RFK Jr to urge Americans to eat more saturated fats, alarming health experts; guidance from health and human services secretary contradicts decades of dietary recommendations
The Guardian: “Kennedy has indicated that new dietary guidelines will “stress the need to eat saturated fats of dairy, of good meat, of fresh meat and vegetables … when we release those, it will give everybody the rationale for driving it into our schools”, according to recent reporting in the Hill.”
“My response and sort of counsel to myself was to stay calm, and let’s see what happens, because there was no indication given as to how, why, when this potential shift would occur,” said Cheryl Anderson, an American Heart Association board member and professor at the University of California, San Diego’s school of public health and human longevity science. The recommendation around saturated fat has been one of the most consistent recommendations since the first edition of the dietary guidelines.”
The Hill: “U.S. dietary guidelines could soon undergo another overhaul under the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, and the proposal has already drawn criticism.Kennedy has argued Americans need more saturated fats, not less, saying foods like butter, cheese, milk and red meat have been unfairly demonized for decades. The updated guidance could be released as soon as this month.
In an interesting “coincidence”, this sudden abandonment of tested science across disciplines — nutrition, biology, medicine, organic chemistry, and environmental science has happened at roughly the same time as Trump’s choice to send 20-40 Billion dollars to Argentina to grow their beef industry for imports to the US. Beef is a primary source in the American diet of saturated fats in beef cuts, whole fat milk and cheese.
Typically, Anderson said, nutritional guidelines are years in the making. It’s not normal for the HHS secretary to change them overnight. Every five years, the dietary guidelines advisory committee publishes the Dietary Guidelines for Americans report based on rigorous review of the latest research. The latest version of that report has yet to be released, but “would have been expected to produce guidance for 2025 through 2030”, Anderson said, adding that the current administration does not appear to be following the usual protocol.