Trump administration declares ‘war on added sugar’

The Trump administration announced an overhaul of American nutrition guidelines Wednesday, replacing the old, carbohydrate-heavy food pyramid with one that prioritizes protein, healthy fats and whole grains.

“Our government declares war on added sugar,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a White House news conference announcing the changes. “We are ending the war on saturated fats.”

“If a foreign adversary sought to destroy the health of our children, to cripple our economy, to weaken our national security, there would be no better strategy than to addict us to ultra-processed foods,” Kennedy said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the health department issue new federal dietary guidelines every five years.

In the new version, which Kennedy described as “the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history,” Americans are encouraged to eat protein-rich foods at every meal, full-fat dairy without added sugars and at least three daily servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit.

It explicitly discourages consumption of processed foods, added sugars and refined carbohydrates, all of which are associated with obesity, type-2 diabetes and heart disease.

The federal nutrition standards guide the content of millions of federally funded meals served in schools, hospitals and to active-duty service members. They also help determine foods included under assistance plans like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Improving U.S. eating habits and the availability of nutritious foods is an issue with broad bipartisan support, and has been a long-standing goal of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement.

During the news conference, he acknowledged both the American Medical Assn. and the American Academy of Pediatrics for partnering on the new guidelines — two organizations that earlier this week condemned the administration’s decision to slash the number of diseases that U.S. children are vaccinated against.

“The American Medical Association applauds the administration’s new Dietary Guidelines for spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic illnesses,” AMA President Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary celebrated the overthrow of “a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural, healthy saturated fats.”

The actual document is more reserved on the subject.

“In general, saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. Significantly limiting highly processed foods will help meet this goal,” it says. “More high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.”

A Biden-era committee recommended that future versions of the federal guidelines emphasize plant-based protein like peas, beans and lentils over animal sources like meat and eggs. Plant protein receives little mention in the new guidelines, which show meat, fish and chicken atop the new inverted pyramid.

A supplemental report published alongside the consumer-friendly guidelines noted that several members of the advisory panel have financial ties to meat and dairy industry groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn., the National Pork Board and the California Dairy Research Foundation. The ties were first reported by Stat News.

Although the new guidelines tell Americans to “avoid sugar-sweetened beverages,” such as sodas, fruit drinks and energy drinks, when it comes to alcohol, they only underscore the need to “consume less.”

At the news conference, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medical Services, backed the decision to limit alcohol rather than abstain entirely.

“Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together,” Oz told reporters. “In the best-case scenario, I don’t think you should drink alcohol. But it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize and there’s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way.”

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said the department will soon finalize a rule that will require the roughly 250,000 retail food stores that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to nearly double the amount of staple foods they’re required to stock.

Beyond that, the document released Wednesday does not address the structural issues that have prevented Americans from following previous healthy eating directives.

Fewer than 10% of people in the U.S. eat a diet consistent with federal nutrition guidelines, which “suggests that it’s not the [guidelines] that are the problem, but the ability of the average person to follow them,” wrote the authors of a new report from the nonprofit advocacy group Defend Public Health.

“In reality, the challenges to improving the American diet arise from a complicated interplay of the social determinants of health, including age, income, race and ethnicity, rural residence, and education,” they wrote.

Trump administration officials said the new food pyramid will help reduce chronic disease and ease pressure on the healthcare system in the long run.

Ninety percent of the $4.9 trillion spent annually on healthcare in the U.S. goes toward chronic mental and physical disease, according to the CDC.

“The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower healthcare costs,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s remarks come as lawmakers are in a heated debate over how to address rising healthcare costs after policy disagreements allowed Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire at the start of the new year. The lapse of those tax credits has left millions of Americans with higher premium costs, and lawmakers wrangling over how to handle the healthcare affordability issue in a heated midterm election year.

As Congress remains divided on the issue, President Trump has signaled his administration intends to take executive action to lower healthcare costs. The president, for example, has said he plans to meet with drug companies in the coming weeks to pressure them into lowering prescription drug prices.

Kennedy says the new dietary guidelines are meant to help with costs as well.

“My message is clear: Eat real food. Nothing matters more for healthcare outcomes, economic productivity, military readiness and fiscal stability,” he said.