![\"Creatine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/creatine-in-a-shaker-bottle-file-image-TPOKMMTYRBF5VBYZGFJ2URS4YQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\nProtein just got a big boost from US health officials.<\/p>\n
The latest federal dietary guidelines tell Americans to “prioritise protein foods at every meal” and advise increasing daily intake \u2013 up to double the amount of previous recommendations.<\/p>\n
“We are ending the war on protein,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a White House post on social media.<\/p>\n
The guidance \u2013 including a new food pyramid \u2013 emphasises red meat, whole milk and other animal sources of protein, while downplaying plant-based offerings.<\/p>\n
But top nutrition experts question the protein push, saying Americans already consume more protein than they need, and there\u2019s no new evidence that people need to drastically ramp up consumption. For many people, eating much more protein could lead to more fat and more cases of diabetes, they say.<\/p>\n
“If you\u2019re actively building muscle with strength or resistance training, more protein can help,” said Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, a Tufts University nutrition expert. “Otherwise, you\u2019re getting enough.”<\/p>\n
Others worry that the dietary advice will accelerate the trend of companies encouraging Americans to embrace extra protein in foods including bars, cereals and snacks \u2013 even water.<\/p>\n
Sales of protein-enriched packaged food will increase at a time “when one of the main messages is \u2018eat real food, eat whole foods,'” said Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University. “I think they\u2019re going to confuse the public in a big way.”<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know about the new protein recommendations:<\/p>\n
What is protein and how much do people need?<\/p>\n
Protein is a macronutrient that is in every cell in the human body. It’s vital for growth and repair of muscle, bone, skin, hair and other organs and tissues. It\u2019s made of building blocks called amino acids, including some that the body doesn\u2019t make and must come from food.<\/p>\n
For decades, the US dietary guidelines and other sources have recommended that people consume 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day. <\/p>\n
The new recommendation advises people to consume 1.2g to 1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight \u2014 up to double the previous advice. The guidance says adults should consume at least 100g of protein per day with half or more coming from animal sources.<\/p>\n
The average adult American man already consumes about 100g of protein a day, or twice the old recommendation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Creatine in a shaker bottle (file image). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
Why did the new dietary guidelines change?<\/p>\n
The previous protein recommendations were calculated to prevent a nutrition deficiency, according to a scientific review published with the new dietary guidelines.<\/p>\n
“It represents the lowest intake that maintains equilibrium in most healthy adults but does not reflect the intake required to maintain optimal muscle mass or metabolic function under all conditions,” the review said.<\/p>\n
The new document relied on evidence from 30 studies that looked at the effects of higher protein diets on weight management and nutrient adequacy.<\/p>\n
It concluded that protein intakes well above the previous guidance “are safe and compatible with good health”. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s the harm of eating more protein?<\/p>\n
Nutrition experts noted that trials focusing on weight reduction aren\u2019t typically used to make dietary recommendations for the general population. And, in a new article published in Journal of the American Medical Association, Mozaffarian said there is little evidence, outside of use for strength or resistance training, that “higher protein builds muscle or provides other health benefits”.<\/p>\n
“In fact, excess dietary protein can be converted to fat by the liver,” Mozaffarian wrote. That can increase the risk of the development of dangerous fat in the abdomen that surrounds vital organs and boost the risk of diabetes, he added.<\/p>\n
Protein in processed foods<\/p>\n
Other nutrition experts said the recommendation to eat more protein could be useful if it helps achieve another key goal of the new guidelines: encouraging people to eat more whole foods and fewer highly processed foods such as packaged snacks and cookies.<\/p>\n
“The main problem with the food supply is the processed carbohydrates,” said Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
But that will be a tall order for consumers faced with a slew of processed packaged foods \u2014 including toaster pastries, cereals and salty snacks \u2014 imbued with the halo of added protein.<\/p>\n
“I think the American public\u2019s gonna go buy more junk food,” Gardner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protein just got a big boost from US health officials. The latest federal dietary guidelines tell Americans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[144,134,111,139,64,556,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-242968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-food-drink","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-north-america","13":"tag-nutrition","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}