The New Dietary Guidelines- What a Mess
- Colleen Woods, MS, RDN, CLC
- 4 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
The new 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) have been released by the USDA and HHS, led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. They state a driving force of these guidelines are:
“Diet-driven chronic disease now disqualifies large numbers of young Americans from military service, undermining national readiness and cutting off a historic pathway to opportunity and upward mobility.”
If curious what they say, or confused by controversy the new Dietary Guidelines have generated recently and want to read a dietitian’s take on them, you can choose the area of interest you want to review using the Table of Contents links below:
What’s Reliable: The Evidence-Based Recommendations You Can Trust
The pros are that the new dietary guidelines still encourage eating more fruits and vegetables, whole grains over white bread and pasta, and breastfeeding for infants until mom and baby mutually desire to stop.
This information has been researched over many years and dietitians agree with it because fruits, vegetables, and whole grains offer fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that support digestion, a healthy heart, and can help prevent diabetes amongst other chronic diseases. Breastmilk has also been scientifically determined to be the most nutritious option for infants.
The DGAs stick with the sodium recommendations for healthy people and maintain that saturated fat should be no more than 10% of calories.
They emphasize limiting ultra-processed foods and added sugar, and now state,
“While previous Dietary Guidelines did not take a hard line against added sugar (especially for children), this guidance… calls on parents to completely avoid added sugar for children aged four and under.”
That would be great if kids didn’t start having added sugars until age 4… but is it realistic? Not even close. However, this point doesn’t need to be argued over science vs practicality. There are bigger issues with the new DGAs.
What the…? Non-Evidenced Based Dietary Guidelines
The new DGAs present confusing information that makes them difficult at best to follow based not just on practical options for families, but simply on math. Let’s look at protein, dairy, fats, sodium, and calories.
Protein
By bringing back the food pyramid that hasn’t been used since 2005 because it wasn’t effective, the USDA has inverted it to put meat and other proteins, dairy, and "healthy fats" at the top alongside fruits and vegetables. (See South Park’s take on this: https://youtube.com/shorts/lgSS0fRoogU?si=1cFpMvmIXUwLL5NM )
While confusing to see on one side meat, dairy, and "healthy" fats and on the otther side fruits and veggies taking up similar amounts of space at the top of the pyramid because it suggests they should be prioritized equally, science over the last 20 years has taught us that half of our plates should be made up of fruits and vegetables, with protein making up about one-quarter. The last quarter would be whole grains, with dairy optional.
The guidelines encourage eating more protein, starting with recommendations usually reserved for individuals with higher protein needs such as athletes, burn victims, those recovering from illness or injury, the aging population, or a combination of these or other conditions.
In other words, instead of using the recommended 0.8-1g of protein per kilogram (kg) of body weight as the starting point, they are now using 1.2 to 1.6g of protein per kg of body weight.
Most Americans already eat enough protein. Now we’re being told to eat more with an emphasis on animal products:
“Consume a variety of protein foods from animal sources, including eggs, poultry, seafood, and red meat, as well as a variety of plant-sourced protein foods, including beans, peas, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds, and soy.”
and
“While previous Dietary Guidelines have demonized protein in favor of carbohydrates, these guidelines reflect gold standard science by prioritizing high quality, nutrient-dense protein foods in every meal. This includes a variety of animal sources, including eggs, poultry, seafood, and red meat, in addition to plant-sourced protein foods such as beans, peas, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds, and soy.”
What happens when too much protein is consumed in the long-term?
It may be stored as fat.
It may cause weight gain.
It may put pressure on the kidneys.
It makes less room for fruits and vegetables.
Its demand goes up and increases carbon emissions if that protein is coming from animal sources. This in turn increases the earth’s and ocean’s temperatures, and our entire ecosystem is disrupted.
Its demand goes up along with an increase in animal abuse practices.
Its demand goes up along with meat factory worker abuses.
I’m not a vegetarian, but there are many, many more health, environmental, and ethical reasons to cut back on meat intake rather than increase it.
Another is that red meat is classified as a probable carcinogen according to the American Cencer Society based on numerous studies.
