Investigating the Effects of Beef Consumption on Cognitive and Brain Health

Understanding the Cognitive and Brain Health Effects of Increasing Beef Consumption in Young Adults

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if eating more beef will lead to better cognition and a healthier brain in younger adults. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does eating more beef lead to higher scores on cognitive tests and better quality of life?
• Does eating more beef lead to better brain function?

Researchers will compare participants in the experimental group (participants who will eat 25 ounces of beef every week during the dietary intervention) to control participants (participants who will eat 5 ounces of beef every week during the dietary intervention).

Participants will:

• Be instructed to prepare and consume ready-to-eat beef meals along with their regular diet and not eat any more beef other than what they are given
• Visit the study facilities once every week to pick up ready-to-eat beef meals; and complete a brief survey every week to track their consumption of the provided beef meals, and a dietary survey every 4 weeks
• Visit the study facilities before and after the 12-week of intervention period for researchers to study them

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Cognitive Ability, General; Dietary Intervention; Dietary Proteins; Dietary Assessment
• Intervention / Treatment: Dietary supplement: Ready-to-eat beef in frozen, 5-oz packages; Dietary supplement: Ready-to-eat beef in frozen, 1-oz packages

Detailed Description

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of beef consumption on cognitive and brain health in healthy younger adults. Specifically, we seek to evaluate the effects of beef consumption on measures of executive function, memory, psychological well-being, and sleep quality. Additionally, we will explore the effects of increased beef consumption on measures of brain health derived from structural and functional brain imaging.

The study will consist of two groups of participants: experimental and control. Participants from both groups will take part in a 12-week dietary intervention. Throughout the intervention, participants in the experimental group will receive 5 portions of ready-to-eat lean beef in frozen packages every week; and consume 5 portions per week. Each serving of ready-to-eat beef for the experimental group will weigh 5-ounces. Participants in the control group will also receive 5 portions of ready-to-eat lean beef in frozen packages every week; and consume 5 portions per week. Each serving of ready-to-eat beef for the control group will weigh 1-ounce. Study compliance will be evaluated through weekly surveys about beef consumption.

In addition, all participants will complete pre- and post-intervention assessments:

• MRI scan, including structural and functional brain imaging
• a comprehensive questionnaire battery evaluating cognitive and psychological measures
• neuropsychological tasks
• a blood draw

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 240
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Aron Barbey, PhD; Phone Number: 402-472-0168; Email: abarbey2@unl.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Douglas Schultz, PhD; Phone Number: 402-472-1843; Email: dschultz14@unl.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Nebraska
    • Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, 68588
      • Recruiting
      • University of Nebraska-Lincoln
      • Principal Investigator: Aron Barbey, PhD
      • Contact: Douglas H Schultz, PhD; Phone Number: 320-444-2948; Email: dschultz14@unl.edu
      • Contact: Aron Barbey, PhD; Phone Number: 402-472-1843; Email: abarbey2@unl.edu
      • Principal Investigator: Douglas H Schultz, PhD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Provision of signed and dated informed consent form
• Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and lifestyle considerations and availability for the duration of the study
• Males and females; Age 19-24
• Willingness to adhere to the ready-to-eat beef intervention regimen
• Lives within 75 miles of Lincoln, NE
• BMI between 18.5 and 39.9
• Not pregnant or nursing
• No history of cognitive or metabolic diseases indicated by diagnosis, including neurodegenerative disease, stroke, Type 1 and 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, kidney disease, and cancer
• No history of eating or anxiety disorders
• Willing to discontinue dietary supplement use throughout the duration of the study, if they are consuming supplement at the time of the registration
• No known contraindication to MRI scans as determined by the MRI screening survey questions

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current use of medications that may affect their responses to dietary intervention, such as amphetamines, antidepressants, anti-diabetic medications, laxatives, antibiotics, statins and diuretics.
• Known intolerance or allergy to beef
• Current use of nicotine products, including vaping
• Previous use of nicotine products, including vaping, within the recent 6 months at the time of pre-screening

