The Trump administration announced a major overhaul of federal nutrition guidelines on Wednesday, upending decades of dietary recommendations by promoting red meat and saturated fats while targeting ultra-processed foods as harmful to public health.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt unveiled the new approach during a briefing, describing it as a science-based correction to previous guidelines that she characterized as influenced by special interests rather than hard data.

“Faulty dietary guidelines of the past stack the deck against healthy eating and food options for everyday American families, which has fueled the chronic disease epidemic and jacked up the health care costs of households across the country,” Leavitt said. The new recommendations will influence meals served in public schools, military food services, and government food assistance programs nationwide.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) introduced a dramatically redesigned food pyramid that inverts the traditional nutritional hierarchy. The new pyramid places meat, fats, fruits and vegetables at the wide top portion, while relegating whole grains to a narrower section at the bottom—a stark reversal from decades of nutrition guidance that emphasized grains as dietary staples.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has made nutrition policy a cornerstone of his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative, was direct in his assessment: “The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs. Protein and healthy fats are essential, and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines. We are ending the war on saturated fats.”

The policy shift represents one of the most significant revisions to federal nutrition advice since the original food pyramid debuted in 1992. For nearly three decades, official guidelines discouraged consumption of saturated fats found in red meat, butter, and full-fat dairy products, linking them to heart disease and other chronic conditions.

Kennedy devoted particular attention to refined carbohydrates, food additives, and added sugars as harmful dietary elements. He specifically highlighted sugar-sweetened beverages as contributors to poor health outcomes. His central message to Americans was straightforward: “Eat real food.”

The HHS secretary framed the nutrition policy shift not only as a public health necessity but also as a matter of national security. “If a foreign adversary sought to destroy the health of our children, 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 timing of the announcement is notable, coming shortly after the previous administration’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee released its own report. That document, published in the final days of President Joe Biden’s term, faced criticism for failing to provide clear direction regarding ultra-processed foods, which have increasingly been linked to numerous health problems by independent research.

These changes reflect growing scientific debate about nutritional orthodoxy that has dominated American health policy since the 1970s. Some nutrition researchers have questioned long-standing advice to limit saturated fat consumption, while emerging evidence has highlighted potential harms of highly processed foods regardless of their nutrient profiles.

The administration emphasized that following these new guidelines could yield significant economic benefits for families. “When these guidelines are followed, Americans will be saving themselves thousands of dollars,” Leavitt noted. “If we want to cut health care costs in our country, we must become a healthier country… A healthier America will lead to a more affordable America.”

The new nutrition policy was presented with FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins participating in the briefing, signaling a coordinated approach across multiple agencies responsible for health and food policy.

Implementation details and timeline for the new guidelines were not immediately specified, but they appear poised to influence federal food programs, school lunches, and nutrition education for years to come.