Americans will be advised to eat more butter, meat and other foods high in saturated fats under new government dietary guidelines expected as soon as this coming week.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a proponent of the carnivore diet, and he’ll push for Americans to get out their own steak and butter knives.
Mr. Kennedy said the Department of Health and Human Services, with the Department of Agriculture, will issue new dietary guidelines “that are common sense, and stress the need to eat the saturated fats and dairy, of good meat, of fresh meat and vegetables.”
Speaking at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting at the end of July, Mr. Kennedy said the new guidelines would likely be issued at the end of October, although it’s not clear if the action will be delayed due to the government shutdown. An HHS spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from The Washington Times.
Mr. Kennedy said the new guidelines would influence the federal government’s meal programs in public schools, the military and prisons, where nutrition is notoriously absent from the menu.
“It will change diets in prison populations, in the military and elsewhere,” Mr. Kennedy said. “It’s a new opportunity to reboot and change the diets in our schools.”
The details are still under wraps, but the new guidelines are likely to discard the federal government’s current recommendation that adults and children get fewer than 10% of their daily calories from saturated fats. A 2022 government survey found fewer than one-third adults met the guideline.
Current guidelines recommend consumption of low-fat or skim milk, lean cuts of meat and lower-fat cheese. They also advise using corn oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil, rather than butter or coconut oil.
Mr. Kennedy said last year he believes saturated fat found in animal meat “was demonized for decades” and blamed flawed science as well as “massive PR campaigns” that promoted margarine and other seed-oil based products, as well as high fructose corn syrup and food additives.
Mr. Kennedy called the current guideline for saturated fats a “lie” that has led to an epidemic of chronic illness.
People should consume real butter, meats, dairy and fermented foods, he said.
In an interview on Fox News earlier this year, Mr. Kennedy said he followed a carnivore diet made up mostly of meat and fermented vegetables such as kimchi and plain yogurt. “It’s dramatically changed my … everything,” he said. “I’ve had very good luck with it.”
The forthcoming guidelines are poised to spotlight an ongoing debate about the health risks and benefits associated with saturated fats.
The American Heart Association recommends saturated fats make up only 5-6% of daily calories, which is about 13 grams in a typical 2,000-calorie diet.
The AHA’s guideline is based on studies that indicate saturated fats increase so-called bad cholesterol and proteins that raise the risk of heart disease.
But additional studies did not find an association between dietary saturated fat and death from heart disease. Other studies found saturated fats, such as coconut oil, increased so-called good cholesterol.
Grace Chamberlin, a policy associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said Mr. Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins risk undermining the U.S. dietary guidelines with “misinformation” and that “the science linking saturated fat to cardiovascular disease has only strengthened.”
The forthcoming dietary guidelines are part of Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, which aims to reduce the epidemic of sickness and obesity, particularly in children.
About 1 in 5 children in the U.S. are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mr. Kennedy launched a program this year to allow states to ban sugary sodas and other snacks from the list of groceries covered by the federal food stamp program.
The new dietary guidelines Mr. Kennedy is preparing to announce also will improve the American diet and overall health, he said.
“There’s opportunities now for all of us to change, to live up to our obligation to our children and really give them a chance in life and change not only their physical health, but also their mental health,” he said.
The new dietary standards, if implemented by the USDA into the school lunch program, would reverse some of the changes made in 2012 when then-first lady Michelle Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was implemented in public school cafeterias.
The law requires schools to significantly reduce saturated fats and to serve fat-free or low-fat milk and to cap calories.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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