In a historic shift in the country’s nutritional policies, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has introduced a new set of dietary guidelines, essentially turning the existing food pyramid on its head. The newly launched recommendations reportedly intend to enforce a cut down on the consumption of highly refined and processed foods, all the while promoting whole foods, proteins, and healthy fats.
Here’s what RFK Jr. said about food pyramid
During a January 7 press conference, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services presented a new food pyramid with red meat, cheese, vegetables, and fruits pictured at the top. However, instead of the traditional food pyramid, which was narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, his iteration sported an inverted version.
“Protein and healthy fats are essential and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines. We are ending the war on saturated fats,” RFK Jr. stated while explaining his new model. (via NPR)
The new guidelines also encouraged a “dramatic reduction” in the consumption of “highly processed foods laden with refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excess sodium, unhealthy fats, and chemical additives.”
As such, RFK Jr.’s inverted food pyramid effectively replaces the ‘MyPlate’ model, introduced by then-First Lady Michelle Obama in June 2011. Before that, the country followed a traditional food pyramid that emphasized the eating of grains and discouraged excessive consumption of oils and fats.
Meanwhile, RFK Jr.’s move has received a mixed reception since its introduction. Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University, criticized the change by saying, “I’m very disappointed in the new pyramid that features red meat and saturated fat sources at the very top, as if that’s something to prioritize.”
On the other hand, Dariush Mozaffarian, the director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, applauded RFK Jr.’s inverted food pyramid. He stated, “Highly processed foods are clearly harmful for a range of diseases, so to have the U.S. government recommend that a wide class of foods be eaten less because of their processing is a big deal and I think a very positive move for public health.”