Red meat is associated with increased heart disease risk due to its saturated fat content and its production of TMAO in the gut microbiome. Some studies also show red meat linked to increased risk of diabetes. (Cleveland Clinic, 2022)
Dairy
The DGAs say about dairy:
“When consuming dairy, include full-fat dairy with no added sugars. Dairy is an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.”
While it is true that dairy is a good source of protein, calcium, and vitamin D, the healthy fats have not been scientifically confirmed. In fact, there is a lot of research on different fat levels of dairy and the results are all over the place.
Some studies suggest full fat dairy is neutral or even beneficial, others say that is true only if the full fat dairy is yogurt and doesn’t hold true for cheese or milk.
Some studies indicate that full fat dairy contributes to higher cholesterol, weight gain, and inflammation.
Some studies indicate only low-fat or non-fat dairy is beneficial.
Because the research is inconclusive, the Dietary Guidelines are misleading and doing a disservice to Americans who choose lower fat dairy.
Additionally, the Dietary Guidelines recommend:
“Dairy serving goals: 3 servings per day as part of a 2,000-calorie dietary pattern, adjusting as needed based on your individual caloric requirements.”
They don’t offer recommendations for those who don’t consume dairy for health, ethical, or personal preference reasons. In fact, people do NOT need dairy in their diets.
Calcium comes from other sources including dark leafy greens, broccoli, fortified orange juice, and tofu.
Vitamin D is harder to get, but can be obtained from the sun, fish sources, mushrooms grown in UV light, but most people require a supplement regardless of whether or not they eat dairy.
And protein of course comes from many plant-based sources like beans, lentils, tofu, nuts, etc.
Healthy Fats
The DGAs claim,
“Healthy fats are plentiful in many whole foods, such as meats, poultry, eggs, omega-3–rich seafood, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, olives, and avocados.
When cooking with or adding fats to meals, prioritize oils with essential fatty acids, such as olive oil. Other options can include butter or beef tallow.”
FACT: Healthy fats are monounsaturated fats found in nuts and nut butters, seeds, avocado, and oils including seed oils, avocado oil, olive oil, and Canola oil.
FACT: Healthy fats are also polyunsaturated fats like omega-3s. We find these in fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel, chia seeds, flaxseed, Canola oil, and walnuts.
FACT: Unhealthy fats are saturated and trans fats found in red meat, beef tallow, lard, skins of chicken and turkey, butter, whole milk, coconut milk and oil, and ultra-processed foods like cakes, cookies, and ice cream.
There is also some saturated fat found in oils and eggs, however these also offer some healthy fats to offer a balance.
As Marion Nestle points out, “The fats recommended as sources of essential fatty acids—olive oil, butter, and beef tallow—have little or no essential linoleic or alpha-linolenic acids. For those, seed oils (not mentioned in these guidelines) are much better sources. The prioritization of animal-based as opposed to plant-based is inconsistent with research on diet and health. USDA Secretary Rollins said these guidelines would no longer reflect leftist ideology. The fact sheet and website make the ideology explicit.”
The DGAs continue,
“In general, saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. Significantly limiting highly processed foods will help meet this goal. More high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.”
They are side-stepping the years and years of research on dietary fats that show saturated fat contributes toward heart disease, a chronic disease the DGAs claim they are trying to reduce.
The math problem with recommending increased fats from animal products and keeping saturated fats under 10% is examined below.
Sodium
As mentioned above, the DGAs continue recommending no more than 2300mg of sodium for the general population, with some highly active individuals needing more “to offset sweat losses.” At the same time, though, the DGAs repeatedly suggest adding salt to food if preferred. For instance:
Under the protein category:
“Consume meat with no or limited added sugars, refined carbohydrates or starches, or chemical additives. If preferred, flavor with salt, spices, and herbs.”
Under the Fruits and Vegetables category, again they state,
“If preferred, flavor with salt, spices, and herbs.”
I like the spices and herbs, as these tend to add health benefits to a meal. However, if Americans are getting the seal of approval to salt their protein, fruits and vegetables again, on top of the natural sodium found in these foods, we may find ourselves adding to the hypertension endemic the US already faces.
