by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. at the Defender
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today unveiled new dietary guidelines for Americans. The new U.S. food pyramid puts protein, dairy, healthy fats, vegetables and fruit at the top, with grains at the bottom.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today unveiled new dietary guidelines for Americans. The new food pyramid is inverted, putting protein, dairy, healthy fats, vegetables and fruit at the top, with grains at the bottom.
At a White House press briefing today, Kennedy called the changes the “most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history.”
The guidelines, effective through 2030, will become the default for what’s served to schoolchildren, the military, veterans, the elderly and low-income families that participate in federal programs like WIC and Head Start.
Kennedy said:
“These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common sense goals and gold-standard scientific integrity. These new guidelines will revolutionize our nation’s food culture and make America healthy again.
“For decades, Americans have grown sicker while healthcare costs have soared. The reason is clear: the hard truth is that our government has been lying to us to protect corporate profit-taking, telling us that these food-like substances were beneficial to public health.
“Federal policy promoted and subsidized highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates and turned a blind eye to the disastrous consequences. Today, the lies stop.”
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Food pyramid was upside down before — ‘we just righted it’
Kennedy said people may think the new pyramid is upside down, given that the prior pyramid allotted the largest area to grains and the smallest area to fats.
“But it was actually upside down before — we just righted it,” Kennedy said.
The earlier nutrition model “wrongly discouraged” healthy fats and protein. “We are ending the war on saturated fats,” Kennedy said.
Last year’s U.S. Dietary Guidelines limited saturated fats and recommended that people replace…