New Dietary Guidelines for Americans endorse embracing whole foods and limiting highly processed foods, added sugars and artificial additives, ending a nearly 50-year emphasis on low-fat and high-carbohydrate diets that many experts say lacks evidence and drives disease.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced at the White House Wednesday the finalized revamped dietary guidelines, which can be viewed through a new splashy website: realfood.gov.
Screenshot/USDA
Ending childhood chronic disease has been a priority of the Make America Healthy Again wing of President Donald Trump’s political coalition since Day One of his second term, Kennedy and Rollins said. The administration estimates one in three adolescents have prediabetes.
The food pyramid informs the public about the latest nutritional science and shapes the meals served in federal food programs, schools, universities, hospitals, long-term care facilities and prisons. The new pyramid emphasizes the consumption of protein at every meal, 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, and two servings of whole fruits and three servings of whole vegetables per day.
A 90-page report outlines the scientific evidence base for the changes, along with a 418-page appendix.
The food pyramid advocates whole grains with fiber, two to four servings per day, while recommending against refined carbohydrates.
The new pyramid endorses incorporating healthy fats from meats, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, olives and avocados into a healthy daily diet. The new website states that healthy fats from natural sources can encourage vitamin absorption and brain and hormone health. That marks a departure from dietary guidelines in place since 1980 hammering saturated fats, stoking increased consumption of industrial seed oils.
The theory that saturated fat causes heart disease dates back decades to President Dwight Eisenhower’s heart attack in 1955, which raised public awareness of heart disease. Ancel Keys, an advisor to Eisenhower’s personal doctor, launched the Seven Countries Study in 1957, finding by 1975 a strong correlation between saturated fat and heart disease. The study has been cited 1 million times. The U.S. government formally incorporated Keys’ findings into federal nutrition policy in 1980 with a food pyramid that emphasized grains as its sturdy base and deemphasized sources of saturated fat like meat.
But in the years since, critics have accused Keys of cherry-picking data in order to support his pet hypothesis, including studying diets on the island of Crete during Lent, when meat consumption was artificially low. A reanalysis of the data in 1989 found a stronger correlation between heart disease and sugary foods.
The American Heart Association, which was a prominent supporter of the food pyramid with grains at its base, gave the revamped pyramid a positive but tepid reception.
“We 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,” the group stated. “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.”
Critics of the group’s recommendations have scrutinized its ties to corporate sponsors, while the group has downplayed the significance of those ties on its advocacy.
The new pyramid now hews more closely to nation’s first recommended daily dietary allowances in 1943, which recommended a balanced diet of whole foods.
Source: The National Archives
On the issue of calorie overconsumption, the new guidelines state people should eat the right amount based on age, sex, size, and activity level. They also include notes on consuming fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and miso to improve gut health and limiting salt intake.
The new guidelines advise limiting alcohol consumption but do not recommend total elimination. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Administrator Mehmet Oz defended the inclusion of alcohol in the guidelines because of its utility as a social lubricant and the salutary effects of socialization.
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