Here’s what the new dietary guidelines from the Trump administration include

Americans should eat more whole foods and protein, fewer highly processed foods, and reduce added sugar, according to the latest federal nutrition advice released by the Trump administration on Wednesday.

Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins created the 2025-2030 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which provides updated recommendations for a healthy diet and provides the basis for federal nutrition programs and policies. This comes as Kennedy has for months stressed reforming the American food supply as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

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“Our message is clear: Eat real food,” Kennedy told reporters at a White House news conference.

The guidelines emphasize consumption of fresh vegetables, whole grains and dairy products, which have long been recommended as part of a healthy eating plan.

But they are also taking a new stance on “highly processed” foods and refined carbohydrates, urging consumers to avoid “packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat foods or other salty or sweet foods, such as chips, biscuits and candy.” That’s a different term for ultra-processed foods, the ultra-tasty, energy-dense products that make up more than half the calories in the American diet and have been linked to chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity.

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The new guidelines fall back on rescinding old advice to limit saturated fats, despite signals from Kennedy and Food and Drug Commissioner Marty McCurry that the administration will push for more consumption of animal fats to end the “war” on saturated fats.

Instead, the document suggests that Americans should choose whole food sources of saturated fat — such as meat, full-fat dairy products or avocados — while continuing to limit saturated fat consumption to no more than 10% of daily calories. “Other options could include butter or tallow,” the guidelines say, despite previous recommendations to avoid those fats.

The guidelines were due for an update

The Dietary Guidelines, which are required by law to be updated every five years, provide a model for a healthy diet. But in a country where more than half of adults suffer from diet-related chronic diseases, few Americans actually follow the guidelines, research shows.

The new recommendations have won praise from some prominent nutrition experts.

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“There should be widespread agreement that eating more whole foods and fewer highly processed carbohydrates is a major advance in how we approach diet and health,” said Dr. David Kessler, a former FDA commissioner who has written books on diet and nutrition and petitioned the FDA to remove key ingredients in ultra-processed foods.

Others expressed relief after worrying that the guidelines would contradict decades of nutritional evidence linking saturated fats to higher LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, and heart disease.

“I think whoever is writing these guidelines should acknowledge that the science has not changed,” said Marion Nestle, a nutrition and food policy expert who advised previous versions of the guidelines. “They haven’t changed in any fundamental way except to focus on eating whole foods.”

The new document is only 10 pages long, supporting Kennedy’s pledge to establish simple, understandable guidelines. Previous versions of the Dietary Guidelines have grown over the years, from a 19-page booklet in 1980 to a 164-page document issued in 2020, which included a four-page executive summary.

These directives will have a profound impact on the federally funded National School Lunch Program, which is required to follow guidelines to feed nearly 30 million American children on a typical school day.

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The Agriculture Department will have to translate the recommendations into specific requirements for school meals, a process that could take years, said Diane Pratt Hefner, a spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association. She noted that the latest school feeding standards were proposed in 2023 but would not be fully implemented until 2027.

Scientific advisors have not made recommendations on ultra-processed foods

The new guidelines ignore the advice of a 20-member panel of nutrition experts, who have met for nearly two years to review the latest scientific evidence about diet and health.

That committee did not make recommendations regarding ultra-processed foods. Although a range of studies have shown links between ultra-processed foods and poor health outcomes, nutrition experts have had concerns about the quality of the research reviewed and the certainty that those foods, not other factors, are the cause of the problems.

The recommendations on highly processed foods elicited cautiously positive reactions. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Agriculture are already working on defining ultra-processed foods, but it is expected to take some time.

Not all ultra-processed foods are unhealthy, said Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“I think the focus should be on highly processed carbohydrates,” he said, noting that processing protein or fat can be benign or even beneficial.

More protein is recommended

The guidelines made some other notable changes, including calling for doubling protein intake.

The previous recommended dietary allowance called for 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight — about 54 grams per day for a 150-pound person. The new recommendation is 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. The average American man consumes about 100 grams of protein per day, or about twice the previously recommended limit.

It’s not clear what evidence supports this change, but Ludwig said the previous recommendation was the minimum amount needed to prevent protein deficiency, and higher amounts of protein may be beneficial.

“I think a moderate increase in protein to help replace processed carbohydrates makes sense,” he said.

The guidelines advise avoiding or significantly limiting added sugars or non-nutritive sweeteners, saying “no amount” is considered part of a healthy diet.

The new guidelines say no single serving should contain more than 10 grams of added sugars, or about two teaspoons.

Previous federal guidelines recommended limiting added sugars to less than 10% of daily calories or for people over age 2, but aim for less than that. This equates to about 12 teaspoons per day in a 2,000-calorie daily diet. The old guidelines said children younger than 2 should not eat added sugars at all.

Overall, most Americans consume about 17 teaspoons of added sugars daily, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Alcohol limits have been removed

The new guidelines step back from previous recommendations to limit alcohol intake to one or fewer drinks per day for women and two or fewer drinks per day for men.

Instead, the guidelines advise Americans to “consume less alcohol for better health.” They also say that alcohol should be avoided by pregnant women, people recovering from alcohol use disorder and those who cannot control the amount they drink.