{"id":401721,"date":"2026-01-11T21:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T21:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/401721\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T21:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T21:03:10","slug":"new-us-dietary-guidelines-urge-less-sugar-more-protein-and-make-a-nod-to-beef-tallow-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/401721\/","title":{"rendered":"New US dietary guidelines urge less sugar, more protein \u2013 and make a nod to beef tallow | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(CNN) \u2014 New US dietary guidelines<\/a> released Wednesday echo past advice, but also include nods to US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement \u2014 urging Americans to prioritize protein and \u201chealthy fats\u201d and limit their consumption of ultraprocessed foods and added sugar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message is clear: Eat real food,\u201d Kennedy said during a White House briefing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The previous guidelines, issued in 2020<\/a>, featured almost 150 pages of extensive advice on how to follow a healthy diet and incorporate healthy foods into Americans\u2019 diets at every age. The new recommendations<\/a> from HHS and the US Department of Agriculture fulfill Kennedy\u2019s promise that they will run only a few pages, but they were to be supplemented with hundreds more pages of research<\/a> and justification<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The latest update includes images of an inverted pyramid that puts meats, cheese and vegetables in the widest part at the top, flipping a longstanding visual<\/a> of the American diet and moving away from the circular MyPlate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officials say that following the guidance \u201ccan help prevent the onset or slow the rate of progression of chronic disease\u201d \u2014 a tentpole topic of the MAHA movement. In addition to advice on protein, sugar and processed foods, they also tell Americans, when adding fats to meals, to \u201cprioritize oils with essential fatty acids, such as olive oil. Other options can include butter or beef tallow,\u201d another favorite<\/a> of Kennedy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The updated guidelines raised questions among some experts who worried they put too much emphasis on red meat and dairy products, but also garnered early approval from some influential voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American Medical Association applauds the Administration\u2019s new Dietary Guidelines for spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses,\u201d AMA President Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, an otolaryngologist\u2014head and neck surgeon, said in a statement. \u201cThe Guidelines affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Heart Association<\/a> said it commends the emphasis on eating more vegetables, fruits and whole grains while limiting consumption of added sugars, refined grains, highly processed foods, saturated fats and sugary drinks. But the association has concerns around the guidelines\u2019 protein recommendations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned that recommendations regarding salt seasoning and red meat consumption could inadvertently lead consumers to exceed recommended limits for sodium and saturated fats, which are primary drivers of cardiovascular disease. While the guidelines highlight whole-fat dairy, the Heart Association encourages consumption of low-fat and fat-free dairy products, which can be beneficial to heart health,\u201d the AHA statement said, urging more research on what protein amounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cPending that research, we encourage consumers to prioritize plant-based proteins, seafood and lean meats and to limit high-fat animal products including red meat, butter, lard and tallow, which are linked to increased cardiovascular risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guidance shapes school meals, the Women, Infants and Children program or WIC and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. Local health departments also will be looking at these updated dietary guidelines closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary benefit of the dietary guidelines is to provide people with a tool that helps them stay on the track to being healthy. We have an obesity epidemic in this country that is causing chronic disease extensively,\u201d said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer at the National Association of County and City Health Officials. \u201cDiet and exercise guidelines help us get people focused on how to stay healthy and avoid chronic conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in the dietary guidelines<\/p>\n

The 2025-30 dietary guidelines focus on more protein intake than has previously been recommended, and the new recommendation is based on body weight: 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram per day, the equivalent of 81.6 to 109 grams for a 150-pound person.<\/p>\n

The updated guidelines favor full-fat dairy with no added sugars, calling for three servings per day for someone on a 2,000-calorie diet.<\/p>\n

They also suggest prioritizing \u201cfiber-rich\u201d whole grain with two to four servings per day and significantly reducing highly processed, refined carbs including white bread, flour tortillas and crackers.<\/p>\n

