New US food pyramid recommends very high protein diet, beef tallow as healthy fat option, and full-fat dairy
The federal government has released new dietary guidelines, introducing an emphasis on consuming meat and dairy and avoiding highly processed foods.
The New Pyramid will replace MyPlate as a visual guide for the federal governments nutritional guidance for Americans. (Image credit: USDA and HHS)
The U.S. government has officially resurrected the food pyramid — and flipped it on its head.
The new food chart emphasizes meats, dairy and what it calls "healthy fats," as well as fruits and vegetables. It accompanies new nutrition guidance that upholds some well-established diet recommendations while breaking with others.
The brief guidelines accompanying the New Pyramid place a heavy emphasis on avoiding highly processed foods, refined carbohydrates and added sugars, noting that the unrefined sugars found in foods like fruit and milk are not considered "added."
The guidelines also specify that healthy fats include those found in meats, poultry, eggs, omega-3–rich seafood, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, olives and avocados. Olive oil (mostly unsaturated fat) and butter and beef tallow (mostly saturated fat) are listed as good options for cooking oils. That said, the guidelines don't change the long-standing guidance about limiting one's consumption of saturated fats, stating that they should not exceed 10% of a person's total daily calories.
The guidelines significantly increase recommended protein intake, NBC reported. Established guidelines say that 0.8 grams of protein per 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of body weight would meet the daily nutrition requirements of the average, sedentary adult. Higher amounts are recommended for physically active adults (about 1.1 to 1.5 grams per kg) and older adults (about 1 to 1.2 grams per kg).
The new guidelines recommend a baseline daily protein intake of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight. So for a 150-pound (68 kg) person, that's a jump from 54.4 grams of protein a day to about 81.6 to 108.8 grams.
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had delayed releasing new dietary guidelines for months after rejecting the work of a 20-person scientific advisory committee assembled under President Joe Biden, STAT reported. The committee was poised to recommend plant-forward diets, rather than meat-centric ones, and had concluded that the existing research on ultraprocessed foods was inadequate to develop clear recommendations.