American Community Media
The government’s newly released federal food pyramid flips decades of nutrition guidance upside down. The guidelines are drawing sharp criticism from leading experts who say the emphasis on meat and full-fat dairy could adversely impact the health of Americans and further contribute to environmental degradation.
The new food pyramid was released shortly before a new policy that severely restricts eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP. The new restrictions were implemented Feb. 1.
Image via USDA.gov
Can Americans afford new guidelines?
The new SNAP restrictions also severely limit the amount of aid recipients can receive from the program. Aid has been reduced to a maximum of $298 per month for a single person.
42 million Americans currently receive SNAP. Children in SNAP households used to be eligible for a free breakfast and lunch at school. They must now reapply to confirm eligibility.
Nutrition experts applaud the shift away from highly processed foods, but are critical of a pyramid that de-emphasizes whole grains and legumes.
Where’s the beans?
Dr. Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at Stanford University who served on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, said the recommendations he and his team had spent more than a year developing were largely thrown out.
“One of the main points that our dietary guidelines advisory committee came up with was more legumes — beans, peas and lentils — and less red and processed meat,” Gardner said, at a March 13 American Community Media news briefing. “So it was a bit of a slap in the face to see that the pyramid has a big steak at the very top.”
According to Dr. Christopher Gardner, professor of medicine at Stanford University, most Americans are eating more than enough protein (and in some cases too much). Prioritizing it at every meal, which the new food pyramid recommends, is unnecessary, he said.
Too much protein
Americans eat far too much protein, said renowned nutritionist Dr. Marion Nestle, a former senior nutrition policy advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services. “Protein is absolutely not a problem for anyone who eats enough calories and gets a variety of food,” she said. “The fact that protein is being added to everything is a matter of marketing. It has nothing to do with science.”
Protein is increasingly being marketed as a low calorie, muscle building nutrient, showing up in a variety of foods to make them appear healthier. Social media trends and consumer demand are helping drive the trend.
According to Nestle, the new guidelines were heavily influenced by the meat and dairy industry. U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who rolled out the new guidelines on Jan. 6 with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., underscored Nestle’s statement.
Rollins noted that the new guidelines would “support American farmers, ranchers and companies that grow and produce real food. Farmers and ranchers are at the forefront of the solution, and that means more protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats and whole grains on American dinner tables,” she said.
Dr. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health emerita at New York University and former senior nutrition policy advisor at HHS, says the government’s assertion that its role in nutrition is strictly educational gives food companies a pass to manufacture and market unhealthy and addictive foods.
Huge environmental consequences
Dr. Sailesh Rao is the founder of Climate Healers, which promotes plant based diets as a means of addressing the climate crisis. He said the guidelines fail to account for the environmental consequences they entail, particularly increased meat and dairy consumption.
“When 330 million Americans follow these guidelines, the environmental consequences would be huge,” Rao said. “Producing one gallon of milk requires 1,000 gallons of water. Think about that while the Colorado River fails to reach the ocean.”
Red meat, beef specifically, is also a leading driver of deforestation in the Amazon, where 90 percent of all deforested land has been converted to cattle pasture.
Animal agriculture is extremely inefficient.
“Dairy production uses vast land,” Rao said. “Cows convert 10 calories of plant food into one calorie of milk. This is catastrophic inefficiency, treated as normal.”
Dr. Sailesh Rao, founder of Climate Healers, discusses the lack of emphasis on fiber in the American dietary guidelines and explains how the over-emphasis on protein is fueling climate change, among other planetary crises.
“World’s sickest country”
Kennedy has noted that more than 70 percent of Americans are overweight or clinically obese. Indeed, 90 percent of health care spending in the U.S. goes towards managing chronic diseases, with much of that spending linked to diet and lifestyle choices.
Despite being the wealthiest country in the world, America is also the sickest, Kennedy said.
“These guidelines return us to the basics. American households must prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods and dramatically reduce highly processed foods. This is how we Make America Healthy Again.”
The full recommendations can be viewed on the new Health and Human Services website realfood.gov.
Heart disease and diabetes
The inverted pyramid prioritizes meat and full-fat dairy, with guidelines recommending protein at every meal. The guidelines also recommend an increase in the amount of protein per day. Previous guidelines recommended .8 grams per kilogram of body weight. But the new guidelines recommend 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
Excess protein consumption has been linked to cardiovascular disease, kidney strain and metabolic issues. The American Heart Association expressed its concerns in a statement shortly after the new guidelines were announced.
“We are concerned that recommendations regarding salt seasoning and red meat consumption could inadvertently lead consumers to exceed recommended limits for sodium and saturated fats, which are primary drivers of cardiovascular disease,” the statement read. “While the guidelines highlight whole-fat dairy, the Heart Association encourages consumption of low-fat and fat-free dairy products, which can be beneficial to heart health.”
Highly processed foods
But the American Diabetes Association signaled its support for the new guidelines.
“We are encouraged that these new guidelines identify the unique needs of people with chronic metabolic conditions like diabetes,” the organization said.
The new pyramid does recommend eating more whole foods at every meal, including fruits and vegetables. It also eschews the consumption of highly processed and ultra processed foods, a move applauded by many health experts and nutritionists. However, the pyramid deprioritizes whole grains, which appear at the bottom of the visual.
At the ACoM briefing, Nestle said the new guidelines ignore the realities facing many Americans, particularly low-income families.
“If you as an individual are going to a grocery store to try to eat healthfully, you are fighting the entire food system on your own,” she said. “There are very, very large swaths of the American population that do not have the time, equipment or access needed to prepare healthy meals.”
Food industry focuses on profitability, not health
Ultra-processed foods — which contain industrial ingredients designed to make them more palatable and shelf stable — dominate the market because they are profitable, said Nestle. “The whole purpose of ultra-processed foods is to have products that you can’t stop eating,” she said. “The food industry is a business. Its job is to make money.”
She expressed her concerns that the guidelines place greater responsibility on consumers, without the adequate tools to educate them. “You have to change the food system.”
School nutrition
Gardner applauds the new food guidelines’ emphasis on avoiding ultra-processed foods, but notes that school lunch programs, which have to follow federal nutrition guidelines, will be hard-pressed to provide healthy alternatives, given how underfunded schools are.
Gardner noted the impact on school nutrition programs, the main source of daily food for low-income children in the U.S. But school nutrition programs are being stripped of resources, he said. Gardner pointed to a $1 billion reduction in federal funding through the budget reconciliation process for this fiscal year.
The School Nutrition Association noted its opposition to a proposal that would cut $3 billion from school meal programs over 10 years. The proposal would also cut out 24,000 schools that currently serve more than 12 million children.
School meals are a safety net for millions of children, Gardner said. “But schools have always been handcuffed by not having enough funding to provide healthy foods.”
“How is the school lunch food service director going to take this new guidance and use the limited funding they have to improve the school lunch quality of our kids,” he queried, adding that he absolutely supports the guidance for more whole foods.
Save our planet
Rao noted that many cultures around the world thrive on largely plant-based diets, which also benefit the environment.
“You don’t need dairy for calcium, or meat for protein. All of these nutrients come from plants which shrink our environmental footprint enormously.
“The purpose of the food system should be to nourish people,” he said. “Today, the purpose of the food system is not to nourish people, it’s to make money for someone.”
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