Mixed nuts: RFK Jr.’s new nutrition guidelines receive uneven reviews
The Department of Health and Human Services’ updated nutritional guidelines, released Wednesday, are a stark departure from prior food pyramids. The guidelines, spearheaded by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are drawing eyes thanks to their emphasis on protein, specifically red meat and full-fat dairy products. But while the Trump administration says this new food pyramid will lead to a healthier American public, some medical experts are skeptical of the recommendations.
‘Untethered from scientific research’
The government’s new recommendations are basically the complete opposite of the old food pyramid, and the “now-inverted food pyramid prominently features a steak, an entire chicken, and whole milk up top, relegating carbs to the bottom point — minor real estate compared to the portion they occupied before,” said Mother Jones. But these recommendations are “untethered from scientific research” and “seem more aligned with a burgeoning source of dietary advice: hypermasculine influencers.”
The new pyramid was prepared with nutritionists who have “food industry ties,” said Axios, creating a potential conflict of interest. The push for a diet heavy on red meat “also comes at a time of soaring prices for beef and other foods and may be impractical for Americans on tight budgets.” Kennedy has also claimed to be ending the “war” on saturated fats, which health officials have long urged people to limit. But “some questioned how Kennedy could assert this” when the recommendations “maintain advice to limit intake to 10% or less of total calories.”
Despite these criticisms, a “lot of the advice in the pyramid is sound,” said Slate. Additional protein “certainly does help build muscle and strength, and there’s at least some evidence it can aid in weight loss.” But most doctors are “very disappointed in the new pyramid that features red meat and saturated fat sources at the very top, as if that’s something to prioritize. It does go against decades and decades of evidence and research,” said Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University, to NPR.
‘Eating real food’
Despite the clear skepticism from some health experts, others say the new recommendations could help Americans be healthier. The “overall focus on eating real food is great,” since the “majority of our diets come from ultra-processed foods that are linked to an array of chronic diseases,” said Lindsey Smith Taillie, a nutrition epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to PBS NewsHour. So the advice to eat whole foods could be “enormously helpful, both for policymakers and for your everyday consumer.”
Humans “need fat for basic cellular and biological functions in the body — fats, or lipids, are essential for creating cellular membranes, absorbing hormones and vitamins and regulating body temperature,” said Scientific American. And children could benefit from the change, some experts say. The focus on real foods "could have profound effects, because the majority of school lunches are coming from ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat and highly processed sources,” Taillie said to PBS NewsHour. And guidelines for added sugar restrictions, a common cause of obesity, are also “much more strict than previous recommendations.”