The Trump administration on Wednesday announced an overhaul of U.S. nutritional guidelines, replacing the old carbohydrate-rich food pyramid with one that prioritizes protein, healthy fats and whole grains.
“Our government declares war on added sugar,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a White House news conference announcing the changes. “We are ending the war on saturated fat.”
“If a foreign adversary tried to destroy the health of our children, cripple our economy, weaken our national security, there would be no better strategy than to get us addicted to ultra-processed foods,” Kennedy said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health publish new federal dietary guidelines every five years.
In it remakeIn what Kennedy described as “the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history,” Americans are encouraged to eat protein-rich foods at every meal, full-fat dairy with no added sugar, and at least three daily servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit.
It explicitly discourages the consumption of processed foods, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates, all of which are associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Federal nutrition standards guide the content of millions of federally funded meals served in schools, hospitals and to active duty service members. They also help determine which foods are included in assistance plans such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Improving American eating habits and the availability of nutritious foods is an issue that has broad bipartisan support and has been a long-standing goal of Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement.
During the press conference, he acknowledged both the American Medical Association. and the American Academy of Pediatrics for collaborating on the new guidelines, two organizations that earlier this week condemned the decision of the administration reduce the number of diseases against which American children are vaccinated.
“The American Medical Association applauds the administration's new Dietary Guidelines for highlighting highly processed foods, sugary drinks and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases,” AMA President Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement.
Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, celebrated the overthrow of “a corrupt food pyramid that has had a short-sighted focus on demonizing natural, healthy saturated fats.”
The current document is more reserved on the matter.
“In general, saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. Significantly limiting highly processed foods will help achieve this goal,” he says. “More high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.”
A Biden-era committee recommended that future versions of federal guidelines emphasize plant-based proteins like peas, beans and lentils over animal-based proteins like meat and eggs. Plant proteins get little mention in the new guidelines, which show meat, fish and chicken at the top of the new inverted pyramid.
A supplemental report released alongside the consumer-friendly guidelines noted that several members of the advisory panel have financial ties to meat and dairy industry groups, including the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn., the National Pork Board and the California Dairy Research Foundation. The links were first reported by Stat News.
Although the new guidelines tell Americans to “avoid sugary drinks” such as soda, fruit drinks and energy drinks, when it comes to alcohol, they only underscore the need to “consume less.”
At the news conference, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medical Services and Medicare, supported the decision to limit alcohol rather than abstain completely.
“Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together,” Oz told reporters. “At best, I don't think you should drink alcohol. But it does give people an excuse to bond and socialize, and there's probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the department will soon finalize a rule that will require the roughly 250,000 retail food stores that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to nearly double the amount of staple foods they must stock.
Beyond that, the document released Wednesday does not address the structural problems that have prevented Americans from following previous directives on healthy eating.
Less than 10% of people in the US follow a diet consistent with federal nutritional guidelines, which “suggests that it is not the [guidelines] That's the problem, if not the ability of the average person to follow them,” wrote the authors of a new report from the nonprofit advocacy group Defend Public Health.
“In reality, challenges to improving the American diet arise from a complicated interplay of social determinants of health, including age, income, race and ethnicity, rural residence, and education,” they wrote.
Trump administration officials said the new food pyramid will help reduce chronic diseases and relieve pressure on the healthcare system in the long term.
Ninety percent of 4.9 billion dollars spent annually Health care in the United States focuses on chronic physical and mental illnesses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense foods are the most effective path to improving health and reducing healthcare costs,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy's comments come as lawmakers are in a heated debate over how to address rising health care costs after political disagreements allowed Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire early in the new year. The expiration of these tax credits has left millions of Americans with higher premium costsand lawmakers argue over how to handle the issue of health care affordability in a heated midterm election year.
As Congress remains divided on the issue, President Trump has signaled that his administration intends to take executive action to reduce health care costs. The president, for example, has said he plans to meet with pharmaceutical companies in the coming weeks to pressure them to lower prescription drug prices.
Kennedy says the new dietary guidelines are also intended to help with costs.
“My message is clear: Eat real food. Nothing matters more for healthcare outcomes, economic productivity, military readiness and fiscal stability,” he said.
