The Trump administration has made significant changes to the federal government’s nutrition recommendations, upending the long-held food pyramid that has helped guide an understanding of a healthy diet. The changes fulfill many of the “Make America Healthy Again” ideas that have been pushed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Experts have accepted some of the changes while warning that others could have negative consequences for Americans’ health.
New dietary guidelines invert the traditional food pyramid
The Trump administration rolled out new nutritional guidelines on Wednesday, with Kennedy holding a press conference at the White House about the recommendations.
“My message is clear: Eat real food,” Kennedy said. The new recommendations include substantially more significant changes than usual for the guidelines, which are updated every five years. The current updates leave some of the previous recommendations in place but make substantial changes to others. The new guidelines essentially invert the traditional food pyramid, recommending consumers eat significantly more protein from meat as well as plant sources such as beans or legumes. Experts contend that Americans typically consumed enough protein under the old guidelines.
The recommendations additionally relax language that previously recommended specific limits to alcohol consumption, an expected change that has already drawn criticism from experts. The new guidelines also shift from recommending low-fat dairy products to full-fat dairy. They also place stricter limits on the amount of added sugar introduced to children’s diets, as well as recommending against certain kinds of processed foods. The recommendations also include cooking with so-called “healthy fats” such as butter and beef tallow, in line with Kennedy’s proclamation of “ending the war on saturated fats.” In a social media post, the Department of Health and Human Services argued that the new inverted food pyramid guidelines “reestablish food — not pharmaceuticals — as the foundation of health and reclaim the food pyramid as a tool for nourishment and education.”
Experts offer mixed opinions on the new changes
These new recommendations are set to have a significant impact across the country, directly shaping the content of food provided at schools, military bases and prisons, as well as food assistance programs. Reactions from health experts to the new guidelines have been mixed. Kennedy has received support for the latest guidelines from the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, two organizations that have vigorously opposed changes made by Kennedy to vaccine policies. Other significant health organizations are more skeptical of the new dietary recommendations. The American Heart Association warns that the guidelines could lead to overconsumption of saturated fats and sodium.
Concerns over the content of the new recommendations come in addition to questions concerning the unusually secretive process by which the guidelines were crafted by a committee of experts handpicked by Kennedy, several of whom have connections to interested industries such as beef, dairy and pork production. Dr. Peter G. Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, reflected these concerns in a statement on the new guidelines. Amid beneficial recommendations, Lurie wrote that the new guidelines also contain “harmful guidance to emphasize animal protein, butter, and full-fat dairy, guidance that undermines both the saturated fat limit and the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s science-based advice to emphasize plant-based proteins to reduce cardiovascular disease risk.” Lurie said that aspects of the new guidelines as beneficial to “the meat and dairy industries, but warned “the guidance on protein and fats in this DGA is, at best, confusing, and, at worst, harmful to the one in four Americans who are directly impacted by the DGA through federal nutrition programs.”
Overall, the new dietary guidance coming from the Trump administration is a mix of well-established recommendations and agenda-driven changes that are misaligned with the opinions of many health experts. While Kennedy has claimed to want to “Make America Healthy Again,” many voices in the health community worry that his new guidelines promote less healthy eating.