America’s new dietary guidelines ignore decades of scientific research

That’s partly because they recommend products like red meat, butter and beef tallow – foods that have been linked to cardiovascular disease, and that nutritionists have recommended to people to limit in their diets.

These guidelines are of great importance: they influence, for example, food aid programs and school lunches. So this week, let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly advice being presented to Americans by their government.

Government dietary guidelines have been around since the 1980s. They are updated every five years, in a process that usually involves a team of food scientists who have combed through years of scientific research. That team will first publish its findings in a scientific report and finalize them about a year later Dietary Guidelines for Americans have been published.

The latest guidelines covered the period 2020 to 2025 and new guidelines were expected in the summer of 2025. They had been in the works for years; the scientific report intended to inform them was already published in 2024. But publication of the guidelines was delayed by last year’s Kennedy administration shutdown said last year. They were finally published yesterday.

Nutritionists waited with bated breath. Nutrition science has evolved somewhat over the past five years, and some expected new recommendations. Research now shows, for example, that this is the case not a “safe” level of alcohol consumption.

We’re also starting to learn more about the health risks associated with some ultra-processed foods (although we still don’t have a good understanding of what they might be, or what even counts as “ultra-processed.”) And some scientists expected the new guidelines to play a role in environmental sustainability, says Gabby Headrick, associate director of food and nutrition policy at the Institute for Food Safety & Nutrition Security at George Washington University in Washington DC.

They didn’t.

Many of the recommendations are sensible. The guidelines recommend a diet rich in whole foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. They recommend avoiding highly processed foods and added sugars. They also emphasize the importance of dietary protein, whole grains and “healthy” fats.