Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Department Secretary Brooke Rollins introduced new dietary guidelines last week, upending the ultra-processed food regime that has dominated Americans’ diets for decades. The guidelines are long overdue and have the potential to save countless lives.
The government moves slowly, especially the federal government, but science does not. For years now, the evidence has been clear that real food — steak, chicken, fish, eggs — beats sugary cereal and neon-colored breakfast muffins every single time. And yet, for decades, Health and Human Services failed to reinforce that message. Why? You can take your pick from the all-you-can-eat buffet of reasons. Bureaucratic inertia is the polite explanation; corporate capture is the uncomfortable one.
Since the original 1992 dietary guidelines were rolled out, ultra-processed food companies have steadily taken over the American food system. Today ultra-processed foods account for roughly 55 percent of the average American’s calories, with even higher exposure among children. Over that same period, obesity rates more than doubled, type 2 diabetes exploded, and metabolic disease became normalized. The biggest winners were cereal manufacturers, soda companies, and snack conglomerates, many of whom conveniently aligned their products with what the government stamped “healthy.”
Regardless of intent, the result has been devastating — bad advice, repeated for decades, in direct conflict with evolving science and negative outcomes, which has created a deep, justified distrust in public health institutions. These dietary guidelines don’t just sit on a shelf. They are the rulebook for government-funded and government-approved food programs, including schools, hospitals, nursing homes, military bases, and other institutions that rely on federal guidance to design menus. You might say, “I don’t follow the dietary guidelines.” Sure, but the places that give you health advice absolutely do.
As a chef and someone who works within local government, I see this disconnect play out in real time. Procurement decisions, menu planning, and vendor approval all trace back to these old guidelines. That’s why you’re served pancakes and cereal in hospitals instead of steak and eggs. That’s why “heart-healthy” breakfasts are still built around sugar and refined grains. Those meals send a message: “This is what healthy food looks like.”
The same dynamic plays out in schools. For years, kids were served sugar bombs in cafeterias under the banner of nutrition. I was one of those kids, and I suffered in school with horrible stomach problems. When those kids grow up and start making their own food choices, what do they remember? The food that their schools served — and the idea that if teachers, administrators, and the government trusted it, then it must be good for them. Add to that the gutting of home economics and cooking classes, and we’ve stripped people of both accurate guidance and basic food literacy.
Another quiet but critical correction in these new guidelines is the renewed emphasis on whole milk and full-fat dairy. Americans have been taught to fear fat, particularly saturated fat, while being encouraged to replace it with refined carbohydrates, industrialized seed oils, and added sugars. The result was predictable: skim milk in schools, low-fat dairy products loaded with sweeteners, and a population deprived of essential fats that play a central role in hormone regulation, brain development, satiety, and metabolic health. Whole milk, once a dietary staple, was pushed aside not because of strong science, but because fat became the villain in a policy framework that misunderstood nutrition or was incentivized to promote carbs and sugar.
This matters because the real enemy has never been fat; it has been refined carbohydrates. Essential fats slow digestion, stabilize blood sugar, and help people feel full. Refined carbs do the opposite. Bringing whole milk back into the conversation signals a broader and long-overdue course correction away from carb-heavy engineered foods and toward whole, nutrient-dense options that just so happen to also taste amazing!
At the same time, food service in America has become a highly consolidated beast, which I would suggest is a result of the old food pyramid.
Yes, there are still mom-and-pop establishments peppered across Main Street. But most people would be shocked to learn how few options many of these operators actually have when sourcing food. A massive share of restaurants, schools, and institutions buy from the same handful of distributors, pulling from the same limited catalogs — one reason so much food now tastes eerily similar.
That consolidation becomes even more suffocating in government food programs. If you want to stitch a company into the pipeline that feeds schools, hospitals, or public institutions, good luck getting an approved contract unless you understand and play by the rules of the processed-food industry and the old food pyramid. Shelf stability, fortified nutrient panels, carb-heavy formulations, and synthetic additives are often baked into the requirements. That favors large manufacturers with corporate co-packers, compliance teams, and the ability to produce massive volumes of boxed food that check bureaucratic boxes but fail real bodies.
A shift toward whole foods and real proteins changes that equation.
By emphasizing foods like eggs, chicken, fish, whole grains, vegetables, and full-fat dairy, the new guidelines open the door to far more small and independent food vendors participating in the supply chain. These producers don’t need corporate co-packers or lab-engineered nutrient profiles jammed with refined carbs and synthetic vitamins. They can compete on quality, freshness, and simplicity by cooking real food rather than manufacturing it.
That’s how you break consolidation. Not with slogans, but by rewriting the rules so real food can finally compete with the processed giants on a level playing field, in an open market free from government manipulation.
And that’s why these new dietary guidelines matter so much. They’re not just about food; they’re about restoring credibility, aligning policy with science, and finally admitting what most Americans already know in their often inflamed gut: Real food works, and the rest has been making us sick.
Andrew Gruel, a graduate of Johnson & Wales University, is a food entrepreneur and television personality. He is the Founder of Slapfish Restaurant Group (27 locations), the award-winning food truck-turned-international brick and mortar, based out of Huntington Beach, California, and currently CEO and founder of American Gravy Restaurant Group.
