{"id":249380,"date":"2026-01-21T05:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/249380\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:36:12","slug":"eat-more-red-meat-and-butter-cut-back-on-breakfast-cereal-the-radical-new-diet-rules-that-turn-decades-of-advice-on-its-head-and-why-we-might-all-have-to-rethink-what-we-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/249380\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat MORE red meat and butter. Cut BACK on breakfast cereal. The radical new diet rules that turn decades of advice on its head – and why we might all have to rethink what we eat"},"content":{"rendered":"

After decades of telling \u00adpeople to shun red meat and fear butter, the US \u00adgovernment has unveiled new guidelines that turn that \u00adconventional nutrition advice on its head.<\/p>\n

From this month, Americans are now being told to eat more full-fat dairy, including beef fat, and much more protein \u2013 with red meat explicitly listed as a \u00adrecommended option.<\/p>\n

This is a sharp break from \u00adofficial dietary advice around the world, including the UK, to limit saturated fat and lower intake of red and processed meat. Indeed, the new accompanying pyramid image places steak front and centre.<\/p>\n

Something the reviewing experts for the new guidance concede could be \u00admisconstrued because a food pyramid \u00advisually represents the recommended \u00adproportions within a diet: the pointed end is for those to eat sparingly, the widest those you should eat the most of.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, carbs \u2013 which the previous guidance said should make up 45 to 65 per cent of daily calorie intake \u2013 are now at the bottom of the new nutrition pyramid, with Americans being told to \u2018significantly reduce\u2019 refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, packaged breakfast options, flour tortillas and crackers.<\/p>\n

\"From <\/p>\n

From this month, Americans are now being told to eat more full-fat dairy and much more protein \u2013 with red meat explicitly listed as a recommended option<\/p>\n

The guidance tells them to eat two to four portions of \u2018fibre-rich wholegrains\u2019 such as oats, brown rice and quinoa a day.<\/p>\n

The new guidance\u2019s catchline is \u2018eat real food\u2019 \u2013 and, for the first time, \u2018highly \u00adprocessed foods\u2019 are explicitly named as a category to avoid entirely. Any \u2018packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat\u2019 foods are out, it says, and \u2018home-prepared meals\u2019 should be prioritised.<\/p>\n

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Agriculture Secretary Brooke \u00adRollins called it \u2018the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy\u2019 in decades.<\/p>\n

The shift is seismic. But is it based on sound science? And will the UK now follow suit?<\/p>\n

The backlash in the US has been fierce. The Centre for Science in the Public Interest, a public health watchdog, slammed the guidelines as \u2018blatant misinformation\u2019, warning that the advice on protein and fats is \u2018confusing\u2019 and \u2018at worst, harmful\u2019. The American Heart Association concurred, \u00adurging consumers to \u2018limit high-fat animal products including red meat, butter, lard and tallow\u2019.<\/p>\n

And while meat and dairy trade bodies were quick to claim the changes as a victory (the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents US dairy processors and brands, for instance, said the new advice sent \u2018a clear and powerful message to Americans: dairy foods belong at the centre of a healthy diet\u2019), packaged-food manufacturers were far quieter (though investors reacted fast, with stocks for companies such as Kraft Heinz and General Mills \u00adinitially down).<\/p>\n

Part of the row is not just what the new pyramid focuses on but what it doesn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

In recent years, a loud \u2018anti-seed oil\u2019 movement in the US has branded common vegetable oils such as sunflower, rapeseed and soybean as toxic \u2018industrial\u2019 fats and blamed them for obesity and heart disease.<\/p>\n

It is a view championed by RFK Jr \u2013 whose department published the new guidance \u2013 and it has seeped into the culture war around food. But even as the new guidance gives the green light to animal fats such as butter and beef tallow (similar to dripping), only olive oil is listed as a \u2018healthy\u2019 fat.<\/p>\n

\u2018There is no mention of seed oils, an anathema to RFK Jr \u2013 \u00adpresumably because corn and soy producers explained their role in the economy,\u2019 says Professor \u00adMarion Nestle, a food policy expert at New York University.<\/p>\n

Should the rest of the world now follow in America\u2019s steps on \u00addietary thinking?<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The new pyramid image of the updated US federal dietary guidelines places steak front and centre<\/p>\n

UK experts have mixed views on this. The new advice has \u2018moved away from the science-\u00adbased guidelines to guidelines that are more populist and, in some cases, not supported by the science\u2019, says Tom Sanders, a \u00adprofessor of nutrition and dietetics at King\u2019s College London, who has pioneered research into how dietary fat affects our cholesterol and heart disease risk.<\/p>\n

