The Trump administration released new dietary guidelines for the United States on Wednesday, encouraging Americans to consume fewer ultra-processed foods through guidance aligned with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform.
Key data
The version of the food pyramid presented in the guide includes two levels, as opposed to the four found in the food pyramid popularized in the 1990s, with proteins, dairy, healthy fats, vegetables and fruits on the top level and whole grains on the bottom level.
The US Department of Agriculture encouraged a “dramatic reduction in highly processed foods” in a statement, saying the standard American diet has become dependent on them along with a sedentary lifestyle.
The guide says Americans should consume between 1.2 and 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, a significant increase from the Institute of Medicine’s recommended daily allowance of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
The recommended intake of saturated fat remained at 10% of total daily calories in the guide, which also recommended full-fat dairy products instead of low-fat or fat-free dairy.
American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement that the new guidelines “affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction that patients and doctors can use to improve health.”
USDA Food Pyramid
Crucial ideals
“It’s backwards, many of you will say, but actually it was backwards before and we just fixed it,” Kennedy told reporters Wednesday about the new pyramid.
Review
“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet defined (ultra-processed foods) or required disclosure of information on the front of the package, making it difficult for consumers to even identify these foods,” the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a consumer health advocacy group, stated in an email. “For consumers looking to avoid (ultra-processed foods), the EWG recommends reading ingredient lists and avoiding those that contain artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners.” Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University, told NPR that he was disappointed with the new pyramid, noting that “sources of red meat and saturated fat are at the top, as if it were something to prioritize, contradicting decades and decades of evidence and research.”
large number
61.9 %. That’s the percentage of calories consumed by young people ages one to 18 that come from ultra-processed foods, according to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted between August 2021 and August 2023. Meanwhile, ultra-processed foods accounted for 53% of calories consumed by adults ages 19 and older in that same period.
Key background
Kennedy has advocated eating unprocessed foods, higher amounts of protein, including red meat, and beef butter and tallow, which has high levels of saturated fat, rather than seed oils.
Kennedy’s preference for butter and beef tallow follows concerns about the seed oils’ connection to inflammation and increased disease risk, although the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found no evidence to support the connection. Adern Yu, a dietitian at City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California, told The New York Times that the vitamins in beef tallow are not present at “significant” enough levels to make much of a difference in the health of Americans, noting that beef tallow “is basically just purified fat.”
The American Heart Association has found that saturated fats found in butter, red meat, and other animal foods can raise bad cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease, noting that “saturated fats are just one piece of the puzzle” and that eating “fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is one way to achieve an overall healthy eating pattern.”
This article was originally published on Forbes US
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