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Increasingly, more health professional groups now regard beef as part of the "health solution."
It's an old cartoon that once appeared over almost every copy machine. It shows a roomful of people doubled over in laughter. The caption reads: "You want it when?"
In the early days of the checkoff, the same cartoon might have depicted what happened in the offices of major health professional groups whenever the beef industry called. Only the caption would have read: "You wanna do what?"
Those were the days when the checkoff desperately wanted open dialogue with health professional organizations. It needed to tell its nutrition story. But with each call, those same groups scrutinized beef's motives. It soon became obvious that the beef industry had to prove itself in this arena.
So the checkoff devoted much of its first decade to opening lines of communication with health groups in order to identify and influence the key decision makers. And it looked to science to disprove the rampant misinformation about beef's nutrition.
Checkoff-funded research provided USDA with data to update Handbook 8, the government-produced manual for nutrient content of beef cuts, to more accurately reflect leaner beef of the late 1980s and 1990s. As the checkoff proved the fallacy of making beef recommendations on data more than three decades old, health professionals listened.
Then in the late 1990s landmark research called the parity study caused widespread re-examination of beef's dietary role. Esteemed researchers proved that lean beef can be included in a low-fat diet plan to lower blood cholesterol levels. That finding elevated lean beef to the rank of poultry and fish for dietary recommendations.
Exciting new research may again strongly influence health professional recommendations. It indicates that a fatty acid in beef called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) may prevent many cancers including breast cancer, reduce the risk of heart disease, fight type II diabetes, and enhance the immune system.
Because the checkoff never dealt in supposition, but only in facts supported by science, it built an irreproachable reputation with health professional groups. That reputation led to trust in beef's message. As a result of that trust, the beef industry and groups like the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic
Association today collaborate on many different projects.
It's a win-win situation for both sides. Beef producers have their products associated with credible health messages. In return, health organizations have a solid partner with a message does not vary from year to year. In the following are three recent examples of how the checkoff works with various health groups.
The Council for Women's Nutrition (CWNS)
The beef checkoff created this all-female advisory group specifically to work with health professional groups to promote balanced diets. CWNS comprises leading physicians, dietitians, psychologists and exercise experts. Their credentials make them a powerful and eagerly sought-after speaker's bureau for groups and media wanting to promote good health.
The message is especially well received by the beef industry's target audience-women ages 25 to 54. CWNS tells them that they are "Everyday Heroes." CWNS speakers point out that women often shortchange their health in order to take care of everyone else. CWNS provides solutions by illustrating how foods like beef can keep women from cheating themselves.
CWNS member Dayle Hayes, MS, RD, said: "We are the first health advisory group to focus on women's solutions for those everyday health challenges: low energy, low self-esteem, potential lifestage health compromise and obesity. We believe women need a champion in their everyday health...someone to show them health and happiness are achievable."
Women & Heart Conference
The beef industry, through the Texas Beef Council (TBC), had been involved with this lifesaving program almost every year of its 11-year existence. It teaches women 25 years and up how to prevent heart disease, the No. 1 killer of American women.
Although once well received, this conference didn't keep pace with lifestyle changes. The American Heart Association realized it had to modify its format to attract more of its target audience-women used to the faster-paced schedules of the new century.
The active relationship between the American Heart Association and TBC, built up over years of collaborating on projects and sharing research, went into gear. TBC felt it was important to keep this conference going. It was a credible program that saves women's lives. It also served as a positive venue to illustrate how beef fits heart-healthy diets. And it was targeted to the checkoff's target audience.
With TBC serving as an active partner instead of just a sponsor providing only funding, the groups worked together to generate a new format. The changes generated renewed interest in the program. Overall attendance reached 600 participants. And the working luncheon session, although limited to 300 women, drew 325 persons to hear nutrition solutions from a CWNS expert.
Laura Balla, American Heart Association chairperson for the 2001 Women & Heart Conference, praised suggestions made by TBC in resurrecting the program including incorporation of CWNS.
"CWNS' involvement was crucial in reaching women with a message that a healthy lifestyle is within our reach, no matter how fast and furious our lives may be," Balla said.
Dietitian Programs
The Nutri-Facts program in the early 1980s (back in the days of the voluntary beef checkoff) represented the industry's first attempts at redefining the healthfulness of beef. The focus of these point-of-sale materials was on beef's low calories and high nutrient density.
"Nutri-Facts had a huge impact on professional dietitians," said Belinda Boshell, RD, past president of the Texas Dietetic Association. "Here was an industry that was taking its
message to the retail meat case and to consumers with some of the best nutrition information that professional dietitians had ever seen."
In 2001, the beef checkoff is about to conquer new ground again through nutritional labeling of beef products. Once such labels become commonplace, the beef checkoff can build positive campaigns around beef's major nutrition advantages-zinc, iron and protein. These campaigns will shift consumers' focus from always measuring fat and cholesterol content to seeking the bundle of essential nutrients that beef provides.
The key to getting health professionals to validate the message is to deal always in facts and provide easy-to-understand materials. That's been the hallmark of the checkoff, Boshell said.
"From the beginning, the checkoff has generated materials that are highly professional, easy to understand and free for dietitians to pass on to our clients," Boshell said. "This is also important because some health professionals other than dietitians, with limited course work in nutrition, will not recommend beef in diets if they do not have the science-based information from the checkoff."
Boshell said dietitians also praise the checkoff's continued efforts to keep up with modern lifestyles. An example is the checkoff information on convenient new products now available in virtually every grocery store.
"We're excited about seeing the industry develop and promote heat-and-eat," Boshell said. "We now can recommend high-quality beef products loaded with nutrients that fit modern lifestyles."
The net gain for the beef industry from a decade of checkoff programs in the nutrition field certainly can't always be measurable since much of it deals in change of perceptions and many of the major results are just now happening.
But it is fair to assume that fewer health professionals wonder about beef's motives or question its message because so many reputable health groups work closely with the checkoff. In turn, that has to suggest that consumers are hearing a new vocabulary when discussing diet with their doctors and dietitians. It's a vocabulary that insists beef is part of the "health solution".
Editor's Note--Doug Perkins is
vice president of beef development for the Texas Beef Council
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