What's in the new guidelines

The new guidelines place a particular emphasis on protein, advising that Americans "prioritize protein at every meal."

Specifically, the guidelines advise adults to consume 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day — 50% to 100% more than what federal health officials previously recommended for people's basic needs.

The guidelines recommend people get protein from animal sources like red meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and dairy and from plant sources like legumes, nuts and seeds, and soy.

In addition, for the first time, the guidelines recommend particular cooking techniques for protein, like baking and roasting, rather than deep-frying.

As for what to eat alongside protein servings, the guidelines also emphasize the importance of fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi for gut health.

They also take a firm stance on added sugars, advising people to avoid sugar-sweetened beverages and limit any other sources of added sugars. The guidelines also recommend that children don't start eating added sugars until they're 10 years old, much later than previous guidelines, which recommended avoiding added sugars until age two.

The guidelines also recommend significantly cutting back on highly processed refined carbohydrates, which are defined as white bread, flour tortillas, and crackers.

They also recommend people prioritize home-cooked meals and avoid packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat meals, or other foods that have added sugars and salt, arguing that the U.S. government for decades has recommended and incentivized "low quality, highly processed foods."

Reaction

"These Guidelines return us to the basics," said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "American households must prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods — protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains — and dramatically reduce highly processed foods. This is how we Make America Healthy Again."

"Thanks to the bold leadership of President Trump, this edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans will reset federal nutrition policy, putting our families and children first as we move towards a healthier nation," said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. "At long last, we are realigning our food system to support American farmers, ranchers, and companies that grow and produce real food. Farmers and ranchers are at the forefront of the solution, and that means more protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains on American dinner tables."

The new guidelines drew mixed reactions from outside experts.

The American Medical Association (AMA) endorsed the guidelines. AMA president Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement that the association "applauds" the guidelines "for spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses. The guidelines affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health."

Other experts were less positive about the guidelines. Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and professor emeritus at New York University, said the new guidelines are "muddled, contradictory, ideological, retro," particularly when it comes to the guidelines' support for animal sources of protein.

"Some months ago, [Agriculture Secretary] Brooke Rollins said these guidelines would no longer reflect leftist ideology," Nestle said. "I could not imagine when they ever did, but then I realized she must mean plants. These guidelines recommend heavily meat-based diets — protein is a euphemism for meat."

Nestle said the problem is that evidence clearly shows that "eating protein from plant sources is healthier than eating it from animal sources."

However, Nestle supported the recommendation to limit highly processed foods.

Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, said that most Americans already eat enough protein, and noted that consuming more protein than you need leads to it turning into fat.

"It's a mistake," Mozaffarian said, warning that the protein recommendation could lead Americans to eat more sugary, highly processed foods and red meat. "Americans are eating more protein not from having more fish and eggs and beans. They're having it by hitting all these energy bars and fortified cereals and protein-fortified water and all these other products which are going to only explode."