The guidelines also recommend three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruits per day for a typical 2,000-calorie diet. The guidelines emphasize eating whole foods in their original form but also say, \u201cfrozen, dried, or canned vegetables or fruits with no or very limited added sugars can also be good options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultraprocessed foods are singled out in the new guidelines: \u201cAvoid highly processed packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat, or other foods that are salty or sweet, such as chips, cookies, and candy that have added sugars and sodium (salt). Instead, prioritize nutrient-dense foods and home-prepared meals. When dining out, choose nutrient-dense options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infants should be fed breast milk for the first 6 months, or iron-fortified formula if breast milk is not available, the new guidelines say. Breastfeeding may continue for 2 years or longer, but formula should be stopped after 12 months.<\/p>\n

Added sugars should be avoided in infancy and early childhood, through age 10.<\/p>\n

Alcohol guidance<\/p>\n

The updated guidelines echo the 2020 version by urging \u201cless alcohol for better health,\u201d although they do away with the previous recommendation that men limit their intake to two drinks or less per day and women to one drink or less.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together. In the best case scenario, I don\u2019t think you should drink alcohol, but it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize. And there\u2019s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way,\u201d said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the implication is, don\u2019t have it for breakfast. This should be something done in small amounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

School lunches<\/p>\n

The new dietary guidelines will also affect what children are served in schools since they are required meet federal nutrition standards. Even before the update was announced, the School Nutrition Association raised concerns that meal programs will face challenges if required to further reduce ultraprocessed foods.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny new rules limiting UPFs in schools must ensure meal programs are permitted to serve nutrient-dense, pre-prepared foods,\u201d the association wrote in its new position paper, released Tuesday. \u201cSchools are simply not equipped to scratch prepare all menu items \u2013 more than 93% cited the need for more staff, culinary training, equipment and infrastructure to reduce reliance on UPFs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some 79% of school meal program directors expressed an \u201cextreme need\u201d for more funding to reduce the reliance on ultraprocessed foods and make more meals from scratch, according to the association\u2019s new school nutrition trends report. The share of respondents citing \u201csignificant\u201d challenges with cost, food, labor and equipment all increased compared with last year\u2019s survey.<\/p>\n

The association reiterated its call for Congress to increase funding for school meal programs after the guidelines were unveiled Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool nutrition programs are where the vision of the DGAs becomes reality for the 30 million children eating school meals each day,\u201d Stephanie Dillard, the association\u2019s president, said in a statement. \u201cCongress has a tremendous opportunity to improve the health of America by investing resources to help schools expand scratch cooking, serve more fresh, local foods and further positive momentum in cafeterias.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new guidelines may take years to affect school meals. The US Department of Agriculture must first turn the updated guidelines into breakfast and lunch standards and then give schools time to implement them, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, an association spokesperson.<\/p>\n

As for costs, Kennedy said that he believes the Trump administration can make healthy foods affordable for Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working on an education and information program that will allow American families all over the country to come onto our website and find the healthiest foods at the lowest cost for themselves,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that a cheap meal made of processed food is cheap is an illusion, because you\u2019re paying for it on the back end,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re paying for it with diabetes, with obesity, with illness, and if you internalize that cost of the meal, it would be a tiny fraction of the long-term cost of eating bad food.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018nuance\u2019 of ultraprocessed food<\/p>\n

There are varying degrees to which certain foods are processed, said Dr. David Seres, director of medical nutrition and professor of medicine in the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. He agrees with limiting the consumption of ultraprocessed foods but said he hopes the public understands that there is nuance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat constitutes junk food and how you actually define that can be gradated,\u201d said Seres, who was not involved in the new dietary guidelines. \u201cBut in general, if people want to know what I think they should do, they should eat food that looks as close to what it looked like when it was in the earth on the ground, attached to a plant, or on a hoof or swimming in a sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, previous dietary guidelines recommended low- or fat-free dairy for everyone older than 2, and they recommended that saturated fat intake be less than 10% of daily calories.<\/p>\n

