2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Released
The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services emphasizes the importance of 'eating the right amount for you' and prioritizing whole, minimally processed foods to support overall health and nutrient intake.
First issued in 1980, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are updated every five years and were last revised in 2020. The current update was originally scheduled for 2025 but was delayed until 2026. USDA began the revision process in March 2025 by releasing a draft list of questions, which drew significant public engagement, generating more than 1,500 comments.
Changes from Previous Guidelines
The updated guidelines include a notable shift toward increased protein intake, specifying 1.2-1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. In a departure from past guidelines, the new recommendations explicitly identify unprocessed red meat as an acceptable protein source.
A central focus of the guidelines is limiting added sugars. The document states, "no amount of added sugar or non-nutritive sweeter is recommended". This marks a clear shift from the last guidelines, which allowed up to 10% of daily calories from added sugars, including artificial substitutes.
Across categories, including, meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables, the guidelines advise avoiding products with added sugar. Frozen, dried, or canned fruits and vegetables with little or no added sugar are identified as strong options. The guidelines recommend avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages, and limiting snack foods to those to 5 grams of sugar for a grain based snack and 2.5 grams for a dairy snack.
The guidelines also note the importance of gut health to the human microbiome, recommending fermented and high-fiber foods in addition to fruits and vegetables in support of this goal.
Preventing chronic disease through nutrition is a persistent theme throughout the document. Specially noted is the potential for a low-carbohydrate diet to improve health outcomes for some individuals, specifically those with chronic conditions.
The updated guidelines also bring back the 'food pyramid', which was replaced with 'MyPlate' in 2011. The inverted pyramid places protein and vegetables at the top and grains at the bottom.
Areas of Continuity with Prior Guidelines
Despite speculation over changes to recommend saturated fat consumption, the 2025 guidelines maintain the 10% of total daily calorie recommendation. The updated guidelines do contain specific mentions of beef tallow and butter, a deviation from the previous focus on primarily plant-based sources of health fats. Full-fat dairy is also recommended, instead of a low-fat option.
The sodium recommendation remains unchanged at 2,300mg per day, with increased intake for highly active individuals permitted.
Looking Ahead
The updated guidelines will be used to influence programs such as public school and military meals as well as SNAP and WIC. The new guidelines align with previous efforts by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to restrict candy, soda, and other processed foods from SNAP qualifications.