RFK Jr Scores MAHA Win by Flipping the Food Pyramid Upside Down
Meat is back on the menu!
Americans just woke up to a food pyramid that’s been completely inverted, with steak, cheese, and whole milk climbing to the top instead of being banished to the tiny tip.
In a move that nutrition watchers are already calling historic and many Americans are celebrating, the new dietary guidelines recast “real food” as the star of the show, sidelining ultra‑processed products and sugary snacks in favor of protein‑rich meals.
It is a significant win for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) team, which set out to invert the pyramid and highlight that food is meant to nourish you, not manage you.
Under President Trump’s leadership, common sense, scientific integrity, and accountability have been restored to federal food and health policy.
For decades, the Dietary Guidelines favored corporate interests over common-sense, science-driven advice to improve the health of… pic.twitter.com/QMO2LAW00a
— HHS (@HHSGov) January 7, 2026
I have often noted the importance of red meat in a healthy, nutritious diet, as well as the fact that food science is the most unsettled of all sciences. I am pleased to see that our policymakers were paying attention to real scientists in this menu makeover.
In a striking reversal of past nutrition guidance, the Trump administration released new dietary guidelines on Wednesday that flip the food pyramid on its head, putting steak, cheese and whole milk near the top.
The new guidelines urge Americans to prioritize protein and avoid the sugary, processed foods that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said are poisonous to health.
“My message is clear: Eat real food,” Mr. Kennedy said at a briefing rolling out the guidelines, where he positioned them as the key to preventing chronic disease and improving Americans’ health.
These changes are much needed. I have covered the continued revisions of consensus in dietary science extensively for Legal Insurrection since I was first invited to join this great team:
- How the Sugar Industry Poisoned Food Science against Sugar
- America’s “Egg-perts” Get Fried by Real Science
- Weighing In on the Trans-Fat Ban
- Most Americans are actually consuming a healthy amount of salt!
Time and time again, the “experts” have had to walk back theories built upon politicized science, government agendas, and regulatory intervention. Meanwhile, thousands of doctors have made good-faith recommendations that may have hurt the patients they were supposed to heal, and millions of Americans have made diet choices that may have actually done far more harm than good.
I am delighted to note that the new guidelines officially end this nation’s “War on Meat.”
The realfood.gov messaging site states the new DGAs “end the war on protein,” increasing the adult recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein from 0.8 grams per kilogram (g/kg) of bodyweight to 1.2–1.6 g/kg of bodyweight, suggesting a food high in protein be eaten at every meal.
As in the previous DGAs, the consumption of a variety of healthy protein sources including meat, eggs, poultry, dairy, seafood, and plants (e.g., beans, nuts, soy) are encouraged.
The guidelines do recommend avoiding the consumption of “chemical additives,” as well as added sugars and refined carbohydrates or starches, alongside proteins.
The new guidelines also call for real dairy with all of the fat (and flavor). It also separates whole grains from processed grains, with the carbohydrates now residing at the bottom rather than the top of the pyramid.
The updated guidelines favor full-fat dairy with no added sugars, calling for three servings per day for someone on a 2,000-calorie diet.
They also suggest prioritizing “fiber-rich” whole grain with two to four servings per day and significantly reducing highly processed, refined carbs including white bread, flour tortillas and crackers.
The guidelines also recommend three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruits per day for a typical 2,000-calorie diet. The guidelines emphasize eating whole foods in their original form but also say, “frozen, dried, or canned vegetables or fruits with no or very limited added sugars can also be good options.”
This truly is a signature achievement for Kennedy, who pledged to create a simple, understandable guideline. The new guidance is 10 pages long.
Previous editions of the dietary guidelines have grown over the years, from a 19-page pamphlet in 1980 to the 164-page document issued in 2020, which included a four-page executive summary.
The guidance will have the most profound effect on the federally funded National School Lunch Program, which is required to follow the guidelines to feed nearly 30 million U.S. children on a typical school day.
I am sure he is quite pleased with the development:
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) January 7, 2026
I am sure the mainstream media and food industry will bring out “experts” to diminish this development. However, I say let’s give the new plan at least 30 years. I offer the following as proof that the new pyramid is superior.
