New Food Guidance from HHS

Can I Get an AMEN!!!!!!

The new HHS food pyramid represents something rare in modern nutrition policy: a quiet return to biological reality. (The Big Ag corporate capture and control is finally - not in the decision room)

For decades, the official food pyramid was less a reflection of human physiology and more a mirror of corporate convenience. Grains at the base, fats demonized, protein politely minimized, and ultra-processed foods slipping in through the side door with a health halo. We raised generations on the idea that calories were calories, sugar was “energy,” and fat was the villain, while metabolic disease quietly exploded in the background.

Children Suffer. Uncontrollable and Unconscionable.

This new pyramid flips the script, and it does so without shouting.

At its foundation is real food, minimally processed, nutrient-dense, structurally intact. This is not a diet. It’s a reminder that the human body evolved to extract information from food, not just calories. Fiber, micronutrients, amino acids, fatty acids, and phytochemicals are not optional extras; they are signaling molecules that regulate immunity, metabolism, neurodevelopment, and hormonal balance. When food loses structure, biology loses context.

Protein is no longer an afterthought. It’s central. That matters. Adequate, high-quality protein supports lean mass, insulin sensitivity, immune competence, satiety signaling, and neurodevelopment, especially in children and adolescents. For too long, we treated protein like a garnish while wondering why kids were tired, inflamed, anxious, and hungry an hour after eating.

Healthy fats are no longer treated as metabolic contraband. They are acknowledged for what they are: essential components of cell membranes, hormones, bile flow, brain development, and inflammation regulation. The body does not fear fat; it fears metabolic confusion. When fat is paired with real food and stable insulin signaling, it supports resilience rather than disease.

Carbohydrates are contextualized rather than glorified. Whole, fiber-rich sources are recognized as optional tools, not mandatory staples. This matters profoundly for insulin resistance, fatty liver disease, PCOS, and pediatric metabolic dysfunction. The pyramid finally admits what physiology has always known: carbohydrate tolerance is individualized, and excess refined carbohydrate is inflammatory, not neutral.

Ultra-processed foods are clearly de-emphasized, not because they are morally wrong, but because they disrupt appetite regulation, mitochondrial function, gut permeability, and immune signaling. These foods are engineered for profit, not for human biology.

Naming that reality is long overdue.

What I appreciate most is what the pyramid doesn’t do. It doesn’t micromanage. It doesn’t moralize. It doesn’t pretend that a single macronutrient ratio fits every human. Instead, it sets guardrails based on physiology, not politics.

This is a departure from corporate capture toward biological literacy.

It won’t fix everything overnight. Policy never does. But it gives clinicians, parents, and patients something we haven’t had in a long time: permission to trust biology again.

And that alone makes it a meaningful step forward.

Dr. M

Prioritizing Protein: While previous Dietary Guidelines have demonized protein in favor of carbohydrates, these guidelines reflect gold standard science by prioritizing high-quality, nutrient-dense protein foods in every meal. This includes a variety of animal sources, including eggs, poultry, seafood, and red meat, in addition to plant-sourced protein foods such as beans, peas, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds, and soy.

Avoiding highly processed foods: For the first time, the Dietary Guidelines call out the dangers of certain highly processed foods – a common-sense and vital public health point. The guidance calls to “avoid highly processed packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat, or other foods that are salty or sweet” and “avoid sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soda, fruit drinks, and energy drinks.”

Avoiding added sugars: While previous Dietary Guidelines did not take a hard line against added sugar (especially for children), this guidance says, “no amount of added sugars or non-nutritive sweeteners is recommended or considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet” and calls on parents to completely avoid added sugar for children aged four and under.

Ending the War on Healthy Fats: The guidance calls for receiving the bulk of fat from whole food sources, such as meats, poultry, eggs, omega 3–rich seafood, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, olives, and avocados. When cooking with or adding fats to meals, the guidelines call for using the most nutrient-dense natural options with essential fatty acids, such as olive oil.

Heralding whole grains and avoiding refined carbohydrates: This guidance takes a firm stand to “prioritize fiber-rich whole grains” and “significantly reduce the consumption of highly processed, refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, ready-to-eat or packaged breakfast options, flour tortillas, and crackers.”

Including diets lower in carbohydrates to manage chronic disease: The guidance makes the science-based and common-sense recommendation that individuals with certain chronic diseases may experience improved health outcomes when following a lower carbohydrate diet.

For those that follow Dr. Rhonda Patrick, her newsletter this week was a slam dunk analysis of the new food guidelines. Read them in their entirety on hew website or subscribe to her found my fitness newsletter. Here is her summation:

"Final thoughts: For the first time in a long time, these guidelines feel like they’re inching closer to biological reality.

The biggest win is the shift away from obsessing over single numbers while ignoring the food environment and toward the things that actually move outcomes: eat real food, dramatically reduce ultra-processed foods, stop drinking sugar, and prioritize protein and micronutrient density across the lifespan.

If Americans followed just those pillars, we’d see downstream effects everywhere. That means less obesity and type 2 diabetes, fewer cardiovascular events, better gut health, better brain health, and healthier aging.

But guidelines don’t change health, implementation does. Ultra-processed foods have become the default setting. They’re cheap, convenient, engineered for overconsumption, and aggressively marketed, especially to kids. 

So while I’m encouraged by the stronger language in this report, the real test will be whether we pair it with policies and environments that make the healthy choice the easy choice. If so, I’m hopeful for the health of our nation.

Warm regards

— Rhonda and the FoundMyFitness team (Site)"

HHS.GOV