RFK Jr claims he is \u2018ending the war on protein\u2019, which baffles experts as they say Americans already eat enough.<\/p>\n

\u2018There is concern about higher intakes of protein in a country that already has far more than adequate intakes of it, the implicit demonisation of vegetable seed oils and the promotion of animal fats, notably butter, lard and beef tallow,\u2019 adds Professor Sanders.<\/p>\n

However, he admits: \u2018There is evidence to support the guidelines calling for people to base their diet on real foods, more fruit, \u00advegetables and wholegrains, as well as for less added salt, sugar and alcohol.\u2019<\/p>\n

At the core of the new guidelines \u2013 and where the controversy lies \u2013 is a fundamentally different understanding of what drives heart disease.<\/p>\n

For decades, the focus has been on lowering \u2018bad\u2019 LDL \u00adcholesterol, linked to eating more saturated fats in dairy and meat. But experts behind the US guidelines say new evidence shows high \u00adcholesterol is not just about the fat in your blood, but how your body responds to sugar and refined carbs.<\/p>\n

\u2018The body\u2019s ability to control blood sugar has been under-\u00adappreciated as a driver of cardiovascular disease,\u2019 says Benjamin Bikman, a professor of cell biology and physiology at Brigham Young University in the US, and one of the scientific review authors who advised on the new guidelines.<\/p>\n

Professor Bikman says that \u2018around 70 per cent of patients with high cholesterol still face substantial risk of heart attack or stroke\u2019 even if on cholesterol-\u00adlowering statins. \u2018That\u2019s a puzzle if we believe cholesterol is the whole story,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

His research, including a 2015 study published in the journal Cardiovascular Diabetology, found that markers of how well your body controls blood sugar often predicted heart attacks and strokes more strongly than \u00adcholesterol levels, particularly in people who are overweight.<\/p>\n

He says refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods spike blood sugar and force the body to produce excessive insulin. The more insulin your body produces, the less your cells respond to it \u2013and over time, these high insulin levels damage blood vessels, \u00adpromote inflammation and cause fat to accumulate around the heart and in the arteries.<\/p>\n

Research in the journal PLoS One in 2014 also found that blood levels of saturated fat are not \u00adsimply a reflection of how much butter or cheese you eat: when people were put on diets high in carbs \u2013 mainly starchy and sugary foods \u2013 their blood markers of \u00adsaturated fat rose.<\/p>\n

\"Even <\/p>\n

Even as the new guidance gives the green light to animal fats such as butter and beef tallow (similar to dripping), only olive oil is listed as a \u2018healthy\u2019 fat<\/p>\n

\u2018By calling for reductions in refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods, the guidelines target the primary dietary \u00addrivers,\u2019 says Professor Bikman.<\/p>\n

Naveed Sattar, a professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, says it\u2019s \u2018good to see\u2019 the advice to cut refined carbs and highly \u00adprocessed foods \u2013 but while this will help people lose weight, improve blood pressure and reduce fat in organs such as the liver, when it comes to lowering cholesterol \u2018the biggest impacts came from cutting trans fat in foods and then \u00adsaturated fats\u2019.<\/p>\n

And Mike Lean, a professor of human nutrition at Glasgow \u00adUniversity, who pioneered the use of low-calorie diets to put type 2 diabetes into remission, concurs, saying the new guidelines risk missing the obvious: that excess weight is at the root of disease, not insulin spikes (caused by carbs and sugar).<\/p>\n

\u2018The guidelines have been influenced by confusing recent publications about insulin spikes which are not the underlying cause of health problems,\u2019 says Professor Lean \u2013 the main driver of poor health is excess body weight and long-term calorie overload.<\/p>\n

He adds: \u2018Higher levels of insulin are mostly to do with people being overweight \u2013 many massively so in the US. They are not addressing the elephant in the room.\u2019<\/p>\n

That elephant is size: more than 70 per cent of US adults are overweight or obese (the UK is not far off that, at around 64 per cent).But perhaps the most eye-\u00adcatching feature of the new guidelines is that they \u00adencourage full-fat dairy \u2013 reversing the previous US advice to go for low-fat or fat-free dairy.<\/p>\n

The NHS Eatwell Guide says: \u2018Go for lower-fat and lower-sugar products where possible, such as semi-skimmed, skimmed or 1 per cent fat milk, reduced-fat cheese or plain low-fat yoghurt.\u2019<\/p>\n

But experts who wrote the \u00adscientific evidence report that underpins the new US guidance argue that saturated fat does not act the same way in every diet.<\/p>\n

