More than three-quarters of U.S. consumers viewed meat and poultry as part of a healthy, balanced diet in 2025, up from 64% in 2020, according to an annual survey from food industry groups FMI and the Meat Institute released in March 2026. The survey also found that 45% of consumers are actively trying to prepare more meals containing meat or poultry, while an additional 31% are sometimes doing so.

The survey's release coincided with the industry's Annual Meat Conference in March 2026, where Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared as a featured guest. In February 2026, Kennedy posted on X that the war on protein is over and that beef is back on the menu.

Meat Institute CEO Julie Anna Potts said the data "reinforces meat's clear and irreplaceable role in providing consumers with healthy, convenient, affordable meals." The survey results followed U.S. dietary guidelines unveiled in January 2026 that recommend more protein, especially meat and full-fat dairy. The Meat Institute expressed support for those guidelines.

Some nutrition and medical researchers offered a different view of meat consumption. Tufts University nutritionist Erin Hennessy said that some people, including those who are aging, pregnant, or losing weight through dieting or GLP-1 drugs, need more protein. "Protein intake and health, especially as it relates to an individual, is not a linear relationship, and that's the misperception that people have," Hennessy said.

Dr. Sarah C. Hull, a cardiologist at Yale Medicine who studies diet-related risks of heart disease and cancer, said that saturated fat is common in red meat and contributes to increasing LDL cholesterol levels, hardening blood vessels, and raising the risk of heart attack or stroke. Hull said that all mammalian meat tends to be very inflammatory and that pro-inflammatory compounds in red meat can have downsides, including deleterious interactions with the gut microbiome.

Studies have linked certain cancers and type 2 diabetes risks to heme iron, a form of iron found only in animal tissue that is more easily absorbed than plant-based iron. The Meat Institute argued in a report in 2025 that evidence implicating meat consumption in adverse cardiometabolic outcomes is of low quality, making such links uncertain.