‘Eat real food’: HHS announces new nutrition standards

New nutrition guidelines will reduce chronic disease and save American families around $5,000 annually, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday.

“Today, our government declares war on added sugar,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said at a press briefing. “Highly processed foods loaded with additives, added sugar and excess salt damage health and should be avoided. … 

“As Secretary of Health and Human Services, my message is clear: eat real food. Nothing matters more for healthcare outcomes, economic productivity, military readiness and fiscal stability.” 

One in five young adults are diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and 77% of military-aged Americans are ineligible for service because of diet-related conditions, Kennedy said. These chronic diseases directly result from poor diets, deficient in proper nutrients, protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, he said.  

“Diets rich in vegetables and fruits reduce disease risk more effectively than many drugs,” Kennedy said. 

The new standards will transform daily meals for 45 million public school lunches, 1.3 million active-duty service members, and 9 million veterans, Kennedy estimated.  

One third of American teens suffer from pre-diabetes and more than 35% of them are overweight or obese, the secretary said. Additionally, 60-70% of children get most of their calories from ultra-processed foods, and 40% of kids suffer from chronic diseases, Food and Drug Administration Director Marty Makary added. 

“That’s an epidemic. We now have a generation of kids addicted to refined carbohydrates, low in protein,” Makary said. “This is not a willpower problem of our nation’s kids. This is something adults have done to kids and we’re going to fix it.” 

Makary announced the new guidelines increase protein recommendation for kids by up to 100%. 

“Kids need protein,” he said, “The old protein guidelines were to prevent starvation and withering away. These new protein guidelines are designed for American kids to thrive, and they’re based on science, not on dogma.”

Health food “restores health, fuels energy and builds strength,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said. The message, she says, is to “eat real food,” demonstrating how a healthy meal could cost as little as three dollars. Kennedy added that processed foods create significantly greater costs long-term because of the inflammation and chronic diseases induced.

“The idea that a cheap meal, made of processed food, is cheap is an illusion, as you’re paying for it on the back end,” he said. “You’re paying for diabetes with obesity, with illness, and if you internalize that cost of the meal, it would be a tiny fraction of the long-term cost of eating bad food.”

Nearly 50% of taxpayer dollars fund healthcare, and 90% of healthcare funds treat chronic disease, according to a Johns Hopkins University study. Almost one third of annual healthcare costs nationally – about $300 billion – cover obesity-related care, Makary said. Cutting this rate by only 10% would save the country $30 billion.

“The best way to lower drug prices is for people to stop taking drugs they don’t need,” Makary said. 

Additionally, reducing U.S. obesity, diabetes and heart disease rates would save approximately $600 billion annually – about $5,000 per family – Kennedy said.

“The new guidelines are all about putting the well-being of Americans first, exactly where it should have been all along,” Rollins said. “This is the foundation that will make America healthy again, not just for those of us alive today, but for our children and our children’s children.”