RFK Jr.’s new food pyramid puts meat, dairy at the top. What you should eat

By Kristen Rogers, CNN

(CNN) — If you’re eating several servings of fruits and vegetables daily, avoiding ultraprocessed foods and baking your chicken instead of frying it, you’re already following some of the newly updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The guidance released Wednesday largely retains some of the previous advice while also making room for US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement — urging Americans to eat whole foods, healthy fats and more protein, and to limit consumption of added sugar and preservatives.

“There’s some really good things about it that can really make a difference,” said Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor Emerita of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University.

But other parts of the new guidance are “muddled, inconsistent, ideological, retro and hard to understand,” Nestle said. The recommendations also come with a new inverted food pyramid that’s the most significant shift from the outdated icon long held in Americans’ collective memory of how various food groups should be prioritized.

To help clear up any confusion over these new guidelines, here’s how Nestle and other experts suggest you eat for your health and well-being.

A history of the US food pyramid

The US Department of Agriculture first promoted the food pyramid in 1992, adapting a concept developed in Sweden in the 1970s. Every five years, HHS and the USDA update the dietary guidelines.

In ascending order of serving sizes, the original US food pyramid recommended that fats, oils and sweets be used sparingly, and that dairy products, proteins and nuts be equal components of one’s diet. Vegetables and fruits were the next largest category, then grains. The 2005 visual was largely similar, but lessened the amount of protein recommended and added an icon representing physical activity.

The 2005 pyramid with the vertical rays “was really confusing, even more confusing than the one they put out today,” said Dr. Jerold Mande, CEO of Nourish Science, a nongovernmental organization focused on nutrition crises in the United States. Mande was formerly a senior policy official at the USDA and the US Food and Drug Administration.

“None of that was intuitive or clear to people,” Mande added.

When the USDA released the 2010 to 2015 dietary guidelines in 2011, it traded the food pyramid for MyPlate. From then until now, the image of a plate divided into sections has more clearly depicted what serving sizes should look like in an actual meal.

In the 2025-2030 guidelines, the pyramid is back but both the shape and some of its recommendations are now inverted: Animal proteins and fats — from both animals and plants — get just as much space at the top as vegetables and fruits, indicating the emphasis on more protein intake. The new visual also moves whole grains to the bottom, though the actual guidebook doesn’t recommend consuming a significantly lower amount of grains than produce. The guidelines recommend two to four daily servings of whole grains, three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit.

The inverted pyramid is more straightforward in a technical sense, Mande said. But in terms of health guidance, it’s “the most egregious aspect of the new guidelines,” said Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “The emphasis on high intake of dairy foods and meat is inconsistent with the evidence … showing that plant sources of protein such as nuts, soy foods, and other legumes reduce risk of cardiovascular disease when compared to red meat.”

Eat whole foods

The guidelines encourage increasing your intake of a variety of whole, fibrous and colorful foods, which include fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds, and legumes.

“This is something that is absolutely a worthy goal,” said Dr. Alison Steiber, a registered dietitian nutritionist and the chief mission, impact and strategy officer for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Quality whole grains include brown rice, rolled or steel-cut oats, quinoa, farro, and whole wheat. Adults should consume 22 to 34 grams of fiber daily depending on age and sex, according to the previous edition of the dietary guidelines.

While previous guidelines recommended 4.5 cups, or nine servings total, of fruits and vegetables daily, the new guidelines nearly halve that, Nestle said. “I don’t know where that came from,” she said. “If you want a healthy microbiome, you need fiber. You have got to feed those bacteria, and the fiber does that.”

To learn about appropriate serving sizes of all these foods and more, you can view the American Heart Association’s guidance.

Consume less ultraprocessed food

The guidelines also encourage reducing your consumption of highly processed foods, which aligns with what many health experts advise.

That’s because studies have linked ultraprocessed foods with numerous health issues and diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer, depression, cognitive decline and more. The products are manufactured using industrial techniques and some ingredients “never or rarely used in kitchens,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

These foods are typically low in fiber and high in calories, added sugar, refined grains and fats, sodium, and additives, all of which are designed to help make food more appealing. Additives often include preservatives to maintain freshness and texture or resist mold and bacteria, and emulsifiers to prevent ingredients from naturally separating. Other common additives include fragrance and flavor enhancers and agents for anti-foaming, bleaching, bulking, gelling and glazing.

In addition to eating more whole foods to avoid ultraprocessed foods, you should also read ingredient labels when you shop and pay attention to how foods make you feel. Ultraprocessed foods can leave you wanting more, whereas whole foods are more satiating.

Healthy fats and dairy intake

The dietary guidelines also instruct Americans to incorporate healthy fats, including those from meats, poultry, eggs, omega 3-rich seafood, nuts and seeds, full-fat dairy, olives, and avocado. The updated guide also suggests olive oil, butter and beef tallow for cooking, though the latter two aren’t sufficient sources of essential fatty acids, Nestle said.

“I don’t have any trouble with eating full-fat dairy products if you don’t eat too much of it,” Nestle said.

Steiber agreed. “There is a body of science that is beginning to emerge that seems to indicate whole-fat dairy products are less of a risk for cardiometabolic disease,” she said. “Yogurt has maybe the best data.”

In terms of saturated fat, which primarily comes from animals, historical guidance to limit intake to up to 10% of daily calories remains unchanged in the latest guidelines. This is especially important if you have any cardiovascular issues such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure or a family history of cardiovascular disease, said Mande, who is also an adjunct professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

For people with those risk factors, low-fat or fat-free dairy products can be better options. High dairy intake is also associated with adverse health effects including a higher risk of prostate cancer, Willett, who is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said.

What about protein?

While the new guidelines increase the recommended daily intake of protein, “protein has never been an issue in American diets,” Nestle said. In fact, most Americans are probably eating at least the newly recommended amount of protein already, Mande said. Further increasing your protein consumption therefore isn’t necessary.

Both animals and plants are generally sufficient sources of protein, experts said — including unprocessed, lean meats, poultry and seafood, and beans, lentils, chickpeas, and tofu.

But other components and health effects of meat influence how often you should eat it and how much. Though red meat is included on the list of animal proteins the new guidelines recommend — a deviation from previous guidance — experts suggest eating no more than a few servings weekly.

Instead of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, the guidance is now 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram. For someone who’s 150 pounds, or 68 kilograms, the equivalent daily protein intake is 54.4 grams based on previous guidelines, and 81.6 to 109 grams considering the new recommendations.

Sodium, sugar and alcohol

The recommended sodium intake also remains the same, calling for Americans age 14 and older to limit consumption to less than 2,300 milligrams per day. Food can be made more flavorful with salt-free seasonings, herbs and spices.

In terms of added sugars, everyone “would be healthier eating less sugar,” Nestle said. “Sugar has no nutrients other than calories.” The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugar intake to less than 6% of daily calories — 36 grams for men and 26 grams for women.

The updated dietary guidelines also advise minimizing alcohol consumption in general but don’t provide specific limits. The AHA recommends no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink daily for women.

How applicable all this guidance is to your life can shift with any changes in your health status, health and fitness goals, and more, Steiber said. Working with your doctor or a dietitian to determine what’s best for you is important, especially if you’re considering making significant changes.

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CNN’s Jacqueline Howard, Katherine Dillinger and Tami Luhby contributed to this report.