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental Group; The experimental group will participate in the 12-week beef dietary intervention study. Participants will be provided with 5 portions of ready-to-eat beef in frozen packages per week, and consume 5 portions per week. Each portion of beef provided to this group will weigh 5 ounces.	Dietary supplement: Ready-to-eat beef in frozen, 5-oz packages; The dietary intervention lasts 12 weeks for each individual. Participants in the experimental group will receive this intervention. Each participant will acquire 5 portions of ready-to eat beef in frozen packages per week, and consume 5 portions per week (1 portion of sirloin cap steak strips, 1 portion of shredded chuck roast, 1 portion of petite shoulder medallions, and 2 portions of ground beef crumbles); each portion of ready-to-eat beef in this intervention will weigh 5 ounces.
Placebo Comparator: Control Group; The control group will participate in the 12-week beef dietary intervention. Participants will be provided with 5 portions of ready-to-eat beef in frozen packages per week, and consume 5 portions per week. Each portion of beef provided to this group will weigh 1 ounce.	Dietary supplement: Ready-to-eat beef in frozen, 1-oz packages; The dietary intervention lasts 12 weeks for each individual. Participants in the control group will receive this intervention. Each participant will acquire 5 portions of ready-to eat beef in frozen packages per week, and consume 5 portions per week (1 portion of sirloin cap steak strips, 1 portion of shredded chuck roast, 1 portion of petite shoulder medallions, and 2 portions of ground beef crumbles); each portion of ready-to-eat beef in this intervention will weigh 1 ounce.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
WAIS-V	Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, verison 5. Comprehensive assessment battery for measuring cognitive abilities	Baseline and after 12 weeks
NIH Toolbox (Dimensional Change Card Sort)	Test for executive function and cognitive flexibility	Baseline and after 12 weeks
NIH Toolbox (Flanker)	test for executive functions: attention and inhibitory control	Baseline and after 12 weeks
NIH Toolbox (List Sorting Working Memory Test)	Test for working memory	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Cognitive Reflection Test	Test to measure the ability to suppress an intuitive wrong answer in favor of a more reflective correct answer	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Short Form-36 Health Survey	self-report measure of health status and quality of life	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Decision Outcome Inventory	an assessment of outcomes of real-life decisions	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index	Self-report assessment of sleep quality over the past month. The survey includes measures related to Sleep Latency, Sleep Duration, Sleep Efficiency, Sleep Disturbances, Use of Sleep Medications, Daytime Fatigue, and Sleep Quality	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Symptom Checklist 90-Revised	self-report assessment of psychological symptoms related to the domains of somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism	Baseline and after 12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brain Imaging	T1- weighted imaging to visualize the structure of the brain; Functional MRI of the whole brain to examine changes in brain activity and functional topology; Diffusion tensor imaging to map the white matter structures in the brain	Baseline and after 12 weeks

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Height	measured in feet and inches	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Weight	measured in pounds (lbs)	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Body Mass Index	Calculated by body mass divided by the square of the body height, unit in kg/m^2	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure	Measured in mmHg	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Body Composition	Body composition will be measured in body fat%	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Grip Strength	Participants will squeeze a hydraulic device three times with their right hand. Grip strength will be obtained by averaging the three measurements, which will be measured in kilograms.	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Blood-based biomarkers associated with consumption of beef	Biomarkers under evaluation include inflammatory biomarkers and nutrient biomarkers in blood from participants	Baseline and after 12 weeks
Heart Rate	Heart rate will be reported as beats per minute.	Baseline and after 12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Nebraska Lincoln
• Collaborators: National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Aron Barbey, PhD, University of Nebraska Lincoln

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Zhang H, Hardie L, Bawajeeh AO, Cade J. Meat Consumption, Cognitive Function and Disorders: A Systematic Review with Narrative Synthesis and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2020 May 24;12(5):1528. doi: 10.3390/nu12051528.
• Hepsomali P, Groeger JA. Diet and general cognitive ability in the UK Biobank dataset. Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 3;11(1):11786. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-91259-3.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 22, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 28, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 13, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): November 15, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 29, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 28, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: cognitive health; brain health; beef consumption; beef dietary intervention
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Physical Phenomena; Thermodynamics; Chemical Phenomena; Temperature; Phase Transition; Cold Temperature; Freezing
• Other Study ID Numbers: 23404

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Study findings will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals such as those that follow the ICMJE's recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. The data collected in this project may be shared through public-use files, repositories or other means outside of the approved research team as a requirement of publication. All data will be identified with subject IDs only when shared. Research records such as informed consent forms, MRI Safety Screening forms, research compliance records, masterlist linking names to subject IDs will not be shared.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: IPD and supporting information will be available beginning 1 year after the publication of results with no end date.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal will be able to access the IPD and supporting information. Researchers are not restricted on the type of analyses, as long as they are methodologically sound. The statistical methods for those analyses must be approved before the researchers can gain access to the data.

For data sharing, a proposal that describes planned analyses must be submitted to the study's contact personnel for review. A data sharing agreement must be signed between the institution of the requesting researchers and the institution of the study's principal investigator.

• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No