The Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines announced Wednesday were greeted with mixed reviews from nutrition experts, who praised the move to avoid highly processed foods but questioned the guidelines’ focus on more protein consumption.
“There’s good stuff in this and some not-so-good stuff,” said Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, who called the new guidelines “muddled, contradictory, ideological and retro.”
She welcomed the advice to avoid highly processed foods as “one great strength of these recommendations,” but said encouraging a more protein-based diet evoked “the diet of the 1950s.”
“The prioritization of protein makes no sense,” she said. “Most Americans already eat plenty.”
Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute and a professor of nutrition at Tufts University, said encouraging Americans to eat more protein is not evidence-based, but he called the guidelines “overall a positive document.”
Kennedy said the new guidelines, which are updated every five years and inform the menus at schools and military bases, “return us to the basics.”
“My message is clear: Eat real food,” Kennedy said during a White House news conference, declaring what he called “war on added sugar.”
Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon pushed back on the concerns from experts over the government’s suggestion to increase protein consumption, telling MS NOW in a statement, “We have gone back to the basics to provide simplified dietary advice.”
Nixon said the government enlisted “expert reviewers” to help guide the recommendations for the new American food pyramid.
The new guidelines advocate consuming 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.”
They also recommend a diet that includes “full-fat dairy with no added sugars. Dairy is an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.”
FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, who joined Kennedy at Wednesday’s press conference, said, “For decades, we’ve been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural healthy saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak, and ignoring a giant blindspot: refined carbohydrates, added sugar, ultraprocessed foods.”
The new recommendations came two days after the administration, guided by Kennedy’s opposition to many vaccinations, announced it would dramatically reduce the number of vaccinations for babies and children.
The American Medical Association, which last year expressed “deep concern” over Kennedy’s plan to disband the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, applauded the dietary guidelines for “spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses.”
AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, M.D., also pledged to work with Congress to improve food labeling, define ultraprocessed foods and “increase investment in nutrition research.”
The guidelines include suggestions to “eat a variety of colorful, nutrient-dense vegetables and fruits,” and to “eat whole vegetables and fruits in their original form. Wash thoroughly prior to eating raw or cooking.”
The Consumer Brands Association, which represents major food and beverage companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Tyson Foods and Nestle, issued a bland response.
“We look forward to working with the Administration and Congress as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans inform important food and beverage policy,” the association’s senior vice president of product policy Sarah Gallo said in a statement. “American consumers continue to seek a diverse selection of foods and beverages and the makers of America’s trusted household brands provide a wide variety of products to choose from that are affordable, safe and nutritious, along with access to the information consumers need to make informed choices.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.