This March we celebrate National Nutrition Month® to raise awareness of dietary and lifestyle choices that support health. The theme “Discover the Power of Nutrition” brings us an opportunity to review and discuss the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, released on January 7, 2026. Every 5 years, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) update these nutrition guidelines to help direct nutrition policy, health care, and community programs like the Home Delivered Meal Program for older adults and the National School Lunch Program. While many have welcomed the focus on whole foods in the new guidelines, critics have jumped on the promotion of animal proteins and full-fat dairy, and how the administration rejected evidence-based recommendations put forth by an independent group of scientists in favor of their own scientific analysis that lacked full transparency.
The new guidelines bring back the pyramid logo which was first introduced in the 90’s, but this time as an upside-down inverted pyramid shifting focus to protein, fats, vegetables, and fruit while reducing the emphasis on grains. Flipping the pyramid is symbolic of what Secretaries Kennedy & Rollins call “the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in our nation’s history.”
The new dietary guidelines emphasize “eat real food” and reiterate some generally agreed upon recommendations built on decades of research, including: eat more vegetables and fruit; choose fiber-rich whole grains over refined grains; and limit added sugars, refined carbohydrates, and highly processed foods. A key message is the avoidance of highly processed packaged and ready-to-eat foods which often have excessive amounts of sodium and added sugar, and include foods like chips, cookies, candy, sodas, fruit drinks, and anything else with artificial flavors, dyes, and preservatives.
The guidelines place stricter limits on added sugars and new limits on non-nutritive sweeteners, noting that “no amount of added sugars or non-nutritive sweeteners is recommended or considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet.” At the very least, meals should have no more than 10 grams (g) of added sugars, a ⅔ cup of yogurt should not exceed 2.5 g of added sugar, and children should avoid added sugars until age 10.
Protein recommendations increased to 1.2-1.6 g per kg body weight, which is 50-100% more than previous recommendations, with emphasis on “prioritizing protein foods at every meal.” While plant-sourced protein foods such as lentils, beans, and soy are mentioned as options, they aren’t easily deciphered on the inverted pyramid and are downplayed in the guidelines while animal-sourced protein foods are accentuated.
Recommendations specific for older adults in the new guidelines are sparse but bring forth the importance of paying attention to protein, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and calcium. Older adults should meet these nutrient needs through whole foods first and consider fortified foods or supplements under medical supervision if needed.
Aspects of the “eat real food” message that have stirred the most controversy include the new promotion of full-fat dairy and red meat, and the designation of butter and beef tallow as healthy fat options, despite established research on the harm in consuming too much saturated fat. The new inverted pyramid includes a fatty steak, cheese, and whole milk in the widest portion of the image, which seems to encourage the consumption of these animal-sourced foods, high in saturated fats, without needed guidance on healthy limits.
While the guidelines maintain the recommendation to limit saturated fats to <10% of calories (22 g of saturated fat), the math doesn’t quite work out if eating full-fat dairy and animal foods for protein. For example, recommendations for an average 2000 calorie per day diet include 3 servings of dairy, 3-4 servings of protein foods, and 4.5 servings of healthy fats. Three servings of full-fat dairy provide about 17 g of saturated fat (5 g in a cup of whole milk, 6 g in ¾ cup of full fat Greek yogurt, 6 g in 1 oz of cheddar cheese), already at 77% of the daily limit. Adding a tablespoon of butter (7 g saturated fat), beef tallow (6 g saturated fat), or a 4 oz broiled sirloin steak (5 g saturated fat) would put you over the limit, and this wouldn’t account for fat from the other foods eaten during the day.
In their introduction letter to the new dietary guidelines, Secretaries Kennedy and Rollins draw attention to the massive chronic disease burden in the U.S. which accounts for 90% of healthcare spending, and which they attribute to poor quality diets and sedentary lifestyles. With more than 70% of American adults considered overweight or obese, and almost a third of adolescents (aged 12-17) having prediabetes, the U.S. faces major cuts to military service eligibility. There is a clear need to transform the Standard American Diet laden with highly processed foods formulated with highly refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excessive sodium, unhealthy fats, and chemical additives.
However, given the ubiquity of highly processed foods in our food environment promoted by a powerful food industry, modern reliance on convenience foods, and limited budgets for food, it is hard to imagine how the recommendation to avoid highly processed foods can be widely adopted by Americans without a massive food system transformation. After all, the government has for decades been subsidizing ingredients for highly processed foods (like corn, soy, and wheat). The guidelines do not offer strategies for implementation in daily life or information about how the government plans to shift commodity foods or hold food corporations accountable. The current USDA food list for commodity foods used in government-sponsored nutrition programs still includes processed chicken and turkey with sodium and preservatives, fruit canned in syrup, and cereals with added sugars. Meanwhile, funding cuts continue to strip the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other community nutrition programs, making it even more difficult for people with low income to access “real food.” In order for the recommendations to be actualized, we need to address issues of economic disparities and healthy food accessibility and prioritize community health in government funding priorities and food industry directions.
