The new 2025 to 2030 dietary guidelines have just dropped. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins together presented the new guidelines. I was very interested to see what they said because they are a breath of fresh air, and they promised a “historic reset” to combat the chronic disease epidemic that plagues our nation.
The guidelines are short, only 9 pages long. The focus is on eating real food, which is very good. This fact alone should be celebrated and is worth the change on its own. Focusing on eating real food rather than junk food is a win for everybody in America.
But as I took in the guidelines and thought them over, I came up with some serious concerns. There is a decisive win here for their stance against added sugars and altered processed foods. That’s an excellent step.
However, putting meat and full-fat dairy at the top of the upside-down pyramid and putting grains at the bottom will backfire. Are Americans really going to start eating more fruits and veggies based on this pyramid? Or does it just mean that they’re going to eat more burgers, cheese, and fries?
Are these dietary guidelines really a fresh start, or are we just going to find another way to eat badly? Time will tell, but I predict that it will just be another way to eat badly.
In this blog, I’ll compare the new guidelines to the classics: the 1992 Food Pyramid and the MyPlate system introduced in 2011 and still with us since then. Let’s look at the differences, celebrate what has improved, and address our concerns about what remains wrong. We already know of better ways to eat, which I bring up at the end.
A Quick History: From Pyramid to Plate
First, let’s go back to the introduction of the food pyramid in 1992. That took us away from the four food groups that we’d had for a long time. The food pyramid emphasized carbohydrates as a source of energy, with bread, cereals, rice, and pasta at the bottom, then fruits and veggies, then meat, milk, and proteins, and finally at the tip, fats, oils, and sweets to be used sparingly.
Over time, the Food Pyramid has taken a lot of heat because it is claimed that the Food Pyramid made us fat. People started eating a lot of carbohydrates, and the low-fat craze began. Fat was deemed the enemy by the giant food-processing corporations. They created a lot of low-fat snacks, which just gave us a lot of refined carbohydrates. These refined carbohydrates enter the body basically as sugar.
So it was a misinterpretation of the guidelines that really caused a lot of trouble. The misinterpretation was due to the food processing industry, not the guidelines themselves. There was a mistake in here as well because carbohydrates were not separated into refined carbohydrates, whole grain carbohydrates, and intact whole grain carbohydrates.
All three are different from one another, and no distinction was made at the time.
The USDA‘s original food pyramid, from 1992 to 2005
In 2011, the picture moved from a Pyramid to MyPlate, which was a simpler idea that you could just look at your plate and decide how much to put on it. In this image, half the plate is fruits and vegetables, trying to give the idea that people need to eat more fruits and vegetables, at least five servings a day, with at least half of that being whole grains.
The other quarter is proteins: lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, and seeds, with a nod to include plant-based options. Dairy products were on the side as low-fat or fat-free options. The guidelines still limited added sugars to under 10% of calories, saturated fat to less than 10%, and urged people to limit their salt intake.
The MyPlate diagram didn’t call out altered processed foods as a problem. It wasn’t even a word yet. We just called them junk foods. MyPlate has never been quite as iconic as the food pyramid, which has never left the public memory.
Here is the Big Problem
The big problem with our dietary guidelines is that they don’t really help Americans eat and choose foods that actually support their health. They were written with a lot of scientific jargon and did not convey the message well. The new guidelines say, “Better health begins on your plate—not in your medicine cabinet.” So, the simple message is “Eat real food.” Truth is, we haven’t been doing that. And it has never been stated so clearly.
As shown from this figure from the The Scientific Foundation for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, our food produced on our farms mostly goes to the factory, and then it gets manufactured into food substances. Very little of it actually goes straight to our table.
This is shown more clearly in the next figure. In the USA, we have been eating processed and highly processed foods. Both children and adults get about 60-67% of their energy from highly processed foods. You cannot maintain excellent health while getting most of your calories from highly processed foods.
The last major problem is shown in the figure below. While the guidelines have encouraged people to emphasize whole grains, we have not done that. Americans eat about 87% of their carbohydrates as refined grain products.
So the big problem is that the food industry has been providing refined, highly processed foods, and we get the majority of our calories from highly processed food products. Very little of our food comes straight from the farm to the table. That’s the problem—we do not eat real foods anymore in the USA. And the policymakers have been confusing the public about what to eat with their unclear messaging.
The 2025-2030 Reset: What’s in the New Guidelines?
Now, in 2025, we have new guidelines. They’re much more concise than older ones. They’re meant for regular people to read. Check out the 10-page document here.
The new guidelines are designed to be a counterpunch to Big Food and corporate influence on our dietary guidelines. It looks very different. It’s an inverted pyramid with proteins at the wide base at the top, not the bottom.
Protein sources include red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, full-fat dairy, nuts, seeds, and beans. Red meat is prominently displayed, unlike previously. There is a bowl of rice and beans right above the whole grains, which makes me happy. So animal products are definitely being emphasized much more than plant-based protein sources.
