U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Tuesday announced their continued work on the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Guidelines).
The public comment period closed on February 10, 2025. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are currently conducting a line-by-line review of the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) —released in 2024 by the prior administration—and are committed to releasing the final Guidelines ahead of its statutory deadline of December 31, 2025, according to a joint press release. Moving forward beyond 2025, HHS and USDA are looking to make holistic process improvements to ensure transparency and minimize conflicts of interest.
NCC submitted official comments in February urging HHS and USDA to reject the DGAC’s recommendations that emphasize plant-based proteins over lean meats like chicken. Among the recommendations with which NCC took issue was the emphasis on eating beans, peas, and lentils as an optimal protein source above chicken and the fact that there was no specific mention that lean meat, like chicken, can be part of a healthy dietary pattern. Those comments can be found here.
“It is the dawn of a new day,” Secretary Brooke Rollins said. “The Trump-Vance Administration supports transformational opportunities to create and implement policies that promote healthy choices, healthy families, and healthy outcomes. Secretary Kennedy and I have a powerful, complementary role in this, and it starts with updating federal dietary guidance. We will make certain the 2025-2030 Guidelines are based on sound science, not political science. Gone are the days where leftist ideologies guide public policy.”
“We are going to make sure the dietary guidelines will reflect the public interest and serve public health, rather than special interests,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said. “This is a giant step in making America the healthiest country in the world.”
BACKGROUND
The Federal government has provided dietary advice for the public for over 100 years through bulletins, posters, brochures, books, and—more recently—websites and social media. Dietary guidance has generally included advice about what to eat and drink for better health, but the specific messaging has changed throughout the years to reflect advances in nutrition science and the role of specific foods and nutrients on health.
