Trump’s Dietary Guidelines Reject Science-Backed Advisory Committee Recommendations for Shifts towards Plant-Rich Diets

New Dietary Guidelines ignore science on harms of meat-heavy diets; recommendations could undermine efforts to curb heart disease, diabetes, and cancer

WASHINGTON – In a break from the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC)’s science-based recommendation to shift toward more plant-rich diets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) offer contradictory nutrition guidance that could lead to increased rates of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

While the updated guidelines appropriately emphasize reducing highly processed foods — an evidence-backed step that could help curb chronic illness — those gains are undermined by several key departures from the scientific evidence:

• No longer limiting red meat consumption, depicting steak at the top of the new food pyramid. Previous dietary guidelines recommended limiting red meat consumption because of its link to heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.
• Recommending a dramatic increase in protein consumption, which will likely lead to most Americans consuming more factory farmed animal products, crowding out healthier foods. While the guidelines emphasize consuming a variety of animal-based and plant-based proteins, most Americans’ diets are dominated by animal foods: Americans already consume roughly 224 pounds of meat per year — more than two and a half times the amount recommended by the 2020–2025 guidelines and three times the global average. Most Americans need to decrease their meat consumption in favor of fiber-rich foods in order to stay within limits on saturated fat and sodium consumption and meet recommended fiber intakes, which 97 percent of Americans fail to achieve.
• Failing to acknowledge that increasing meat and full-fat dairy intake will increase toxic chemical exposure. Greater consumption of meat and full fat dairy intake could lead to increased exposure to toxic chemicals, particularly given that the overwhelming majority of U.S. meat and dairy comes from factory farms that rely on pesticide intensive feed and routine antibiotics and growth promoting drugs. Animals accumulate contaminants such as dioxins, heavy metals, and pesticide residues in their fatty tissues — which then show up on our plates and our children’s school lunch trays. The EPA estimates that 90% of dioxin exposure comes from consuming animal fats. Long-term exposure to dioxins is linked to cancer, immune dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, and reproductive and developmental harm — risks that are especially concerning for children.
• Declining to prioritize consumption of beans, peas, and lentils within the protein foods group, as recommended by DGAC. Plant-rich diets centered on beans, peas, and lentils, vegetables, and whole grains significantly reduce chronic disease risk. Dietary guidelines in Canada, the UK, China, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Estonia, and others all encourage eating less meat and more plant-based sources of protein.
• Emphasizing full-fat dairy instead of low-fat dairy and fortified soy products. The DGA contradict themselves by rightly recommending limited saturated fat intake but also recommending three servings of full-fat dairy per day, along with promoting red meat, which is high in saturated fat. They also sideline fortified soy products, which are nutritionally equivalent to dairy products and important for the millions of Americans who are lactose intolerant.

“A robust body of research — including findings from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee — shows that plant-rich diets are healthier and reduce the risk of chronic diseases,” said Chloë Waterman, Senior Program Manager at Friends of the Earth U.S. “If the administration is serious about preventing diet-related disease and reducing the billions of taxpayer dollars treating preventable conditions each year, it cannot ignore the benefits of plant-rich diets. The DGAs should be elevating these foods over animal products.”

“We welcome guidance to reduce highly processed foods, but failing to emphasize plant-rich diets ignores strong scientific consensus on the harms of increased meat consumption and the need for more fiber-rich, plant-based options,” said Kari Hamerschlag, Deputy Director of Food and Agriculture at Friends of the Earth. “These guidelines cater to big Meat and Dairy and will boost consumption of factory farmed animal products. Americans deserve guidance that favors fewer factory-farmed foods, more plant-based protein, and more sustainable organic, pasture-raised meat and dairy raised without harmful drugs or pesticides.”

Expert contact: Chloe Waterman, [email protected]
Communications contact: Jessica Christopher (Curator PR on behalf of Friends of the Earth U.S.), 610-945-8615 (PT), [email protected]