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Americans should eat more whole foods and protein, fewer highly processed foods and less added sugar, according to the latest edition of federal nutrition advice<\/a> released Wednesday by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins issued the 2025-2030 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans<\/a>, which offer updated recommendations for a healthy diet and provide the foundation for federal nutrition programs and policies. They come as Kennedy has for months stressed overhauling the U.S. food supply<\/a> as part of his Make America Healthy Again agenda. <\/p>\n \u201cOur message is clear: Eat real food,\u201d Kennedy told reporters at a White House briefing. <\/p>\n The guidelines emphasize consumption of fresh vegetables, whole grains and dairy products, long advised as part of a healthy eating plan. Officials released a new graphic depicting an inverted version of the long-abandoned food pyramid, with protein, dairy, healthy fats and fruits and vegetables at the top and whole grains at the bottom. <\/p>\n But they also take a new stance on \u201chighly processed\u201d foods, and refined carbohydrates, urging consumers to avoid \u201cpackaged, prepared, ready-to-eat or other foods that are salty or sweet, such as chips, cookies and candy.” That’s a different term for ultraprocessed foods<\/a>, the super-tasty, energy-dense products that make up more than half of the calories<\/a> in the U.S. diet and have been linked to chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. <\/p>\n The new guidance backs away from revoking long-standing advice to limit saturated fats, despite signals from Kennedy and Food and Drug Commissioner Marty Makary that the administration would push for more consumption of animal fats to end the \u201cwar\u201d on saturated fats.<\/p>\n Instead, the document suggests that Americans should choose whole-food sources of saturated fat \u2014 such as meat, whole-fat dairy or avocados \u2014 while continuing to limit saturated fat consumption to no more than 10% of daily calories. The guidance says \u201cother options can include butter or beef tallow,\u201d despite previous recommendations to avoid those fats. <\/p>\n The dietary guidelines, required by law to be updated every five years, provide a template for a healthy diet. But in a country where more than half of adults have a diet-related chronic disease, few Americans actually follow the guidance, research shows. <\/p>\n The new recommendations drew praise from some prominent nutrition and medical experts. <\/p>\n “There should be broad agreement that eating more whole foods and reducing highly processed carbohydrates is a major advance in how we approach diet and health,\u201d said Dr. David Kessler, a former FDA commissioner who has written books about diet and nutrition and has sent a petition to the FDA to remove key ingredients in ultraprocessed foods. <\/p>\n \u201cThe guidelines affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health,\u201d said Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association. <\/p>\n Other experts expressed relief after worrying that the guidelines would go against decades of nutrition evidence linking saturated fat to higher LDL or \u201cbad\u201d cholesterol and heart disease. <\/p>\n \u201cI guess whoever is writing these had to admit that the science hasn’t changed,\u201d said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and food policy expert who advised previous editions of the guidelines. \u201cThey haven’t changed in any fundamental way except for the emphasis on eating whole foods.\u201d<\/p>\n The new document is just 10 pages, upholding Kennedy’s pledge to create a simple, understandable guideline. Previous editions of the dietary guidelines have grown over the years, from a 19-page pamphlet<\/a> in 1980 to the 164-page document<\/a> issued in 2020, which included a four-page executive summary<\/a>. <\/p>\n The guidance will have the most profound effect on the federally funded National School Lunch Program, which is required to follow the guidelines to feed nearly 30 million U.S. children on a typical school day. <\/p>\n The Agriculture Department will have to translate the recommendations into specific requirements for school meals, a process that can take years, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association. The latest school nutrition standards were proposed in 2023 but won’t be fully implemented until 2027, she noted. <\/p>\n The new guidelines skip the advice of a 20-member panel of nutrition experts, who met for nearly two years to review the latest scientific evidence<\/a> on diet and health. <\/p>\n That panel didn\u2019t make recommendations about ultraprocessed food. Although a host of studies have showed links between ultraprocessed foods and poor health outcomes, the nutrition experts had concerns with the quality of the research reviewed and the certainty that those foods, and not other factors, were the cause of the problems.<\/p>\n