I have been essentially following the "real food pyramid" guidelines for 35 years. I am 63 years old and hike an hour daily, do archery, and work 2 jobs. pic.twitter.com/fOIbb5vKqC
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) January 7, 2026
Nice to see meat is back on the menu…as well as oysters!
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Comments
Where is beer on the pyramid?
where ever you want it
It’s right there next to the Cheerios.
I’m just happy to know that the bacon cheeseburgers I’ve been eating for 50 yrs were good all along.
The beer is right there next to the porkchop. Haven’t you heard the old saying that “there is a pork chop in every bottle:?
And the chocolate.
One pizza, made the right way, has most of the pyramid on it. (No avacado)
My wife and I took care of a friend with alzheimer’s for years. We used this diet for her (and us), and her bloodwork, which was a mess, improved drastically. This diet works.
having grown up on a farm
I never paid attention to the
old food pyramid…
this one is more of what I ate
and still do ….
I never paid attention to it either, after “4,4,3,2. That’s the formula for me and you!” And if you remember that, then you’re old like me. (Along with, “Give a hoot, don’t pollute!”)
I predict a YUGE spike in SPAM consumption! This is what I voted for!
When you have power you can just DO things.
I have been a type II diabetic for more than a quarter of a century. No appreciable complications, so far.
Don’t eat anything white. (Sugar is white). Don’t eat anything packaged.
That isn’t everything, but a big chunk of it.
’bout time !!!
I have been eating this way for the last 234 years
so I know it works
This will turn mummy upside down!
I saw Inverted Mummies open for The Simple Sugars at the Orpheus back in ’92.
Speaking of which:
“How the Sugar Industry Poisoned Food Science against Sugar”
That was a big speedbump for us proofreaders.
I am an endurance athlete ( quasi endurance – more for fun that actual competition)
proteins, vitamins from fruits and vegtables (5-7 servings daily) and very limited amounts of carbs from pasta, are much better for fueling the energy needed. though carbs from rice, and potatoes are considered generally very good (both sweet and white potatoes, due to high vitamin content).
High carb diets are old school and are generally considered bad for performance. Very few athletes use a high carb diet.
Half of the good riders in my road cycling clubs have Enormous beer guts. In no other endurance sport could you get away with this.
Dark foods good, light foods not so much. Sweet potatoes, broccoli, whole grains etc. We have known this for years. All processed food, high sugar and carb junk food stay away from this.
Vegans go pound sand. We they want meat will eat meat without your annoying hectoring.
Hmm… I don’t see bugs on the pyramid. Globalists can go pound sand too.
They are inside every item you see in the pyramid.
Fortunately, they have not got much rat.
Now it very much resembles a real diet
This is going to be the hammer HHS and The Ag Dept uses to force states to prohibit junk food from being purchased with EBT cards and considering the obesity I see in the Hot Pocket aisle, that’s a good thing.
“I am sure the mainstream media and food industry will bring out “experts” to diminish this development.”
As I was reading this article, an “expert” appeared on the news. She criticized the prominence of meat and diary, ignoring the fact that half of the top tier (and much of the remainder of the pyramid) consists of vegetables and fruits.
We all know that expert.
Unless she’s this one.
Doesn’t the government have more important, constitutionally mandated jobs to do?
It should not be issuing any dietary guidelines.
I would tend to agree with that but when they got into the business of nutrition, they caused massive damage to the people of this country. It’s time to fix what they broke.
That would be a very good, convincing argument if the govt didn’t subsidize healthcare. So long as Uncle Sugar is footing some or all of the medical bills for the result of your eating and exercise habits then he gets a say. I’m not sure you’re gonna get much public buy in to eliminate all forms of govt healthcare subsidies for the general public; Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, ER treatment and so on.
Constutitionalism is all well and good, but socialized medicine is… FREE!!!!
There are only two sources of vitamin B-12: meat and pills. And without B-12 you will eventually become unable to walk.
What did vegans do before pills?
Pills that are sold on grocery store shelves in such strangely high concentrations that if you take more than one per WEEK, your numbers fly off the charts into the danger zone. Ask me how I know.