February 1, 2026 — It’s a perfect straw man argument. To make the case that dietary guidelines with the personal stamp of RFK Jr. are revolutionary, HHS has resurrected the long-defunct food pyramid and turned it upside down. It perfectly satisfies the impulse to tell the nutrition establishment that they’re wrong about everything. But folks who know a thing […]
January 8, 2026 — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday announced muddled new Dietary Guidelines for Americans in which everyone can find plenty to love or hate – or both. These are the perfect guidelines for our era. TikTok nutrition influencers can spin them any way they want. RFK can tell everyone that he’s owning the so-called nutrition […]
December 17, 2025 — A new systematic review in Annals of Internal Medicine underscores something we’ve long said in obesity and nutrition science. The science of saturated fat is complex, and nuance is its first casualty when the headlines start spinning. A Risk-Stratified Analysis Steen and colleagues conducted a risk-stratified analysis of 17 randomized trials. It is the largest […]
December 10, 2025 — Saturated fats are bad. But wait, our health secretary has been teasing us with vows that new dietary guidelines will advise us they’re not. Nutrition experts are in a tizzy. We merely shake our heads at another dietary generalization going up in smoke – reinforcing the timeless thought that all generalizations are wrong. Yes, even […]
November 19, 2025 — For some time now, we’ve been pointing out that the obsessive demonization of dairy fat in dietary health guidance really doesn’t make much sense. Skim milk doesn’t taste as good as whole milk. The evidence for better health outcomes from reducing dairy fat consumption is flimsy. In fact, a dozen years ago, Walter Willett and […]
October 1, 2025 — A pair of new papers in the Journal of the American Heart Association serves up a fundamental challenge to assumptions about nutritional guidance in obesity. The science is complex, involving metabolomics and dietary quality. But the concept is simple. Obesity is not just a simple problem of excess body fat. Rather, it is a complex […]
August 28, 2025 — New research in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology tells us that walking the talk of a healthy lifestyle for preventing heart disease is not so easy. Perhaps the most striking number from this research relates to dietary recommendations. The American College of Cardiology (ACC) recommends a whole-food plant-based diet for cardiovascular disease […]
August 13, 2025 — Late last week, the American Heart Association jumped out in front of a highly anticipated MAHA report with its own scientific advisory statement on ultra-processed foods. AHA’s statement made two points clear. Most ultra-processed foods are high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat and thus can be considered unhealthy. But sweeping generalizations about them are […]
August 5, 2025 — A new study yesterday in Nature Medicine will surely add fuel to the fire of people who believe we can simply blame ultra-processed foods for the rise in obesity over the last four decades. The design of the study was solid – a randomized controlled crossover study. Just the kind of thing that sticklers for […]
April 6, 2025 — Get ready. A few months have passed since the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Committee became final. But honestly, it seems like another lifetime when that was published. That was before the installation of the MAHA regime at HHS that is de-emphasizing vaccines, firing scientists, and promoting cod liver oil and “healthy” fries. […]
