US Flips Food Pyramid To Promote Protein, Cut Added Sugar

The Trump administration released updated nutrition guidelines that bring back a revamped version of the food pyramid, while urging people to eat less sugar and more animal-based protein.

The latest version of the federal Dietary Guidelines fall short of the dramatic overhaul health officials had pledged to undertake. Many of its key tenets, including eating fruits and vegetables and limiting sugar, have been mainstays of nutrition advice for years, though it does remove specific cancer warnings tied to drinking alcohol.

Still, they emphasise many of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s key personal nutrition principles, including a protein-heavy diet and a stringent approach to added sugars and processed food.

“Today marks a decisive change in federal nutrition policy” that will revolutionize the nation’s food culture, Kennedy said during a White House briefing. “Today our government declares war on added sugar.”

The overhaul comes with an updated version of the food pyramid, flipping it upside down to emphasise eating more fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and protein and a limited amount of whole grains. It replaces the current MyPlate graphic, which has served to illustrate federal nutrition advice since 2011. The Dietary Guidelines are typically updated every five years by the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.

The Trump administration tapped nine outside nutrition experts to help review scientific evidence for the guidelines, four of whom have ties to the meat or dairy industries. The result was largely seen as a victory for those industries, and a blow to packaged food.

A USDA spokesperson said that “all reviews underwent internal quality checks to ensure accuracy, coherence, and methodological consistency.”

Shares of packaged food companies, including Conagra Brands Inc., General Mills Inc. and Kraft Heinz Co., declined in New York trading.

The new guidelines recommend that people consume no added sugars, if possible, and no more than 10 grams per meal, while also upping their daily intake of protein. They urge Americans to aim for 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, up from the current recommended daily allowance of 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.

They also emphasise “healthy fats,” including full-fat dairy, and suggest cooking with olive oil, butter or beef tallow, a favorite of Kennedy and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement. That marks a departure from the previous recommendation to cook with vegetable oil instead of fats like butter and lard that have higher levels of saturated fat.

Last year, a scientific advisory panel urged the government to emphasize plant-based proteins instead of those higher in saturated fats — advice the administration did not take.

"We are ending the war on saturated fats," Kennedy said, though the guidelines do not change the existing limits, which encourage people to consume no more than 10% of their daily calories from saturated fat.

Some experts said it was hard to see how people could eat more animal protein while staying within those limits.

"They wanted to have their saturated fat limit and eat it too," said Grace Chamberlin, a policy associate focused on the dietary guidelines at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Many nutritionists have said diets higher in saturated fat tend to be linked to elevated risks of cardiovascular disease. Saturated fats are found in animal-based foods, including all kinds of meat and full-fat dairy products, as well as some baked and fried foods.

Darin Parker, president of meat distributor PMI Foods, said he expected the new guidelines would encourage Americans to buy more meat.

When guidelines lean into "red meat or just proteins in general, which our bodies are made to consume, there’s definitely going to be a rise in the demand for these products," he said.

The new guidelines address highly processed food for the first time, urging Americans to limit their consumption. Unlike the administration’s changes to childhood vaccine guidance, many of the new food recommendations align with traditional nutrition advice, aside from saturated fat.

The president of the American Medical Association said the group applauded the change for "spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses."

The dietary guidelines shape what nearly 30 million children eat in school and influence what millions more consume through federal nutrition programs, including food stamps. They also are a foundation for the advice that doctors and dietitians dole out to patients, though most Americans fall short of meeting the standard.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said USDA would be working to align school meals and other federal programs with the new guidelines, but didn’t provide details on what changes would occur.

The new Dietary Guidelines drop the previous recommendation that men consume no more than two alcoholic drinks per day, and one for women, instead urging people to “consume less alcohol.” They don’t give any specific warnings.

Former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has said that alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer and called for warning labels on alcoholic drinks.

"Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together," Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said. "In the best case scenario, I don’t think you should drink alcohol, but it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialise."