What Is The Healthiest Protein? New Dietary Report Points To This

If given a choice between eating chicken or beans for protein, most Americans would likely choose chicken. But a new report is giving beans and other legumes their due. In fact, the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommends elevating legumes to the top of the protein foods list because they provide great health benefits.

In its detailed report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the advisory committee recommended that Americans eat more beans, peas, and lentils as protein sources and reduce their intake of red and processed meats. The advisory committee’s recommendations will assist the two federal departments in developing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2025-2030.

According to the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2020-2025, beans, peas, and lentils are considered both vegetable and protein sources. The committee’s new report, however, recommends removing legumes from the vegetable category and placing them at the top of the protein foods list to promote increased consumption of plant-based protein.

Protein is the primary building block of muscles, bones, and skin. Also, protein-rich foods keep you feeling full, satisfied, and energized.

“What we’re recommending is that the protein section of MyPlate, the government’s food guide on how to eat a healthy diet, start with beans, peas and lentils,” Christopher Gardner, an advisory committee member and a research professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, told CNN.

The USDA’s MyPlate recommends what and how much Americans should eat from each of the five food groups (vegetables, fruits, grains, protein, and dairy) throughout the day.

The committee also recommended moving meat, including lean meat, to the end of the protein list. Gardner explained that the committee discovered that replacing one animal source of saturated fat with another that has less saturated fat, like lean meat, offered little health benefit.
“That has to do with fiber; there’s no fiber in meat,” Gardner told CNN. “When you go from one animal source to beans, peas and lentils or grains and veggies, however, not only do you have less saturated fat, but you also have fiber. And so those results on health were much more compelling.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, fiber is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease, decreased cholesterol levels, and better blood sugar control.

The committee based proposals in its report on published studies that found a link between poor nutrition and the risk of developing chronic health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Besides legumes, there are other food sources that are high in protein and are known to have good health benefits. According to Harvard Health, those include:

Nuts and seeds
Lean meats like chicken and turkey
Fish
Dairy products like milk and yogurt
Soy products

What are legumes?

Legume is the scientific term that describes a type of plant that includes pods, according to the USDA’s MyPlate. Legumes are considered part of the protein food group because their nutritional content is similar to that of meat, poultry, and fish.

Legumes are rich in protein, fiber, B vitamins, iron, folate, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and zinc, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Legumes also contain antioxidants that may help prevent cell damage, the national library reported. Additionally, research indicates that legumes can help lower blood sugar and blood pressure.

According to MyPlate, foods in the legumes subgroups include:

Kidney beans
Pinto beans
White beans
Black beans
Lima beans
Fava beans
Soybeans
Chickpeas
Black-eyed peas
Pigeon peas
Split peas

Also considered legumes are:

Lentils. These low-fat, high-fiber edible seeds grow in pods, like beans and peas.
Edamame. These are young soybeans in the pod and are eaten fresh and not dried.
Peanuts. One would assume peanuts are nuts because of their names. But peanuts are not nuts; they belong to the pea family. These edible seeds grow in pods underground, unlike walnuts and almonds, which grow on trees.

Other committee advisory recommendations

In addition to recommendations involving legumes, the advisory committee’s report proposed that Americans ages 2 years and older:

Consume more vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, fish/seafood, and vegetable oils higher in unsaturated fat.
Cut back on eating red and processed meats, sugary foods and drinks, refined grains, and saturated fat.

The advisory committee could find only “limited” evidence suggesting that ultra-processed foods might contribute to weight gain and obesity in children, adolescents, and adults of all ages. Therefore, the committee did not recommend action regarding ultra-processed foods, leaving that matter to the advisers for the 2030-2035 U.S. Dietary Guidelines.

“The advisory committee’s bottom line is to eat more plants, balance calories, and don’t eat too much sodium, sugar, and saturated fat,” Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, told CNN in an email. “That’s what the guidelines said in 1980 and have said ever since.”

Source Links:

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/a63214419/healthiest-protein/
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/12/health/beans-lentils-nutrition-advice-wellness/index.html
https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/PartE.Chapter 1_Overarching Advice_FINAL_508.pdf
https://www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/protein-foods/beans-peas-lentils