Top White House health officials announced reformed dietary guidelines for Americans through 2030 on Wednesday, promoting a diet rich in protein, dairy, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Marty Makary, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and the Department of Agriculture’s national adviser for nutrition, health, and housing, Dr. Ben Carson, unveiled the guidelines at a White House press briefing in the late morning along with press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Kennedy said in his remarks that the updated food pyramid is “upside down” compared to the old one.
“Today marks a decisive change in federal nutrition policy made possible by President Trump’s leadership and the work of MAHA moms and public health advocates who demanded reform,” Kennedy said.
“These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common-sense goals and gold-standard scientific integrity. These new guidelines will revolutionize our nation’s food culture and make America healthy again,” he added.
Kennedy took aim at “food-like substances” and said the government has long been misleading the American people about diet “to protect corporate profit-taking.”
“For decades, Americans have grown sicker while health care costs have soared. The reason is clear: the hard truth is that our government has been lying to us to protect corporate profit taking, telling us that these food-like substances were beneficial to public health,” he told reporters.
“Federal policy promoted and subsidized highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates and turned a blind eye to the disastrous consequences. Today, the lies stop, and new guidelines recognize that whole nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs,” the secretary continued.
Rollins emphasized the reformed guidelines “encourage households and schools to prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods — that means more protein, more dairy, more healthy fats, more whole grains, more fruits and vegetables, whether they are fresh, frozen, canned, or dried.”
“We are finally putting real food back at the center of the American diet — real food that nourishes the body, restores health, fuels energy, and builds strength,” she added.
Makary slammed the previous food pyramid as “corrupt.”
“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 blind spot: refined carbohydrates, added sugars, ultra-processed food,” he said.
He cited a study finding that six to seven children out of ten are receiving calories via “ultra-processed food.”
“That’s an epidemic. We now have a generation of kids addicted to refined carbohydrates, low in protein,” he stated.
“We have 40 percent of our kids now with a chronic disease. It is not their fault. This is something that is the result of bad advice from the government and a medical establishment that for decades peddled research from a flawed 1960s model,” Makary went on to add.
Oz said the latest dietary guidance will have a major impact on reducing the need for weight-loss drugs.
“The best way to reduce drug spend in America is to not need the drugs in the first place,” Oz told reporters.
“What you’re hearing today with these dietary guideline adjustments are going to be massively effective in not just dropping the need for us to buy these weight loss drugs, but buy these expensive drugs for autoimmune problems,” he added.
Oz went on to report that 30 percent of U.S. healthcare costs are a direct result of obesity.
“Thirty percent of health care costs are directly attributable to obesity… That’s about $300 billion a year for just Medicare,” he said.
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