By Evie Liu

President Donald Trump administration's newly released dietary guidelines on Wednesday marks a sharp break from prior federal nutrition advice.

Gone is the language of balance and moderation that defined earlier editions. In its place: a more prescriptive framework that explicitly warns against the health risk of ultra-processed foods, and calls for Americans to eat more protein, embrace saturated fat, and cut back on carbohydrates.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are jointly issued every five years by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the latest changes the "most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history."

Often produced for taste and shelf life, ultraprocessed foods have drawn growing scrutiny from health officials and researchers due to their high amounts of refined ingredients and artificial additives. They often include high levels of sugar, salt, and saturated fat.

The new guidance explicitly advised Americans to avoid highly processed packaged food such as chips, cookies, and candy, calling them out as the core driver of chronic disease. Ultraprocessed foods weren't mentioned in the previous guidance at all.

Kennedy accused prior federal policy of promoting and subsidizing highly-processed foods, while turning a blind eye to their "disastrous consequences" on public health, including high rates of obesity, diabetes, and rising healthcare costs.

"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," he said.

Some processed-food manufacturers have seen their stocks decline following the release of the guidelines. Shares in Kraft Heinz have lost 3% since Tuesday's close, General Mills is down 2.7%, while PepsiCo fell by 1.8%.

The Consumer Brands Association -- the primary trade group representing major processed-food and beverage manufacturers -- hasn't issued a statement specifically reacting to the new guidelines.

While the previous guidelines encourage Americans to strike a balance between different food groups and avoid focusing on single nutrients, the new version lays out more explicit guidance. They elevate certain food groups, while explicitly discouraging others.

Protein is the big winner, now positioned as the foundation of nearly every meal. Consumption of animal proteins such as red meat, eggs, and full-fat dairy, especially, are explicitly encouraged along with plant-based sources of protein.

The guidelines recommend a specific intake range of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight a day. That compares with the longstanding federal benchmark of 0.8 grams generally recommended to meet the basic nutritional needs of healthy adults.

Saturated fat has been taken off the black list. While the new guidance kept the cap on saturated fat at less than 10% of daily calories, fat is no longer treated as a primary dietary risk. Full-fat dairy is encouraged, while butter and beef tallow are viewed as acceptable.

"Protein and healthy fats are essential and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines," said Kennedy at Wednesday's press conference, telling reporters that the government was "ending the war on saturated fats."

"For decades, we've been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural, healthy saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak and ignoring a giant blind spot, refined carbohydrates, added sugars, ultra processed food," said Kennedy.

Grains, meanwhile, have been quietly demoted. The new edition still supports whole grains, but places them lower in the food hierarchy. It sharply criticizes refined carbohydrates, suggesting that lower-carbohydrate diets may benefit people with chronic disease.

Sugar guidance has become more concrete: Instead of a daily cap of less than 10% of calories, the new guidelines introduced a per-meal limit of 10 grams of added sugar.

The new guidance also removed language that advised limiting daily alcohol consumption to two drinks for men and one drink for women. "There was never really good data to support that quantity of alcohol consumption," said Kennedy.

Alcohol stocks are rising on Thursday. Molson Coors stock gained 3.5%, Brown-Forman is up 3.2%, and Anheuser-Busch increased 3.3%. Constellation Brands gained the most, by as much as 7%, partially because the U.S. distributor of Corona and Modelo beers posted quarterly results that beat Wall Street estimates.

To be sure, the dietary guidelines aren't mandates for consumers or food companies. Still, they shape school lunches, meals served in the military and at veterans' hospitals, and federal nutrition programs. Officials said implementation would begin with school meals and federal procurement, with broader changes phased in over time.

The revised guidelines had been expected since last summer as part of President Donald Trump's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda. Food and beverage companies were already transforming their offerings to embrace the potential impacts, including by rolling out new high-protein products and making commitments to remove artificial food dyes from their products.

Most trade groups in the food industry have responded positively to the new guidelines.

"We are pleased the dietary guidelines recommend Americans prioritize protein and that families can get that protein from nutrient dense meat and poultry," said Julie Anna Potts, CEO of Meat Institute, which represents major meat processors in the U.S.

Not all fats are created equal, wrote National Milk Producer Federation CEO Gregg Doud in a Wednesday statement, noting that dairy's benefits are "better reflected" in the new guideline as it recognizes "dairy's benefits at all fat levels."

Still, there is pushback. "The guidelines err in promoting meat and dairy products, which are principal drivers of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity," Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said in a statement.

The National Oilseed Processors Association said it appreciates the new guidelines' approach to prioritizing added fats with essential fatty acids, but noted that some appendices questioning the safety of certain vegetable oils "rely on a narrow evidence base with limited citations."

Write to Evie Liu at evie.liu@barrons.com

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January 08, 2026 11:06 ET (16:06 GMT)

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