Good analysis of possible changes to the Protein recommendations in the US dietary guidelines. Article by the Nutrition Coalition, with charts, long list of references, etc

https://www.nutritioncoalition.us/n...tary-guidelines

A whole new meaning to that old joke, "Your money or your life."

Now, they don't give us a choice.

It would be nice if the dietary guidelines were based only on science and not on politics.

... or profit

It's probably based upon the cost of the government feeding programs. Protein is expensive. Watching the budget.

But the protein they WANT you to eat is beans and legumes - and those are super cheap.

They sure don't want to be paying for the UPF fake meats - those are double the price of real meat.

But yes, I noticed years ago that while they were still putting the number of grams or protein per serving on the Nutrition facts label, suddenly no one was putting the percentage of the daily RDA of protein in the far column.

The information about what the RDA for protein is these days (when I finally found it) was hidden deep within a gov't website, and it seems that 54 g of protein/day is apparently PLENTY for anyone on a 2,000 diet.

Of course if you're getting even that paltry amount of protein from beans, you need to eat a LOT of beans, since for most beans, a cup of cooked beans only provides somewhere between 14 and 16 g of protein. The lowest ones only provide a little over 9 g protein/cup, while the highest one (soybeans) does provide 30 g/cup. (Along with that comes plenty of carbs - but you NEED 300 g/day of carbs, so no problem, right?)

So have your 2 cups of soybeans/day and supposedly you'll be more than good for daily protein consumption.

Better yet -- for them -- they think they can eat their snacks and candy bars with protein. They are adding it to such things in the form of soy protein.

How cheap would it be to eat better, though? That's a barrier I run into about people "improving" their diet, with more expensive snack foods.

They also might not realize the produce is costing as much as the cheaper meats in my area. I can get a tub of salad greens that will go bad in two days OR a chunk of brisket that will feed us for two days.

I think a lot of people look at the tub of greens as doing more for them than the beef. Which is utterly bizarre, but a measure of the amount of money that was available to be poured into this endeavor.

As a side note, I do eat produce, but not much. When we do it's from a local farm. It lasts much longer, and tastes much better, than any grocery store produce.

And we are probably getting a much good from this small portion than others might do with all their efforts with inferior plants. We have seen so much evidence that plants not only carry more risk of contamination these days, we aren't being told what is sprayed on them to retard spoilage.

DH and I think that's how we keep getting tasteless apples that are brown in the middle. The only thing I get at a grocery store these days are berries, which I freeze myself. They aren't messed with, and go bad fast in the fridge.

Kudos to Nina Teicholz for STILL trying to improve the evidence for the Dietary Guidelines. From the time they ask for nominations for who would selected to the Expert Committee (this year has more blatantly plant-based "experts" than ever), to the questions they select from all those suggested by the public, the research reviewed (where did all the low carb papers go?)…it’s a broken system not worth the effort. I donate to the Nutrition Coalition so they can do the hard, and ultimately very frustrating, work.

This is where the "plant based is better for you than any animal products" line of thought comes into play.

Your brisket may feed you for 2 days, but what they see as the real cost of that brisket is not just the price and how long it keeps/feeds you. They're looking at the saturated fats/cholesterol content, believing that to be a serious overall health cost (no matter how good they might feel on it), and that is what they worry about.

So they opt for the pre-fab snack foods that have claim to be high protein, when in fact they have just a few g of protein from soy.

I personally feel better on beef than most anything else (dark chicken meat, whole milk yogurt, and cheese are tied for 2nd place), although I do eat produce too.

Yes, that's where I go for satisfaction, though I'm avoiding chicken. It's so hard to get good quality around here.

I always buy the big family packs of chicken parts at Aldi since I found out that Aldi has a contract with one of chicken companies that buys the grain we produce - I had known this since I received information announcing the contract with Aldi a year or two ago, but it was confirmed when I started seeing that company's name on the crates when they were restocking the shelves at Aldi. (yes, it's grain fed chicken - but at least the grains we grow are going to produce meat, rather than to make junky snack foods or refined to make "plant based protein")

Not all of Aldi's chicken is from that company - if you ever happen to be there when they bring out the shipment of meats and start unloading the cardboard crates to restock the shelves, there will be several different brand names on the crates, depending on exactly what type of chicken and how it's packed, since they have lots of different cuts and sizes of packages.

Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago, I saw some vac-packed multi-packets of chicken that were a little cheaper per pound. I knew it was from a different company (the name was actually on the packages, but I can't recall what it was). It was a little cheaper than the ones I usually buy, so I decided to give it a try.

What a disappointment! I don't know what the other company did to that chicken, but it had no flavor at all. I'll stick with the ones I know actually have flavor!

Aldi's grass-fed beef is good. Their humanely raised pork is top notch and cheap. And a great source of thiamine.

And yeah. Something is really wrong with the chicken. But when people put it in batter and cover it with sauce, I am sure most people cannot tell.

However, your experience makes me think this can be a factor in people who a) are new to cooking and b) new to understanding the giant range of quality in their choice of ingredients.

For instance, I got turned off by McD's burgers, plain, because they didn't taste nearly as good as my homemade grassfed ones. While this is a much better choice than the fries, , my taste buds are usually thrilled with my own or locally sourced hamburgers. I got fussier.

Taste has turned into my quality marker, as well. Because if the taste is, not spoiled but "off," I might not be getting what I'm paying for.

And this brings up another issue, which is: Can they tell?

I have one supermarket which has organic rotisserie chicken, and that's the only one I'm getting these days, fresh or cooked. Might be walking over to the farmer's market today, and if they have chicken, I can get it there.

That's where I'm at, because a suspicious softness in the chicken is a sign of just how much their diet might be straying from health on their part, too. We know it matters!

Chicken that squishes instead of shreds. My cats won't eat it either!

And while I have experimented with sous vide, which is a feature of some pre-packed foods I've seen appearing, has a similar problem. Aside from the tenderness issue. It comes in sauce, and when I scrape it all off, the meat shreds, instead of being over-tenderized.

I found one brand that will give me pork without me cooking (because sometimes I just can't) but it does make me crave the real thing. So I think cooking it myself is STILL a leg up. Start with quality is still the best idea, which is why I rely so heavily on whey protein smoothies with Greek yogurt.

I have to FEEL the protein.

"That's where I'm at, because a suspicious softness in the chicken is a sign of just how much their diet might be straying from health on their part, too. We know it matters!

Chicken that squishes instead of shreds. My cats won't eat it either!"


I see this in commercial strains of chickens, and at the young age of up to 8 weeks. Older birds, like 10-12 weeks starts to get stringy.

When I raise old style chickens, not Cornish Cross, the birds mature at 16 plus weeks and the flavor is richer and stringier.

Older chickens, 2-4 yrs old is very rich and the meat is tough.

We look at commercial chicken and farm raised as two different meats for cooking purposes.


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I noticed at university, the meat portions are managed: server at those stations. Other food stations, rice, veggies, drinks, pizza ( whole wheat) is self serve.

My children did not get school lunches. Poor quality. Mostly carbs and sugar.

We need to push back. Growing brains need meat proteins and animal fats.