcommittee and a beef producer from Sugar City, Colo. For example, he said, checkoff-funded research on nutrition led USDA to revise its official handbook on the nutrient composition of retail beef cuts to more accurately reflect the modern meat case.
Research also helped the industry respond to consumer preference for lean beef. In 1990, an industry task force issued a report called “War on Fat.” According to the report, the
industry was producing more than two billion pounds of fat that nobody wanted at a cost no one could afford. The task force proposed a Value Based Marketing System that would transmit consumer preferences for taste and leanness throughout the production and marketing chain.
An important research project conducted by the checkoff was the three-year Nutrition Parity Study, concluded in 1997. This was one of the first studies to show that lean beef is equal to chicken/fish when it comes to its effect on blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. The study was conducted at leading institutions and was widely covered in nearly every media market.
Checkoff-funded nutrition research demonstrated that a compound called Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), which is found naturally in beef, has unique medical attributes. CLA may be effective in reducing body fat and increasing the percentage of lean muscle. Continuing studies show the compound also could be effective in reducing the risk of breast cancer, enhancing immune system functioning, and delaying the onset of Type II diabetes.
In other studies, the cognitive development of children was shown to be tied to levels of iron and zinc intake – two minerals contributed to the diet in significant amounts by beef. Lean beef was shown to be a positive addition to the diets of those at increased risk of iron deficiency.
Education and Communication
The checkoff through the years has conducted an ongoing effort to get the most recent nutrition information into the hands of health professionals, news media and consumers:
q Hundreds of thousands of copies of “A Food Guide for the First Five Years” to pediatricians and “A Good Start” to obstetricians;
q A dietitians’ teaching kit to show patients lowfat cooking methods to more than 15,000 dietitians who counsel 15.7 million consumers each year;
q The “Body Culture” program aimed at coaches with a video tape showing the role of beef in a good nutrition program;
q An advisory panel and speakers bureau to cover nutrition, dietetics, animal science, sports medicine and family medicine;
q Exhibits at events sponsored by the American Heart Association, the American Dietetic Association, Society for Nutrition Education, and other organizations to provide direct contact with key influencers.
Providing nutritional information to the media is an important part of the effort, including presentations at major food communicator meetings, and educational tours/seminars for food editors, according to O`Brien. And in order to speak directly to consumers about beef nutrition, the checkoff has funded cookbooks featuring lowfat beef meals and ads for such publications as Parade, Good Housekeeping, and Better Homes & Gardens. O’Brien said educational tours in the early 90s by nationally-known nutrition expert Dr. Paul Saltman and Dr. John Renner, president of the Consumer Health Information Institute, reached more than 23 million consumers. In addition, the industry offers a source for beef health and nutrition news on its www.beefnutrition.org Web site.
Health Influencer Partnerships
The beef industry works with major health organizations to deliver the nutritional message about beef, Zimmerman said. This includes an historic partnership with the American Heart Association in which 1.8 million copies of the industry’s “Nutrition Strategies” brochures were distributed to consumers. The industry partnered with an alliance of food industry, health organizations, and the government to form the Dietary Guidelines Alliance. Other partnerships have been formed with The American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, the American College of Sports Medicine, and Shape Up America!.
In the last few years, checkoff dollars have been used to pull together a team of women’s health experts to help educate moms and health professionals about beef’s role in a healthy diet, said Zimmerman. The Council for Women’s Nutrition Solutions (CWNS) is an all-woman scientific advisory board made up of doctors, dietitians and scientists. They advocate “Everyday Solutions for the Everyday Hero,” a checkoff-funded project highlighting beef as one of those solutions.
Consumer research indicates that consumers feel better about the nutritional benefits of beef than they did several years ago, and that consumer attitudes about beef are improving.
Looking Ahead
Zimmerman said members of the beef industry have declared their commitment to responsible beef promotion in a Statement of Principles Regarding Nutrition and Health that pledges to use “factual, scientifically supported information about beef to help consumers make informed choices about what they eat.”
“Checkoff funds have enabled the beef industry to work in closer partnership with those promoting a healthier America,” he said. “We will continue to seek an improvement in beef’s image in a way that will boost beef demand.”
Health and nutrition programs are funded by beef producers through their checkoff and are produced for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The Cattlemen`s Beef Board`s 110-member board is 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.
Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the National Cattlemen`s Beef Association is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.
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Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the National Cattlemen`s Beef Association is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry