For 45 years, America’s most important official document on the topic of nutrition has been the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, “the cornerstone of Federal nutrition policy and … education activities, providing food-based recommendations to promote health…” according to its authors, RFK, Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA. This coming week may see publication of the 10th edition of the Guidelines, which are rewritten every five years.
Never far from controversy due to the persistent influence of the agricultural lobby and Big Food, the Guidelines this year have been particularly weighed down by both politics and, new to the equation, the Trump administration’s practice of spurning science. Science, Trump has found, can be very inconvenient when it stands in the way of accruing and distributing wealth and power. And trashing science seems to resonate with many in the populace who are attracted to Trump.
A wall of anti-science chaos has been built by mass firings of scientists along with large chunks of the national scientific support system, withholding of research funds, stifling of free speech, and a conveyor belt of unfounded statements from Trump, RFK, Jr., and others. Hidden behind this wall, a solid foundation has been built for transferring power from the American people and those dedicated to protecting them, into the hands of the power elite.
A catalog of ethical corruption
Lisa Held in Civil Eats has pieced together an exposé, cataloging Trump’s handing over of Brooke Rollins’ USDA, Robert Kennedy’s Health and Human Services, the EPA, and the FDA, a Health and Human Services agency, to the tentacles of corporate interests through their close ties to 26 federal appointees and nominees, including Rollins and Kennedy. The ethical stench is overpowering.
The most shocking case is the nomination of Casey Means, sister of Kennedy’s Special Advisor Calley Means, as Surgeon General. Dr. Means has been called unqualified to serve as Surgeon General by two former Surgeons General, Dr. Richard Carmona and Dr. Jerome Adams. Both cite Means’ complete lack of public health experience, among other factors. Adams was Surgeon General in the first Trump administration.
Means has many corporate ties, but the real shockers are her investments in Philip Morris and Altria, two of the world’s biggest tobacco companies. A Surgeon General candidate having financial interests in these tobacco companies, with their anti-public health histories, is mind boggling. According to the CDC, nearly a half-million Americans die from smoking every year. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death, disease, and disability. Means’ Senate nomination hearing will occur this coming week with Means appearing by Zoom from Hawaii.
So what about the Dietary Guidelines?
The news is that RFK, Jr., who has been public about his meat-centric, “carnivore” diet, will go against long-standing scientific evidence, including that cited in the 2025 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Scientific Report. Kennedy will publish Guidelines that recommend increasing the saturated fat in our diets. This will make U.S. red meat and dairy producers, and their friends in the USDA, happy.
In an article in The Guardian about Kennedy’s reportedly pro-saturated fat Guidelines, Hannah Harris Green cites Ronald Krauss, a saturated fat researcher, who regards saturated fat as health neutral. Despite judging saturated fat to not be a health risk, Krauss feels moving away from current guidelines is premature. Other nutrition experts widely agree with the current guidelines recommending consumption of saturated fat be limited to 10% of calories and that, generally, saturated fat should be replaced with unsaturated fats, like olive oil.
It must be noted that Krauss’s big research paper finding that saturated fat is not harmful was authored by him and many others with strong ties to the dairy and beef industries.
This year’s Dietary Guidelines Scientific Report recommended increased reliance on plant protein, as found in whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and soy. If Kennedy’s opinions hold sway over the science, we may instead see the increased plant protein recommendation disappear or even be replaced by a recommendation for increased consumption of meat.
Last month Eating in America described how the setting of the Dietary Guidelines has a history of corporate influence and how RFK, Jr.’s fight against ultraprocessed food got crushed in last month’s MAHA Strategy Report. It appears unlikely that ultra-processed foods will re-emerge with recommendations in the coming Dietary Guidelines.
The Dietary Guidelines are fundamental to national policy and practice on nutrition, setting standards for programs including School Lunches, SNAP, and WIC, the nutrition for Women, Infants, and Children program. They are widely adopted by health and nutrition programs and professionals throughout America. Warping the Guidelines to reflect commercial or personal interests hurts the health of Americans.
Wait, go back, RFK, Jr. is setting the U.S. Dietary Guidelines?
When I consider Kennedy’s qualifications to lead the updating of this most important nutrition document I think about his dead brain worm, probably ingested. And I ponder his health recommendations to drink raw milk and eat red meat and increased saturated fat, although his own CDC says raw milk poses a serious health risk and recommends limiting saturated fat intake and there is a lot of strong evidence about the heart, stroke, diabetes, and cancer risks of red meat consumption, along with evidence of risk of cognitive decline with eating red meat. And I remember that Kennedy eats, in his words, “a ton of vitamins”, but no unprocessed fruits or vegetables; and that for a period of time he obsessively ate so much tuna and perch that his blood had 10x the EPA recommendation for mercury, causing him memory loss.
Kennedy also has a misguided plan to make this edition of the Guidelines easy-to-read and only 4 to 6 pages long so that people can read and understand it. Unfortunately, the reason the American people don’t abide by the Guidelines is not because they are too long and difficult to read. Americans don’t follow the Guidelines because our health policy leaders have for decades let commercial interests essentially control, through formulation of hyperpalatable foods and product marketing, what Americans want to eat and can afford. The Guidelines need to contain a lot of clear and detailed information for health and nutrition professionals and policy makers to act on. A summary-style Guidelines will be inadequate.
RFK, Jr. is inadequate and unfit to be in charge of the Health and Human Services Department, just as a person who profits from smoking is unfit to be Surgeon General. It looks likely to be another interesting week in D.C.
Thank you for reading.
