Experts responsible for examining scientific evidence and drafting recommendations for the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are calling on consumers to shift to more plant-based foods and limit consumption of red or processed meats and refined grains.
The DGA Advisory Committee, which held its seventh and final meeting Monday and Tuesday, also decided there isn't sufficient data to draw conclusions about ultraprocessed foods and health outcomes, an issue that has surfaced the presidential campaign.
The committee's draft report recommends the new guidelines emphasize the consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seafood while limiting consumption of red or processed meats, refined grains, foods high in saturated fats and salty snacks.
The recommendations to limit consumption of red and processed drew a swift reaction from the meat industry. Julie Anna Potts, president and CEO of the Meat Institute, said these suggestions are “alarming, disappointing and ... contradictory to the committee’s other findings about nutritional deficiencies."
In boosting bean, pea and lentil consumption, the committee also recommended offsetting this with lowered starchy vegetable consumption.
Once completed, the final report will go to USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services to advise the agencies in completing the official guidelines.
The committee received over 9,900 comments throughout this process, the most ever received by a DGAC. Comments were open from Jan. 19, 2023 to Oct. 7.
All of the conclusion statements and recommendations shared during the meetings are still considered a draft until submitted, as some changes may be made based on discussion and comments on the meeting. Still, it gave some insight into what advice the agencies will receive.
This was the first time a DGAC specifically examined the science on health and ultraprocessed foods, a topic that even committee members acknowledged has gotten more attention due to politics. Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has repeatedly attacked ultraprocessed foods in his Make America Healthy Again platform since joining former President Donald Trump’s transition team.
The committee examined the health impact of dietary patterns with higher consumption of sugary drinks and ultraprocessed foods at varying life stages and included conclusion statements showing greater risk of obesity when adults and children consume ultraprocessed foods. However, the studies used had limited strength, meaning there was not a lot of data to back up those statements.
The committee was also unable to assign a conclusion statement grade for additional questions about ultraprocessed foods, also because of the lack of data.
Dietitian experts and members of the committee have discussed the broad challenges accessing nutrition data, but have said this is most difficult when looking at ultraprocessed foods.
One of the core challenges the committee confronted was simply having a reliable definition, said Deanna Hoelscher during Monday’s presentation. She suggested the committee and future committees “table” the topic until there is a better definition of these foods.
Other members of the committee disagreed, however, and said this is an issue that is not going away and will likely be more well-researched by the time the next DGAC drafts its recommendations.
“I think for the next five years, the research is going to explode, so revisiting it will probably be, if anything, even more of a priority,” said Deirdre Tobias of ultraprocessed foods.
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Recommendations emphasize plants over red meat consumption
The committee discussed other draft recommendations that may be included in the final report sent to USDA and HHS. These were drawn off the conclusion statements, scientific reviews, food pattern modeling and data analysis.
One of the suggestions included doing away with multiple healthy eating patterns like vegetarian and Mediterranean and creating one Healthy U.S. Style Dietary Pattern with built-in flexibilities instead. This aims to emphasize core elements of the healthy dietary pattern and applies a health equity lens.
Not everyone appeared on board with the move. Committee member Christopher Gardner said the different patterns have been helpful as a nutrition scientist and this direction is “terrifying.”
Other members of the committee, however, backed the change and suggested that the food pattern modeling and the flexibilities within different food groups supported this move.
Overall, the committee appeared to recommend a shift to more plant-based diets and fruit and vegetable intake. One of the draft recommendations related to dietary patterns suggests including “more nutrient-dense plant-based meal and dietary recommendation options.”
The committee also discussed moving beans, peas and lentils from the vegetable category to the protein or its own category. It also suggested that this category go first in the protein category, followed by nuts and seeds, seafood, eggs, poultry and then meat.
This proposal received mixed reactions from the committee, but on the whole, members appeared to back the move as a way to rebrand protein and emphasize plant-based proteins.
“I think there is sort of a branding crisis when it comes to protein thinking automatically meat, and if there are more plant sources of proteins in the protein category that could help overcome that mislabeling or misnomer or misinformation,” said Tobias.
On Tuesday, committee members discussed saturated fats and pointed to conclusion statements with moderate strength demonstrating substituting processed or unprocessed red meat with any plant food groups reduced risk of cardiovascular disease morbidity. The committee also found that replacing processed meat and red meat with dairy products can reduce this risk.
As a result of these conclusion statements, the committee recommended no changes for dairy consumption and again emphasized healthy plant-based or plant-forward diets to reduce saturated fats.
Organizations representing the meat industry opposed these recommendations and emphasized the positive nutritional benefits of meat products.
In an emailed statement, the Meat Institute's Potts highlighted nutritional benefits of meat including protein, iron, zinc, copper, vitamin B6 and potassium. Many Americans are not consuming enough of these nutrients, and it’s contradictory for the committee to recommend reductions of these products, she continued.
Given that many Americans consume meat, Potts said the “avoidance language” included in the recommendations does not foster improved health.
Julie Anna Potts, president and CEO of the Meat Institute“It’s baffling that we are trying to get Americans to cut out red meat when the evidence indicates nutrient deficiencies and chronic disease are increasing as red meat consumption declines,” said Shalene McNeill, executive director of nutrition science at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
“As a registered dietitian and nutrition scientist, I am concerned that basing guidelines on highly academic exercises, hypothetical modeling, and weak science on red meat will not produce relevant or practical guidelines and will not help us achieve healthier diets,” McNeill continued in a statement.
Over the last several months, food industry groups have raised concerns about the level of scientific rigor and transparency within the DGA process.
The International Dairy Foods Association said it was "cautiously optimistic" that the committee will continue to recommend three servings of dairy for most Americans, based on the recent meetings. However, the group said it is disappointed the panel may dismiss evidence supporting the inclusion of dairy at all fat levels.
The National Potato Council criticized the recommendation on starchy vegetables and said the committee should focus on increasing American’s intake of vegetables overall.
“This conclusion is unsupported by nutritional science and will confuse consumers,” said Kam Quarles, CEO of NPC in a statement.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest supported the committee's advice to limit consumption of red and processed meat and products high in added sugars and saturated fats. Over the course of the two-day meeting, members emphasized the need for a healthier food system that limits barriers to healthy foods.
"This call on policymakers and industry to improve our food system and food supply should be reflected in the final DGA," said Grace Chamberlin, a CSPI policy associate.
The committee did not comment on the DGA's quantitative limits on saturated fat or added sugar, however. Chamberlin said recommendations on these should be provided to inform nutrition policy and individual dietary choices.
Despite some concerns from Congress and NPC, the committee did not attempt to make starchy vegetables like potatoes interchangeable with grains. This came up in earlier deliberations, and could have made potatoes less affordable for schools and other feeding program managers, Quarles continued.
During the two meetings, the committee did not focus much discussion on the role of alcoholic beverages on health outcomes. In explaining the draft advice to departments, Sarah Booth, DGAC chair, said that the DGAC did not review scientific evidence on this topic because of separate agency efforts.
An HHS committee and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine are conducting scientific reviews on adult alcohol consumption and health, with findings expected by the end of the year. The committee recommended the departments consider these findings in developing the final guidelines.
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