The New Dietary Guidelines: The Good, the Bad, and the Bold

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 just came out last week and boy are they enthusiastic! There are both good and bad changes plus an overabundance of optimism about how these guidelines are going to save Americans from decades of a junk food diet that has rendered us sicker than ever. Guidelines are great. But without policy, practices, and programs that help people eat healthier foods, they most likely won’t have a big impact on our health. In fact, that’s exactly what the guidelines are for – to guide federal food programs to provide good, healthy food. The website is consumer friendly though, and I do like that.

Let’s start with the good:

• Real Food Approach: Whole and “real” foods take center stage in these guidelines. That means ditching the junk food and the overly processed stuff many of us eat a lot of.

• No Mention of Seed Oils: RFK Jr., along with an abundant number of social media heath influencers, has been spreading misinformation about seed oils like canola, sunflower, and corn oils for a long time. RFK’s non-science-based proclamation that seed oils are “poisoning” us is fear mongering at its finest. This will be the topic of a future deep-dive blog where I will explain how they came to fear seed oils and what the good research shows. I was happy to see that they chose not to demonize the seed oils in the guidelines. However, the only cooking oil they recommend is olive oil. The other fats they tell you to cook with are beef tallow and butter. So while the guidelines don't overtly shame seed oils, they don't have a place on the pyramid as they should.

• Whole Fat Dairy Is Good: This made me happy – not just because it’s a science-based recommendation but because I love cheese (and not the low-fat stuff). We’ve talked about this on Good Day Alabama quite a bit. Whole fat dairy foods are high in saturated fat. Saturated fats, in general, can increase cholesterol. But not all saturated fats are alike. As it turns out, the types of saturated fats in dairy foods don’t seem to raise cholesterol or increase your risk of heart disease. We talked about the research on dairy foods that even showed that ice cream is not related to an increased risk of heart disease! That was my most popular segment ever!

• Choose Whole Grains: The guidelines stress eating whole grains, which are great sources of fiber and essential vitamins and minerals.

• Flipped Food Pyramid: This is in both the “good” and the “bad” categories. Remember the food guide pyramid? Well, it’s back but flipped on its tippy top. The foods at the top (widest) are the ones you should get the most of. Fruits and vegetables are there – and that’s good. But red meat and butter? Uh, no.

• Cut Back on Added Sugar: This is not a new recommendation – but it is an important one.

• Protein: The new guideline for how much protein you need is good: 1.2 -1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Note that this recommendation is for kilograms of body, not pounds. You can convert your body weight in pounds to kilograms by dividing it by 2.2. So, a 150-pound person weighs 68 kilograms. Now multiply 68 by 1.2 to 1.6 and you get 82 grams to 109 grams of protein a day. Some social media and fitness influencers recommend 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. That would be 300 grams of protein a day! That’s a ridiculous amount that would be impossible to get from food sources alone! Do protein foods belong at top? I don't think so. Putting them there will likely just lead to more protein packing hysteria on social media.
  

The Bad:

• Flipped Food Pyramid: I put this under the “bad” category because of the promotion of more red meat and butter. Not all red meat is created equal. Processed read meats like bacon and sausage are worse than unprocessed red meat. But I do like the recommendation of eating a variety of protein foods from meats, poultry, and plant foods like soy foods, legumes, and starchy beans. Also, they ditched the pyramid shape years ago because it didn’t help people visualize what a healthy meal looks like. MyPlate was born, now it’s gone.

• Beef Tallow and Butter: They put these in the “healthy fats” category. They don’t belong there. They are not overtly beneficial or overtly harmful. But what the science consistently shows is that when you swap these out for healthy plant fats like olive oil, vegetable oil (including seed oils!), and nut butters, LDL (the bad cholesterol carriers) levels drop.

• Alcohol: The guidelines tell you to “limit” alcohol but don’t give you specific amounts. Nor do they mention the connection of alcohol to some cancers. You’ve probably heard that there is “no safe amount of alcohol”. While that’s technically true – the increased risk at low levels of alcohol is small. Again, this will be the subject of another deep dive blog in the future.

• No Mention of Affordability: We love to talk about healthy eating and make guidelines and recommendations. But, sadly, we don't seem to offer much in the way of guidelines for people on tight budgets. This is an area I would like to explore more in my blogs and on GDA and I welcome your comments on how you are doing it.
  

Well folks, as we enter this new year, we will have a lot to talk about on the health front. I will be starting a separate “sister” blog that covers more controversial topics in public health. There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there. It’s confusing and it’s hard to know what sources to trust. My new blog will help you find those reliable sources and make the best decisions for your health and wellbeing. I will let you know when I have that up and written!

Cheers!

Beth Kitchin PhD RDN