Dietary Guidelines Will Soon Meet MAHA. What Will That Mean?

Within a month, we expect that U.S. Dietary Guidelines will come out of the MAHA machine, looking like nothing that came before. Speculation is rife and the expectations are low that this new incarnation will be tethered to nutrition research. Writing in The Atlantic about HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and the imminent issuance of new guidelines, Nicholas Florko says:

“One of Kennedy’s particular skills is finding messages that get through to people. So many of his views on nutrition seem to have resonated precisely because they are not full of mealy-mouthed verbiage and caveats. It’s easier to grasp that seed oils are poisonous than it is to understand the nuances of how the fatty acids in these oils are digested in the body.”

Compelling messages are one half of the equation for promoting good health. The other half comes from grounding those messages in actual facts. Since Kennedy is unconstrained by facts (e.g. benefits and risks of seed oils), we can be pretty sure to see a mixed bag in these guidelines.

Greater Clarity

Without a doubt, we expect that the new guidance will be clear, crisp, and concise. No more equivocation, no more puzzlement about what we do and don’t know about ultra-processed foods. Kennedy has been quite clear that UPFs are “poison” and Americans should stop eating so much of them. Nevermind that scientists are arguing over how to identify the really problematic ones.

The new guidelines will almost certainly discard all nuance and simply say ultra-processed foods are bad. Eat more whole and unprocessed foods.

Discarded Dogma

Almost certainly, too, Kennedy will be dropping dogma has outlived its usefulness. In prior editions, the death of lame dogma was painful. It took years, for example, to get past advice to avoid eggs because they have too much cholesterol.

In this round, we expect to see lame advice favoring low-fat over whole-fat dairy to disappear. It has been hanging on far too long – bad advice that’s been hard to shake. The MAHA crowd has it right on this question.

New Dogma

Unfortunately, we are pretty sure to get some new dogma to replace the old. At the top of the list is the obsession with the supposed dangers of seed oils. The fervor of people who want to persuade the world that these oils pose a terrible danger is impressive. The have reams of animal research to prove their points. But in humans, well-controlled studies simply do not back them up.

The residue of fears will persist, though. French fries with beef tallow will sell.

Less Credibility

A four-page leaflet telling us “eat food that’s good for you” will certainly be an easier read than the 150-page tome it replaces. But it will not carry much credibility. Polling by Ipsos tells us that two-thirds of adults don’t trust much of anything coming from Kennedy and his MAHA movement. What they do trust is their own doctors.

Trust is hard to earn. Dispensing glib fiction doesn’t do it. So we do not expect the MAHA edition of dietary guidelines to have much effect – apart from trimming down the content and credibility of the guidelines for years to come.

Click here, here, and here for further perspective.

Lemon, Fries, and Squid, photograph by Kritzolina, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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June 30, 2025