This audio is generated automatically. Please let me know if you have any comments.
The Trump administration announced Wednesday Announcement of new dietary guidelines Advise Americans to avoid highly processed packaged foods and prioritize protein.
These guidelines, updated every five years, influence the dietary advice doctors give to patients and shape federal procurement policy for school lunches and some food benefit programs. At a news conference, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the new guidelines “the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history.”
“These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common-sense goals and optimal scientific integrity,” he said.
Changing standards mixes “Make America Healthy Again” rhetoric with long-standing nutritional recommendations. Americans are being advised to cook with beef tallow, limit foods with artificial colors, reduce sugar intake, and prioritize nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables.
In particular, the guidelines also target ultra-processed foods, which have become a major target of the MAHA movement. The advice tells consumers to prepare meals at home and avoid packaged foods that are “salty or sweet, such as chips, cookies and candies with added sugar and sodium.”
Consumers should also “significantly reduce” their intake of highly processed and refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, flour tortillas and crackers. For the first time, the guidelines also include strict limits on added sugars, specifying that they should not exceed 10g per meal.
“Today our government declares war on added sugars,” Kennedy said. “Highly processed foods with additives, added sugars and excessive salt are damaging to your health and should be avoided.”
The updated federal nutrition guidelines represent Kennedy’s most significant opportunity to further push his MAHA agenda on the public stage. The Health Minister has campaigned against ultra-processed foods, artificial dyes and added sugars, saying they are major causes of chronic disease and obesity.
But by starting a war on ultra-processed foods, Kennedy says he’s “ending the war” on saturated fats, which were “erroneously recommended in previous dietary guidelines.” The new framework has been updated to prioritize proteins and saturated fats found in meat, poultry and eggs. We also recommend full-fat dairy products, contrary to previous advice.
The new guidelines highlight the benefits of saturated fat but state that intake should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. “Significantly limiting highly processed foods will help achieve this goal,” the guidelines state.
As an example of the new guidelines, the USDA is bringing back the oft-criticized food pyramid from the 1990s and turning it on its head. The new inverted pyramid structure places protein, dairy, vegetables, and fruit at the top and whole grains at the bottom.
optional captions
Many nutrition and health groups welcomed the guidelines’ emphasis on avoiding highly processed foods and eating vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.
But organizations, including the American Heart Association, have expressed concerns about the scientific basis for the conclusion that high-fat animal products are “associated with increased cardiovascular risk.”
The Center for Science in the Public Interest called the emphasis on animal protein, butter and full-fat dairy “harmful” and “contradictory” and said it ignores much of the advice laid out in draft guidelines prepared by nutrition experts due in late 2024. The draft advice called for eating more plant-based foods at the expense of animal products such as meat and dairy.
