Chapter 1: What are the new dietary guidelines announced by RFK Jr.?
RFK JR, HHS secretary, recently announced new federal dietary guidelines declaring war. Today, our government declares war on added sugar. Also ending war. We are ending the war on saturated fats. In his tenure as head of HHS, RFK has ended the war on protein and declared war on ultra-processed foods and on the old food pyramid. You can see the food pyramid here.
It's upside down, a lot of you will say.
Okay.
but it was actually upside down before, and we just righted it. The Trump administration has pushed companies to eliminate food dyes, and in the first bill signing of the new year, says schools can now serve whole milk.
Whole milk, and it's whole with a W for those of you that have a problem.
Coming up on Today Explained, the push from the top to revamp the American diet. This is good. You're listening to Today's Blame. I'm Noelle King with Jane Black. She's a food journalist and co-author of the Consumed newsletter. Jane, welcome back to the show.
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Chapter 2: How is the new food pyramid different from the old one?
So the government unveiled a brand new food pyramid last week. What's in it?
Well, so there was a lot of hype about this. And, you know, their big message was we are now focusing on whole, nutrient-dense foods.
As Secretary of Health and Human Services, My message is clear. Eat real food.
In fact, the dietary guidelines have actually always recommended whole foods. The language wasn't as clear as it is now. And I think that change in language is good. And I think people are really excited about it. The new food pyramid is wacky because if you can picture the old food pyramid, remember grains were at the bottom. That's the biggest.
And then at the top was saturated fats, you know, eggs, butter, meat, that kind of thing. And basically what they've done is they flipped the entire thing upside down.
We are ending the war on saturated fats.
So now at the top, you have cheese and eggs and steak and whole milk and, yes, also fruits and vegetables. And at the bottom, in the tiny point of the pyramid, are whole grains.
There's one thing that I personally have been obsessed with. So I'm looking at it right now. I have it up in front of me. Okay, so there's a turkey or a chicken. There's a steak. There's a salmon steak. Looks good, looks good. There is what appears to be a plastic container of ground beef.
Are you seeing what I'm seeing? There is a plastic container of ground beef. You should eat your burgers. That feels wrong.
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Chapter 3: What foods are prioritized in the revised food pyramid?
Grains. Grains.
So, you know, say kiss your favorite pasta goodbye. When you're here. When you're here. Before, in the Obama administration, we didn't have a pyramid. We had something called MyPlate, and it looked like a plate, and it showed you how much of your plate was supposed to be fruits and vegetables, meat, and grains. In that iteration, half were supposed to be whole grains.
Now it's just whole grains, no refined carbohydrates, and even fewer of them than before. So that's the first thing. The second thing is sugar.
And today our government declares war on added sugar.
I mean, I don't think anybody disagrees that we all eat too much sugar. But they have cut back the limit of sugar that people should be eating. And make no mistake, none of us were meeting that when it was higher. And in addition, they have said that children under 10 should have no added sugars at all. So no Halloween, no birthday parties, no Christmas cookies, nothing. No chance.
I mean, I'd love to see how that's going to go.
Yeah. Good luck, parents. So the Trump administration, very interestingly, from the jump, has expressed priorities on food in a way that strikes me as different from previous administrations just because there's been so much focus on them. Like, I remember Trump saying Coke needed to change its recipe, I think, to go back to real sugar from corn syrup.
I have been speaking to at Coca-Cola about using real cane sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I'd like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them. You'll see. It's just better.
The FDA was banning a type of red dye early on. So does this set of recommendations play into what else we've seen from the administration so far?
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Chapter 4: What does the government say about added sugars?
these eating habits are changing dramatically.
Can I give you my prediction? I would love your prediction. Okay. This year, kiwis with the skin on are going to become very big. Eating, like as in eating kiwis?
Yeah. You know, my brother-in-law does that. I just started. It doesn't seem right, Noelle.
I feel very pure. It is disgusting. It is not nice. But I feel like a really good person when I do it.
Well, hey, I'll buy it. I have to try it.
Liz Dunn, consumed as the newsletter, Liz also contributes to the NYT and the WSJ. Miles Bryan produced today's show, Jolie Myers edited, Patrick Boyd and David Tadishore engineered, and Andrea Lopez-Cruzado is our fact checker. The rest of the team includes Hadi Mouagdi, Peter Balanon-Rosen, Danielle Hewitt, Kelly Wessinger, Ariana Espuru, Dustin DeSoto, and Astead Herndon.
Avishai Artsy and Amina El-Sadi are MGMT. Executive producer Miranda Kennedy is no relation. Support for the show comes from Sean Ramos' firm. He'll get space in the next life. We use music by Breakmaster Cylinder. I'm Noelle King. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC, and the show is a part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. For more, visit podcasts.voxmedia.com.
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