Eat it alongside sugar, white bread and ultra-processed foods, and it does harm, they claim. Eat it as part of a diet based on meat, fish, eggs, veg, wholegrains and legumes, and the risk disappears.<\/p>\n

The recommendation is based on several large studies, including the Prospective Urban Rural \u00adEpidemiology study, led by \u00adCambridge University and \u00adpublished in The Lancet in 2018, which tracked more than 136,000 people in 21 countries.<\/p>\n

It found that higher dairy intake \u2013 more than two servings per day \u2013 was associated with a 16 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular death and a 22 per cent lower risk of major cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the study found \u00adsimilar results even when the researchers looked at people eating whole-fat dairy, not just low-fat. (The liver makes saturated fat when we eat lots of sugar and refined starch, which may explain why saturated fat looks more harmful in high-carb, processed diets than in diets built around whole foods.)<\/p>\n

\u2018There is a widespread misconception that eating dairy products is harmful for cardiovascular health, and this study lays that to rest,\u2019 the researchers said.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2020, a major review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that \u00adsaturated fat alone does not determine a food\u2019s health effects.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018There <\/p>\n

\u2018There is evidence to support the guidelines calling for people to base their diet on real foods, more fruit, vegetables and wholegrain,’\u00a0adds Professor Sanders<\/p>\n

Full-fat cheese and yoghurt, for instance, also contain protein, calcium, magnesium and vitamin K (unlike butter, ghee and beef tallow, which are basically \u00adconcentrated fat).<\/p>\n

The research suggests the \u00adnutrients in a food work together to influence how your body \u00adprocesses the fat \u2013 for instance, calcium can bind to fatty acids in the gut, reducing the amount absorbed into the bloodstream, while the protein slows digestion, preventing blood sugar spikes.<\/p>\n

But the new guidelines add \u00adconfusion by recommending keeping saturated fat below 10 per cent of daily calories \u2013 the same limit as before.<\/p>\n

\u2018It will be almost impossible to meet the recommendation of below 10 per cent if Americans replace vegetable oils with animal fats and eat more red meat,\u2019 says Professor Sanders.<\/p>\n

Professor Lean adds: \u2018And \u00adadvising people to use beef tallow for cooking is bonkers and flies in the face of all evidence.<\/p>\n

\u2018Beef tallow is a highly calorific food and packed with long-chain saturated fats [one of the key building blocks of artery plaques over time] that raise the risk of heart disease and diabetes.\u2019<\/p>\n

Professor Sanders agrees that dairy fat is different from beef fat because it contains about 20 per cent medium-chain and short-chain saturated fatty acids that do not raise blood cholesterol levels.<\/p>\n

\u2018However, butter and meat \u00adconsumption raises blood \u00adcholesterol levels more than cheese and milk \u2013 and is also associated with an increased risk of heart disease,\u2019 he says. \u2018High intakes of red meat are also associated with increased risk of cancers of the colon, breast and prostate.\u2019<\/p>\n

He also points out that cardiovascular deaths have fallen five-fold since the 1980s, a period when fat intake dropped from 42 per cent of calories to 35 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u2018Some of this reduction can be attributed to lower fat intake,\u2019 says Professor Sanders.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only the new US rules on fat that are controversial.<\/p>\n

The latest guidelines also set a protein target of 1.2g to 1.6g per kilogram of body weight per day \u2013 substantially higher than the previous 0.8g per kilogram.<\/p>\n

For an 80kg man, 0.8g per kilogram is about 64g of protein a day \u2013 around two chicken breasts. The new target is almost double that: 96g to 128g. (The UK target is about 0.75g of protein per kilogram body weight for adults; roughly 55g a day for men.)<\/p>\n

Professor Stuart Phillips, an expert in dietary protein and muscle health at McMaster University in Canada, says there\u2019s good evidence that higher protein intakes benefit older adults (60 and over), people trying to lose weight and those who exercise regularly. But for the general population, \u2018the evidence for clear additional \u00adbenefit is much weaker\u2019.<\/p>\n

Professor Sanders concurs, \u00adsaying: \u2018There is little evidence to \u00adsupport the higher protein recommendation.\u2019<\/p>\n

Even the experts who advised on the new guidelines are concerned that the focus on protein might encourage people to eat more meat at the expense of other foods, including fibre-rich wholegrains, vegetables, and beans \u2013 especially as the pyramid visual places red meat at the top. While the written guidance still pushes alternative protein sources, including eggs and \u00adlentils, Professor Bikman is \u00adconcerned that \u2018the imagery of the inverted food pyramid \u00adfeaturing steak and butter will confuse people. There\u2019s a risk that the message \u201ceat more protein\u201d could become a licence for excess in some minds.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Professor <\/p>\n