About half the of the US adult population has high blood pressure and now we’re seeing a rise in children as well.
While they argue to cut out ultra-processed foods to reduce sodium, without the government doing anything about the food system we currently have that makes those foods more affordable, accessible, appealing, and heavily marketed to Americans, leaving this change up to the individual isn’t likely going to be effective in reducing chronic hypertension in this country.
At a minimum, the recommendations on sodium in the DGAs is confusing. "Limit sodium," but "season with salt if preferred" offers mixed messaging.
Math Doesn’t Add Up
By recommending eating more animal-sourced meat and dairy, maintaining one's current calorie diet (the average American's is 2,000 calories) becomes near impossible. Fat intake automatically increases with higher consumption of full-fat dairy and animal proteins. Fat has 9 calories per gram, versus carbs and protein that have 4 calories per gram.
You also will not be able to keep your saturated fat intake below the recommended 10% of calories.
We have a math problem.
Meanwhile, the DGAs suggest increasing fiber. To increase fiber in your diet, you need to prioritize vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, not meat and dairy.
Another math problem.
Finally, just for kicks, I decided to click on one of the DGAs' reference sources to confirm one of their claims. On page 8 of the The Scientific Foundation for The Dietary Guidelines of America, it says,
“Low quality carbohydrate foods—including added sugars, artificial sweeteners, refined grains, and starches—account for more than 80% of total carbohydrates in U.S. diets. 101”
After finding source 101 in the References, I looked up the journal article they got this claim from. I checked, double and triple checked the results and conclusions of this article and it clearly says in multiple places,
“The estimated percentage of energy from high-quality carbohydrates increased from 7.42% to 8.65% (difference, 1.23%; 95% CI, 0.84%-1.61%; P < .001 for trend), whereas that from low-quality carbohydrates decreased from 45.1% to 41.8% (difference, −3.25%; 95% CI, −3.75% to −2.74%; P < .001 for trend) (Figure 2 and eTable 3).”
This was one random source I decided to fact-check and confirmed that the authors of the DGAs did not in use evidence from scientific journals. They cited journals, but completely changed the results found in at least this one. I’m sure if I fact-checked the 288 other sources cited, there would also be many that were used as a placeholder, but not actually backing up their claims.
I uinderstand why there are math problems. The authors don't know their numbers. They also have science and credibility problems.
Conflicts of Interest
Why would the DGAs recommend more beef tallow, red meat, and dairy? They state:
“We are realigning our food system to support American farmers, ranchers, and companies who grow and produce real food,”
and
“For decades, the Dietary Guidelines favored corporate interests over common sense, science-driven advice to improve the health of Americans. That ends today.”
These two statement seem in conflict with each other.
However, it’s clear their first statement sheds more light on why the DGAs are recommending foods that research has shown to be harmful to human health.
They are letting lobbyists from meat and dairy industries influence the guidelines.
The committee’s membership and disclosures are given on pages ix-xviii of the Scientific Foundation report. https://cdn.realfood.gov/Scientific%20Report.pdf
Two-thirds of the DGAs’ “expert” panel is made up of individuals with financial ties to organizations like:
Global Dairy Platform
Nutricia/Danone
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Texas Beef Council
American Dairy Science Association
National Dairy Council
National Pork Board
California Dairy Innovation Center
Fonterra Limited
California Dairy Research Foundation
Dairy Management Inc
Bottom Line
The Dietary Guidelines were never perfect. They never will be. Nutrition is an imperfect science with many experimental limitations that keep us from ever knowing how specific foods and nutrients affect humans in specific cases, in isolation or eaten as part of a normal diet. There will always be bias and industry influence.
But we had been making progress over the past 75 years.
The new guidelines undo that progress, cherry picking what will best line the pockets of those in charge of the USDA and HHS.
My best advice is to find a dietitian who knows how to read studies and make recommendations based on scientific evidence. To make an appointment with me, schedule it online at www.ZESTNutritionService.com/services
The 2026-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans can be found here:
Their Fact Sheet can be found here: