A Dietitian's Take on the new 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Admin
4 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

I have been seeing such a flurry of activity all over social media with everyone from all areas of the country and educational backgrounds expressing their heated opinions over the new updated 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Many patients, friends, and family have been asking for my thoughts on the updates, so here we go!

Photo of the food pyramid from the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The Positives

There seems to be overwhelming despair about the guidelines from many health professionals. Some of the changes are controversial and not in line with evidence based guidelines, but I definitely believe there are positives to take from the new guidelines.

A focus on whole foods

This is wonderful! The key to a balanced nutritious diet is one that focuses on whole foods, meaning minimally processed fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products, and whole grains (of course, you do not have to consume all these things if you have any dietary restrictions). In general, pushing for whole foods is always a win!

Increased protein recommendations

They Increased the protein recommendations from a minimum of 0.8 gm/kg body weight to 1.2 gm/kg body weight. This significant increase in protein is already what I recommend for a majority of my patients. As they mentioned, recommendations are dependent on current BMI, exercise levels, and health objectives, including whether or not you are trying to lose fat and/or gain muscle. I also appreciate that they included an upper range for the limit (1.2-1.6 gm/kg/day). Nowadays I see so many people aiming for ridiculously high levels of protein, which are not evidence based and will likely facilitate other essential foods being pushed out of the diet to make room for more protein.

Aggressively discouraging sugar-sweetened beverages

Multiple times throughout the guidelines they stress the importance of hydration (yas), but mention that this should not come from sugar-sweetened beverages. It even says "100% fruit or vegetable juice should be consumed in limited portions or diluted

with water". Which I completely agree with.

In the Limit Highly Processed Foods, Added Sugars, & Refined Carbohydrates section of the guidelines, they said " Avoid sugar-sweetened beverages, such as sodas, fruit drinks, and energy drinks." Truly, these beverages should be avoided, with occasional consumption of course being ok.

I love that they included Tempeh as a recommended food for those following a vegan diet

Tempeh is something that often gets overlooked, but it is a vegan protein and fiber powerhouse! This will help vegans hit their macro and micronutrient goals and is a fabulous option for anyone looking to include more plant based proteins.

The Negatives

The emphasis on Full Fat Dairy

From a quick glance at the new pyramid, you can see there is a big emphasis on foods high in saturated fats. Saturated fats primarily come from animal sources, such as meat and dairy products. A marbled fatty piece of steak is sitting at the base / biggest part of the pyramid, right next to cheese and whole fat milk.

Underneath that layer of the pyramid (in the section where slightly less consumption is encouraged) you can find fish, eggs, olive oil, nuts, and seeds.

The evidence has clearly and aggressively suggested that saturated fat intake should be limited in the diet and unsaturated fats (which come from olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, and fish) should be encouraged, since they are anti-inflammatory fats. Therefore, the pyramid doesn't line up to the current evidence based beliefs around fat intake.

The Guidelines say, "Healthy fats are plentiful in many whole foods, such as meats, poultry, eggs, omega-3–rich seafood, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, olives, and avocados."

They repeatedly encourage specifically (and only) the consumption of full fat dairy and include butter and beef tallow as sources of healthy fats. I know all the cardiologists out there are freaking out.

One extremely confusing piece about the guidelines for fat intake, is although they've reshaped the food pyramid and encouraged full fat dairy repeatedly throughout the document, they've kept the recommended intake for saturated fat the same, at <10% of total daily calories. Despite people already having a challenging time hitting this target, they made recommendations that would make it even less likely for Americans to hit this goal.

Here's the The American Heart Association's stance on the new fat suggestions under the 2025-2030 Guidelines: "we encourage consumers to prioritize plant-based proteins, seafood and lean meats and to limit high-fat animal products including red meat, butter, lard and tallow, which are linked to increased cardiovascular risk"

Why Are We Back to Using A Pyramid?

We already determined that using a food pyramid is not an intuitive way for Americans to understand exactly how much of each food they need in their diet.

ALSO, why are whole grains at the smallest section of the pyramid, when later in the guidelines it is recommended to consume "2–4 servings per day, adjusting as needed based on your individual caloric requirements." Again, this is another example of how using a pyramid in this way is not intuitive to knowing how much you need of each food.

They removed all Useful Alcohol Recommendations

They significantly cut back the alcohol section, only mentioning:

Less alcohol is better overall
Avoid entirely if pregnant, struggling with alcoholism, or if it interacts with your medications

Dr. Oz has expressed in interviews that alcohol is a "social lubricant" which encourages bonding and socializing, which has health benefits of it's own.

I honestly believe that alcohol is not required for socialization. You can meet up for coffee, tea, or a nonalcoholic beverage and no one would care. With the ongoing evidence and literature pointing to alcohol as a leading carcinogen, source of excess calorie intake, and huge hinderance to adequate sleep quality and quantify, this is something that should be mentioned in the guidelines.

The previous 2020-2025 Guidelines encouraged: up to 2 drinks/day for men and up to 1 drink/day for women. I do not see any benefit of removing these from the guidelines, other than facilitating the economy by encouraging more people to go out and spend more money at bars, restaurants, grocery stores, and liquor stores.

In Conclusion

The new 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans comes with both pros and cons and regardless of whether or not you agree, this is something that will now be implemented in state programs and schools.

Use your judgement and ALWAYS rely on the evidence to guide your choices. Even better, work with a dietitian so that you can get the education and support you need to make sustainable evidence based changes you need for better health and improved quality of life! Click HERE to schedule an appointment or contact us HERE with any questions you have after reading our article!