Nutrition Investments: Keeping Beef at the Centre of a Healthy Diet

As conversations around food, health, and nutrition continue to evolve, ensuring beef’s role in a healthy Canadian diet remains well understood is an important part of how levy dollars are put to work. Through Canada Beef’s Nutrition, Health and Wellness Program, import levy investments support evidence-based nutrition communications that protect and strengthen beef’s place at the table.

Evidence-Based Nutrition Communications

This work focuses on how beef compares nutritionally with other protein sources, how science can be used to address persistent myths, and how beef fits into modern eating patterns across different stages of life. At its core, the program is about making sure accurate, credible information is available to those shaping food choices.

Beef’s Nutritional Strengths

Beef offers a nutrient profile that is difficult to replicate. In addition to being a high-quality protein, beef provides key nutrients Canadians commonly fall short on, including iron and zinc in highly absorbable forms. These nutritional strengths matter, particularly as more consumers compare animal- and plant-based proteins without fully understanding the differences in nutrient density and bioavailability.

Addressing Myths with Science

Another important focus of the program is myth-busting. Decades of research show that beef can be part of a heart-healthy, cholesterol-lowering diet, yet outdated or oversimplified claims continue to circulate. Canada Beef’s nutrition work helps ensure public conversations are informed by the full body of scientific evidence rather than headlines or assumptions.

Keeping Beef Relevant in Modern Diets

Nutrition communications also play a role in keeping beef relevant in everyday meals. This includes highlighting the importance of food skills and demonstrating how beef contributes nutritionally at key life stages, from growth and development through to healthy aging. Beef is positioned not as an indulgence, but as a practical, nutrient-dense anchor for balanced meals.

Grounded in Credible Research

All of this work is led by a Registered Dietitian and grounded firmly in science. Facts, data, and peer-reviewed research form the foundation of every message. For example, research shows that people who consume beef more frequently also tend to eat more vegetables and have smaller waist circumferences. Other studies show that red meat contributes a relatively small portion of total calorie intake in Canada, while highly processed foods account for nearly half.

These kinds of insights help reframe the conversation.

Long-Term Value for the Beef Sector

With a strong nutrition story to tell, levy investments in Canada Beef’s Nutrition, Health and Wellness Program help ensure beef continues to be understood as a nutrient-packed, high-quality protein with real benefits. By supporting credible, science-based nutrition communications, levy dollars are helping safeguard beef’s role in healthy diets today and into the future.