A Modest Proposal from the Dietary Guidelines Committee

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Committee released its report yesterday and the reaction to this seems to be a bit of a yawn. “More beans and less red meat” was the headline from the Associated Press. “Highly conservative (not in a good sense)” is the bottom line from Marion Nestle, Emerita Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health from NYU.

People who were looking for drama or something radically new from this report will be sorely disappointed. It is mostly a modest proposal to carry on with standing advice for healthy eating patterns.

An Intentional Focus on Health Equity

The main thing that is new in this report is “an intentional focus on health equity.” This focus appears to be what motivated the committee’s recommendation for the Eat Healthy Your Way dietary pattern. The committee was quite clear in specifying the need “to meet the varied budgetary, cultural, and personal
preferences of people living in the United States.”

As currently constructed, the guidelines don’t seem to meet that goal. The committee points to this in the report:

“Few U.S. individuals, however, consume a dietary pattern that aligns with Dietary Guidelines recommendations, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, or sociodemographic group examined.”

Ultra-Processed Foods?

Perhaps the biggest critique of this report will that it is a missed opportunity to come down hard on ultra-processed foods. Many food policy advocates – including the current nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services – seem to be itching for this.

But alas, all you will find in the report is that the evidence for this is limited:

“Dietary patterns consumed by children and adolescents with higher amounts of food classified as ultra-processed food are associated with greater adiposity (fat mass, waist circumference, BMI) and greater risk of overweight. This conclusion statement is based on evidence graded as limited.”

For adults, the conclusion is the same.

Watch This Space

The new presidential administration will be responsible for publishing the actual dietary guidelines based on the work of this committee. But it is not unusual to see significant differences in the guidelines versus the recommendations of the committee.

Much will happen before HHS and USDA get around to publishing the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Click here for the report, here, here, and here for further perspective.

Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and a Bunch of Asparagus, painting by Louise Moillon / WikiArt

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December 11, 2024