When the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee released its long-awaited and unavoidably controversial recommendations on how our country should eat yesterday, it answered one of the big questions with a yes:  The panel will continue to endorse eating red meat as part of a healthy diet.

As expected after the public months-long debate, even the victor couldn’t claim total victory. The committee still recommended lowered intake of lean red meats, but put in a footnote that a healthy diet can include lean red meats. “Nutrient dense lean meat is a headline, not a footnote,” wrote North American Meat Institute President Barry Carpenter in a press release. NAMI advocated for red meat to at least be treated equally with poultry and pork, rather