The Pyramid has fruits and vegetables on the right side, rolling down to the bottom of the pyramid. Along with the proteins, dairy, and healthy fats, they make up the majority of the pyramid. Only at the narrow tip is there a spot for whole grains.
Refined carbs, added sugars, and ultra-processed foods are not part of the pyramid at all, and we are told to minimize or avoid them altogether. We have been told to “limit them” before or to use them “sparingly”. Now the message is to get rid of them entirely.
The new pyramid directly addresses a problem I showed in the three figures above: Americans getting food from factories, eating mostly processed foods, and consuming only refined carbohydrates, not whole grains.
The Wins: Why These Guidelines Are a Step Forward
The biggest step forward in the new guidelines is the big words at the top: “Eat real food.” If this message gets across to our kids, they will understand. It isn’t that the old guidelines were all about processed food; the messaging was not very clear. This time it is.
My Big Concerns: Misdiagnosis and Maltreatment
Here’s the problem: if we don’t fix what’s actually wrong, we will just get another bad result.
The problem described above is that Americans are eating processed and ultra-processed foods, refined grains, and added sugars. They’re not eating real food. They’re not eating whole grains. And they’re not eating enough fruits and vegetables.
The new Pyramid implies we are not eating enough red meat, full-fat dairy, or protein, and we are eating too much starch. The new Pyramid does not call out the lack of fruits and vegetables in our diets. The new Pyramid does not call out our lack of fiber, and the lack of nutrients that come from fiber-rich foods. This is a misdiagnosis.
Americans are generally not protein-deficient. Will they feel better if they eat more meat and less refined starches and added sugars? Possibly. Will they be healthier? Not really, unless they end up eating less food overall. Eating more red meat will not help people with their gut health. The beneficial bacteria that thrive in your gut to promote health live on fiber; they are not putrefying bacteria that live on red meat.
You could make a case for eating more protein than the 0.8 grams per kilogram of the RDA. Many do. The RDA prevents malnutrition, but it may not be the optimal amount of protein for most adults. However, you can maintain muscle and lean body mass with plant proteins. Steak and dairy products are not required. I wrote about this previously, citing a study showing that 45 grams of soy/pea protein was as effective as 45 grams of whey protein for building muscle mass.
Here is what the scientific advisory board said, in the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee:
“As the Committee considered the evidence, which encompassed multiple life stages, a dietary pattern emerged that was consistently related to beneficial health. This healthy dietary pattern for individuals ages 2 years and older is higher in vegetables, fruits, legumes (i.e., beans, peas, lentils), nuts, whole grains, fish/seafood, and vegetable oils higher in unsaturated fat, and lower in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains, and saturated fat. Some of these healthy dietary patterns also include consumption of fat-free or low-fat dairy and foods lower in sodium, and/or may include plant-based dietary options.”
As David Katz, president of the True Health Initiative, has often said, this is “yet another way to eat badly.” He praises warnings about junk food and ultra-processed foods, but slams the contradictions of trying to limit saturated fats while simultaneously pushing red meat and full-fat dairy. Some things are good, but some of the recommendations are not based on sound science or on the advisory committee’s report.
Better Paths: Mediterranean, DASH, MIND, and Hallelujah Diets
If the new guidelines aren’t the right direction, what does the evidence point to?
The first idea is the Mediterranean Diet, which involves eating more than 7 servings of fruits and veggies a day, whole grains, beans, nuts, olive oil, and moderate amounts of fish, poultry, dairy, and red meat. The vast body of scientific literature points to the benefits of eating this way for cardiovascular health, brain health, and longevity.
Another dietary pattern is called DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). This is similar to the Mediterranean diet but tailored for Americans, focusing on plant foods, whole grains, and lean proteins to reduce blood pressure.
A third beneficial dietary pattern is the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay). It includes berries, greens, nuts, beans, whole grains, and moderate use of animal products and is linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
A fourth pattern is a whole foods plant-based diet. Of course, the Hallelujah Diet is much, much better than what the government is telling you to eat. We emphasize a lot of raw fruits and vegetables, vegetable juice, green smoothies, nuts and seeds, legumes, and a small amount of organic whole grains. Once supplemented appropriately, this diet meets all your needs, even for protein. We have many people’s testimonies of regaining their health using the Hallelujah Diet.
Wrapping Up: Celebrate the Good, Set Your Own Path
The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines are a clarion call for people to eat real foods in language most people can understand. They have put the battle against ultra-processed food front and center, and this is very good. Eating real food would be a positive step forward.
But by overemphasizing red meat and full-fat dairy and neglecting fruits and vegetables, they outline yet another way to eat badly. This is a step backward. Time will tell just how bad a backward step this really is. And maybe eventually we will get it right. But don’t wait for the government to tell you what to eat. Take control of your health now and choose to feed yourself foods that produce health.
