Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on January 7, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Mandel Gunn | AFP | Getty Images
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shared the nation’s new nutritional guidelines Wednesday, advising Americans to eat more “real food” and reduce their intake of highly processed foods and foods with added sugar.
The government’s new food pyramid replaces the MyPlate diagram released under President Barack Obama and focuses on protein, full-fat dairy and vegetables. The most important changes under the updated guidelines include prioritizing protein over carbohydrates, recommending full-fat dairy products over low-fat options, and eliminating processed foods such as white bread, potato chips, and candy.
“Healthy fats” such as full-fat dairy and avocado have also been added to the pyramid, and the guidelines recommend cooking with olive oil, butter and tallow.
“We are ending the war on saturated fat,” President Kennedy said at a White House press briefing on Wednesday.
Similarly, the website announcing the new guidelines declares, “We are ending the protein wars.”
President Kennedy called the new guidelines “the most important reset in the history of federal nutrition policy.”
While his “Make America Healthy Again” policy takes aim at processed foods and sugary drinks, he also pushes for more controversial dietary changes, such as cooking with tallow and increasing intake of red meat, which many public health experts say can lead to disproportionate cardiovascular and other health problems. Kennedy said the core of the MAHA platform is that healthier eating prevents chronic disease.
In response to MAHA’s push, leading food and beverage companies pepsico and JM Smucker It announced plans to phase out synthetic dyes and other artificial ingredients. Although no major policy changes have occurred since President Kennedy’s approval, the industry is concerned about tighter regulations, especially regarding ultra-processed foods.
USDA and HHS issue updated dietary guidelines every five years. Although many Americans may ignore this recommendation, the guidelines are intended as a public health tool to inform health care providers, federal agencies, policy makers, and nutrition experts. Given the broad scope of the guidelines, the food industry is also taking them into account.
Changes in dietary recommendations also impact school lunches and federal nutrition programs. The consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest estimates that one in four Americans would be directly affected by the change in guidelines.
More than a year ago, an advisory panel of health and nutrition experts said, based on a review of scientific evidence, that Americans should eat more plant-based foods and low-fat dairy products and eat less red meat and sugary drinks. But it’s unclear whether the report was used to inform the dietary guidelines released Wednesday by the Departments of Agriculture and Health.
