RFK Jr.’s dietary guidelines: Beef tallow is in, but no booze for breakfast

On Wednesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins introduced the long-awaited 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for America, which have already faced backlash due to their connections with the meat and dairy sectors. The document, which is updated every five years, emphasizes the mantra of consuming 'real food.' In a concise 10-page format devoid of citations, the guidelines take a strong stance against added sugars and highly processed foods, although it fails to provide clear definitions for these categories. Among the notable changes, the guidelines remove previous recommendations regarding alcohol consumption, suggesting instead that Americans should merely drink 'less.' Furthermore, there is a significant shift towards promoting protein intake, including red meat, while seemingly endorsing saturated fats without altering the existing cap of 10 percent of daily caloric intake. Kennedy expressed confidence in the new direction during a White House briefing, declaring, 'We are ending the war on saturated fats.' He also claimed that the government is now declaring a 'war on added sugar.' However, the guidelines recommend that a single meal should not exceed 10 grams of added sugars, which translates to a maximum of 40 calories from sugar per meal. Over the course of a day, this equates to a limit of 120 calories from sugar on a standard 2,000-calorie diet, representing around 6 percent of total caloric intake. This is a shift from the previous guidelines, which advised keeping added sugars to less than 10 percent of total daily calories.