The Iowa Academy of Family Physicians annual education conference was Nov. 3 in Des Moines. The Iowa Beef Industry Council sponsored an exhibit and provided family physicians with feeding tips on infant and toddler nutrition.

Also, recipes highlighting beef as a first food were shared with physicians. From all across Iowa, 150 physicians attended the conference.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises meat, including beef, be introduced as an early complementary food in an infant’s diet, to help meet essential nutrients important for rapid growth, and brain and immune system development.

 “The purpose of the beef checkoff’s outreach to health professionals is to provide credentialed health professionals, like family physicians, new science-based information about the nutrition and health benefits of beef,” says Rochelle Gilman, director of nutrition and health promotions for the IBIC. “Family physicians can have a positive influence with beef as a healthful food by making recommendations regarding beef’s role in a healthy diet to patients on a daily basis.”

In addition, physicians were given beef jerky trail mix snack samples to highlight beef jerky as a portable, high-quality protein snack.

The physician conference exhibit was funded by the National Beef Checkoff Program and the Iowa State Beef Checkoff Program. For more information on beef as a first food or feeding tips, visit iabeef.org.

Source: IBIC