Professor Bikman is concerned that \u2018the imagery of the inverted food pyramid featuring steak and butter will confuse people’<\/p>\n

Dr Ty Beal, a senior scientist at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (an international non-profit foundation) and also involved in advising on the new US guidelines, says the push for more protein makes sense \u2013 but only if it\u2019s from the right foods.<\/p>\n

\u2018Protein is the most satiating macronutrient,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

\u2018As long as protein comes from whole foods, it could help curb excess calorie intake and reduce chronic disease.\u2019 But he, too, fears that some people will take \u2018eat more protein\u2019 to mean \u2018eat more meat\u2019 \u2013 and little else.<\/p>\n

Dr Beal\u2019s other fear is \u2018the food industry developing and marketing highly-processed high-protein foods\u2019. \u2018The guidelines clearly state that protein should come from whole foods, but industry can be very clever,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

This is where all the experts \u00adgenerally align: the urgent need to avoid ultra-processed foods, as expressly spelt out for the first time in the new US guidelines.<\/p>\n

Around 70 per cent of the \u00adaverage American diet is now ultra-processed \u2013 foods made from industrial ingredients, bulked out with additives and engineered to be over-eaten (that figure in the UK is around 57 per cent).<\/p>\n

And large national diet studies consistently show that the more ultra-processed food people eat, the lower the overall nutrient density of their diet tends to be, because ultra-processed calories displace fruit, veg, legumes and wholegrains, which provide key vitamins and minerals.<\/p>\n

But good intentions alone aren\u2019t enough, warns Professor Lean. \u2018Dietary guidelines are no use without matched policies for food production and supply,\u2019 he says. In other words, if whole foods are expensive and fast food is \u00adeverywhere, people can\u2019t follow the advice.<\/p>\n

Will these new guidelines have any impact in the UK?<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said there are no plans to update guidance on saturated fats or protein, adding: \u2018We are also \u00adtaking decisive action to tackle the obesity crisis, including \u00adbanning the sale of energy drinks for under-16s, cracking down on junk food advertising, extending the soft drinks industry levy to sugary milk-based drinks and making it mandatory for shops to meet targets and report on the sale of healthy foods.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr David Unwin, GP specialising in weight loss, says…\u00a0<\/p>\n

Controversial, but it’s transformed our patients’ lives<\/p>\n

Something huge has happened in the US that has thrown the science and practice of nutrition into chaos. And I welcome it.<\/p>\n

The origins were not auspicious. This dietary revolution has come via the Secretary of the US Department of Health, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has also questioned the scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause autism. So it was with some scepticism I heard of his goal to Make America Healthy Again.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt this is urgently needed: more than 70 per cent of adults in the US are overweight or obese and rates of type 2 diabetes and some cancers are rising. (The picture is similarly grim in the UK.)<\/p>\n

\"Dr <\/p>\n

Dr David Unwin, a GP in Southport specialising in diabetes and weight loss<\/p>\n

The US publishes new dietary guidelines every five years, but I wasn\u2019t anticipating the latest would change this situation, as it would require changing what we eat, especially sugar and refined, starchy carbs.<\/p>\n

Yet the old dietary pyramid has now been turned on its head. Previously US guidelines (like the UK\u2019s) advised filling up on starchy staples such as potato, rice, bread and cereal, but now grains and bread are at the bottom.<\/p>\n

The new guidelines also state: \u2018No amount of added sugars or non-nutritive sweeteners is … considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet\u2019. Wow!<\/p>\n

And when announcing all this, RFK Jr said: \u2018For decades, federal incentives have promoted low-quality, highly processed foods and pharmaceutical intervention instead of prevention. This changes today.\u2019<\/p>\n

I never thought I would live to see the day when the US government seemed to be waging war against its own ultra-processed food industry. But that\u2019s how serious things have become.<\/p>\n

These new guidelines align with what we\u2019ve been doing in my practice for type 2 diabetes \u2013 advising a low-carb approach (avoiding foods that raise blood sugar levels while prioritising protein and green veg; i.e. whole foods over highly processed). So far 155 of our patients have used this diet to put their type 2 into remission.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an approach yet to be embraced in the UK guidelines on diabetes or by many healthcare professionals. My hope is that this now finally changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After decades of telling \u00adpeople to shun red meat and fear butter, the US \u00adgovernment has unveiled new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2039,163,85,46,543,6417],"class_list":{"0":"post-249380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-nutrition","13":"tag-rfk-jr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}