RFK Jr. plans radical changes to dietary guidelines

The next set of dietary guidelines for Americans is coming soon, and they could look very different this time

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said in the past they're streamlining hundreds of pages into just four, promising simpler, cleaner advice on what to eat

It's dietary guidelines that President Biden gave us, 453 pages long, and it's just an industry-generated document, the same industry impulse

that put Froot Loops at the top of the food pyramid. We are creating a four-page document that can be locally sourced

so that that will drive the school lunch program. Actually, the current guidelines were issued in 2020

shortly before the end of President Donald Trump's first term. And they weren't 453 pages long

Instead, a scientific document supporting the guidelines was 164 pages. Regardless, every five years, these guidelines get an update

serving as the federal government's official nutrition playbook. They're not really written for the average American to read cover to cover

but they shape everything from school lunches and military meals to snap and wick benefits

impacting what millions of Americans eat every day. To build them, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a team of scientific experts, spends years reviewing research and writing its recommendations

This year's 421-page report was submitted to the Secretaries of Health and Agriculture, who announced in March they began a line-by-line review

Overall it stayed pretty consistent with previous reports The committee report emphasizes flexibility and cultural adaptability with a new core plan called Eat Healthy Your Way It designed to align with

more diverse cuisines and dietary preferences, and compared to the 2020 plan, it slightly reduces

starchy vegetables while encouraging more dark green vegetables and whole grains. But overall

Paul, the committee highlights that Americans still fall short of recommended dietary patterns

and urges the HHS and USDA to collaborate with people like communication scientists

to change eating behavior at multiple levels. But that's where some experts worry that Kennedy's public comments and claims

don't necessarily reflect mainstream nutrition science. His focus for the soon-to-be-released guidelines is to tell people to eat whole foods

He favors whole milk and foods prepared in beef tallow, which is high in saturated fats

UC Berkeley interviewed professor and nutrition research scientist Kevin Klatt, and he said that's not so simple because our modern food environment makes those choices much harder than they sound

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins also said in a March press release, we will make certain the 2025 to 2030 guidelines are based on sound science, not political science

Gone are the days where leftist ideologies guide public policy. We'll have to wait for the official guidelines to be released this fall

but the administration's Make America Healthy Again strategy promises the updated guidelines will align with science

data and health recommendations in a more user-friendly format. With Stray Arrow News, I'm Kennedy Felton

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