What should you do about RFK Jr.’s new dietary guidelines?

Americans have been confused for decades on what a healthy diet is.

It’s simple. Michael Pollen, author and activist, summed it up in his book “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Pollen further elaborates: avoid products with more than five ingredients or unpronounceable ingredients, shop the periphery of stores, eat meals at tables, pay more for quality, and treat meat as a flavoring rather than the main event.

However, many Americans struggle with what a healthy diet should be and the problem becomes serious for those who are struggling to lose weight.

Although the guidelines have been recommending eating less meat and fat in the past, the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, or DGA, developed under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, say you can eat more meat and drink whole milk.

Fats from animal sources are recommended rather than from seeds.

Fat makes fat. I was able to enroll in the Dean Ornish heart health program, which is a vegan diet with very low fat. I lost 20 pounds without trying.

The new guidelines also recommend eating fewer fruits and vegetables and whole grains, a big error.

On the Ornish diet, I’m eating whole grains, which is increasing substantially the fiber I eat. It helps with digestion, unlike the days I was eating a low-carb diet because I thought it was healthy.

The recommendations on alcohol are weaker. The former guidelines said one glass a day for women and two for men as the limit. The new guidelines say limit, consume less.

One good thing about the new guidelines is that they recommend eating less highly processed food other than meat.

Limiting or avoiding added sugars is also recommended.

Here are comments on the guidelines from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy organization:

While the meat and dairy industries may be excited about the new food pyramid, the American public should not be; the guidance on protein and fats in this DGA is, at best, confusing, and, at worst, harmful to the one in four Americans who are directly impacted by the DGA through federal nutrition programs. In addition to contradictory guidance, the document spreads blatant misinformation that “healthy fats” include butter and beef tallow …

In an unprecedented move, the Secretaries sought out a separate group of nutrition scientists, many with ties to the meat and dairy industries, evading public and transparent processes, to create a new “scientific” report that props up the meat and dairy industries at the expense of human and environmental health and undermines established processes for setting recommended daily allowances for nutrients, like protein, in service of Secretary Kennedy’s predetermined beliefs. Overall, the new DGA completely rejects more than half of the DGAC’s, or Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, recommendations, as outlined by the Departments’ own scientific justification document, released today.

To fill the gap in clear, science-backed advice this administration has created, CSPI and the Center for Biological Diversity have created the Uncompromised DGA – a resource that illustrates what the federal dietary guidance should have looked like if the agencies had adhered to their mandate to publish an evidence-based DGA reflecting the reviews of the 2025 DGAC.

Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, offers this summary of the new dietary guidelines:

Dietary Guidelines: 2020-2025 vs. 2025-2030

_{Recommendations}	_2020-2025	_2025-2030	_Change?

_{Number of pages}	₁₄₉	₁₀
_Calories	_{Measure by weight status}	_{Eat the right amount}	_Same
_Water	_Choose	_Choose	_{Same, but stronger}
_Protein	_{56 g/2000 kcal [based on 0.8 g/kg]}	_{Prioritize at every meal. [84 to 112g/2000 kcal, based on 1.2 -1.6 g/kg]}	_Increase
_Dairy	_{3 cups/day}	_{3 servings}	_Same
_Vegetables	_{2.5 cups/day}	_{3 servings/day}	_Decrease
_Fruits	_{2 cups/day}	_{2 servings/day}	_Decrease
_Fats	_{27 grams/day oils}	_Healthy	_{Prioritize animal sources}
_{Saturated fat}	_{Less than 10% calories}	_{Less than 10% calories}	_Same
_Grains	_{6 ounces, more than 3 whole/day}	_{2-4 servings/day}	_{Decrease, prioritize whole}
_{Processed foods other than meat}	_{Not mentioned}	_{Limit, avoid}	_{Major improvement}
_{Added sugars}	_{Eat less}	_{Limit, avoid}	_Stronger
_Sodium	_{Less than 2300 mg/day}	_{Less than 300 mg/day}	_Same
_Alcohol	_{Less than 2 drinks for men; 1 for women}	_{Limit, consume less}	_Weaker
_{Eat more}	_{Vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, low- or non-fat dairy, lean meats, poultry, seafood, nuts, unsaturated vegetable oils}	_{Animal-source foods, full-fat dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, butter, beef tallow, whole grains}
_{Eat less}	_{Red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains, alcohol}	_{Added sugars, refined grains, chemical additives, fruit and vegetable juices, highly processed foods and beverages, sodium, alcohol}
_{Dietary sustainability}	_{Not mentioned}	_{Not mentioned}	_{Same, alas}