The new guidelines echo only the 10% recommendation, although they also note that \u201cMore high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some studies have found<\/a> that people who eat more dairy have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those with low intakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome saturated fats found in full fat dairy including yogurt, cheese and milk are less inflammatory than other types of animal fat such as beef or beef tallow. But they are higher in calories. Full fat dairy isn\u2019t better than low fat dairy \u2013 it is simply not as dangerous as we once thought. But having full fat dairy can add an additional 200 or more calories each day which increases obesity risks further,\u201d Bethany Doerfler, a registered dietitian from Northwestern Medicine<\/a> in Chicago, said in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 50 years of well-designed nutrition research demonstrates the protective effects of a dietary pattern rich in plants, unsaturated fats and limited in processed animal proteins. This pattern decreases the risk of chronic diseases including obesity, cancer and cardiovascular disease,\u201d Doerfler said. \u201cAdditionally, we need to make access to healthy food a priority. Deciphering definitions and guidelines are important but access to healthy foods remains critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and the most cited nutritionist internationally<\/a>, worries that the updated guidelines will be used to promote high intakes of red meat and dairy products, \u201cwhich will not lead to optimally healthy diets or a healthy planet,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cSugar-sweetened beverages are the most serious problem, and this was ignored\u201d in earlier reports from HHS\u2019s Make America Healthy Again<\/a> Commission, Willett said.<\/p>\n

The new guidelines, however, do recommend against consuming sugary drinks such as sodas, fruit drinks and energy drinks.<\/p>\n

How the guidelines are made<\/p>\n

Every five years, HHS and the USDA update the federal dietary guidelines based on the latest research. The guidelines are often used by medical professionals and policymakers to help determine what students eat in schools, what doctors recommend to their patients and what people can buy with food stamps.<\/p>\n

Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have already pushed states to restrict foods<\/a> regarded as unhealthy from SNAP, although retailers and health experts have questioned whether programs are ready to implement such sweeping changes, especially when data is mixed about whether it will improve diet quality and health.<\/p>\n

Food guidelines were never meant to last forever. The data that any type of medical guidance or scientific review is based on could change as more research is done, and that seems to be why the dietary guidelines shift over time, Seres said.<\/p>\n

For instance, one version of the guidelines could make recommendations based on observational studies that show only associations. But then randomized controlled trials could be conducted to measure cause and effect, and the guidelines could be updated to reflect the new findings.<\/p>\n

Typically, before each new dietary guideline report is issued, a scientific advisory committee<\/a> reviews the latest research and provides its own recommendations to the secretaries of the USDA and HHS to help inform the development of the guidelines.<\/p>\n

But Kennedy has criticized the development process and promised<\/a> a vastly shortened set of recommendations to emphasize whole foods.<\/p>\n

Kennedy has also called the<\/a> US Dietary Guidelines for Americans \u201cantiquated\u201d and said he\u2019s pushing Head Start programs<\/a>, which provide early childhood education and other services to children and families, to switch from low-fat to full-fat dairy<\/a> products, including whole milk.<\/p>\n

In the Trump administration\u2019s Make Our Children Healthy Again report<\/a>, released in September, federal officials noted that \u201cUSDA and HHS will further reform future \u2026 development processes, including structure and members of the advisory committee and scientific review.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willett said he is \u201cseriously concerned\u201d about that reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2025 US Dietary Guidelines scientific advisory committee was carefully selected based on extensive experience and knowledge across many relevant areas and carefully evaluated for conflicts of interest. The review process took approximately three years with many opportunities for public input,\u201d Willett said in an email. He added that \u201cnone of this is happening\u201d under the Trump administration\u2019s process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear a rerun of the CDC vaccine review committee process, which purged those with knowledge and experience in vaccines effectiveness and safety, resulting in states setting up their own vaccine review processes because the CDC recommendations are regarded as no longer trustworthy,\u201d Willett said, referring to the abrupt firing and replacement<\/a> of members of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s vaccine advisory committee and major changes to US vaccine policy that followed.<\/p>\n

The-CNN-Wire<\/p>\n

\u2122 & \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(CNN) \u2014 New US dietary guidelines released Wednesday echo past advice, but also include nods to US Health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[97,6377,3,269,452],"class_list":{"0":"post-401721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-national","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}