The Trump administration on Wednesday announced new dietary guidelines that include an inverted food pyramid that puts red meat and full-fat dairy products at the top, along with fruits and vegetables.
“We are ending the war on saturated fat,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a White House press conference this week. “My message is clear: Eat real food.”
The new guidelines encourage research-backed practices such as eating more whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and reducing intake of highly processed foods. But it also offers different guidance than health experts say about consuming large amounts of red meat, whole milk, and cheese.
High intakes of red and processed meat are associated with an increased risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and premature death, said Dr. Frank B. Hu, chair of the department of nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a 2020 Harvard Health Publishing article.
According to the American Heart Association, too much saturated fat in your diet can lead to elevated cholesterol levels, increasing your chances of heart disease and stroke. Full-fat dairy products tend to be high in saturated fat.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are updated every five years. This information is then “used to create school lunch requirements and guidance for hospitals. Other agencies use them to decide what meals and other services are,” Dr. Teresa Huang, a registered dietitian and adjunct professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said at a press conference held by the school on Thursday.
Here’s what health experts have to say about the new guidelines and advice on how consumers should structure their diets going forward.
Consuming only animal protein can increase saturated fat intake and lower fiber content, experts say
Phan and Dr. Deirdre Kay Tobias, an obesity and nutritional epidemiologist affiliated with Harvard University, were members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee that reviewed the scientific evidence to create the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Scientific Report.
“Most of the committee’s recommendations were ignored,” Cristina Palacios, professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Florida International University and a member of the committee, said in an article in The Conversation this week.
Phan and Tobias are adamant about consuming a variety of protein sources, including plant-based proteins, for a balanced diet. There are concerns that if people eat only animal protein, such as beef or dairy products, they may lack certain necessary nutrients and increase their intake of saturated fat.
“Eating protein only from beef, chicken, or eggs each day risks creating a pattern that is very low in fiber overall, because the important nutrients, phytochemicals, and minerals in those foods (or) plants don’t contain fiber,” Professor Tobias said at a Harvard press conference.
“If people follow this and eat more protein from meat sources, they actually put themselves at risk of exceeding the saturated fat limit.”
The 2025 DGA suggests keeping saturated fat intake to less than 10% of daily calories, but that can be difficult if people are getting all their protein from red meat and full-fat dairy products, Tobias explained.
“It is unclear what health benefits are promoted by emphasizing switching to full-fat milk and other dairy products,” Tobias said.
“The same glass of milk has all the protein and nutrients, but more saturated fat and calories than low-fat milk,” she added.
Follow these basics for a healthy diet
Phan and Tobias shared some simple tips for healthier eating that are backed by research they’ve reviewed. Here are some classics:
Focus on whole foods Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables Vary your protein sources to include both animal and plant proteins. A completely plant-based diet is also OK. “It shifts your protein intake a little more evenly throughout the day, rather than the amount of protein you actually eat,” Huang said. Reduce added sugar intake (less than 150 calories per day for men and 100 calories per day for women) Keep sodium intake low (less than 2,300 milligrams per day) Reduce ultra-processed foods Stick to whole grains
They also suggest that you can use the 2020 DGA or the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Scientific Report as a reference.
“I don’t think it’s that difficult to know what’s healthy and what you should eat. And this isn’t a public debate. It’s science,” Tobias said. “The fundamentals of what is healthy and what is not healthy have not changed.”
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