New U.S. Dietary Guidelines Released: What You Need to Know

On January 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) released the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (“DGAs” or “Guidelines”), representing the federal government’s updated nutrition guidance for the current five-year cycle.

What Are the Dietary Guidelines and What Do They Say?

The DGAs, updated every five years, are intended to provide food-based recommendations to promote health, help prevent diet-related chronic diseases, and meet nutrient needs.[1] These Guidelines inform federal food and nutrition policy and education initiatives, including school meals, military and veteran meals, and other child and adult nutrition programs.

At a high level, the 2025–2030 Guidelines place increased emphasis on protein intake and whole foods, and limits on highly processed foods, while retaining many foundational elements of prior guidance, including continued recommendations related to fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and saturated fat intake. At the same time, the Guidelines reflect changes in emphasis and presentation—including updated protein intake targets, revised treatment of added sugars and food processing, and new “Eat Real Food” messaging and visual guidance such as the updated food pyramid—consistent with the current administration’s broader Make America Healthy Again (“MAHA”) agenda. Taken together, these changes raise practical considerations for food, beverage, and dietary supplement companies as the Guidelines are applied across federal nutrition policy.

Key Takeaways for the Food Industry

• Increased Emphasis on Protein Intake at Every Meal.
  
  The DGAs emphasize prioritizing protein foods at every meal and provide protein intake targets of 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. This guidance reflects a higher intake range than prior federal dietary guidance and may influence how protein needs are discussed and benchmarked in federal nutrition programs, institutional menu standards, and product development and positioning decisions.

• Continued Emphasis on Diverse Protein Sources.
  
  As in prior editions, the 2025–2030 DGAs encourage consumption of a variety of protein sources, including meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, seafood, and plant-based proteins such as beans, nuts, and soy. The DGAs now include red meat within the recommended protein foods category. The Guidelines emphasize overall dietary balance and nutrient density, rather than prescribing or excluding specific protein categories. The DGAs also advise limiting added sugars, refined carbohydrates and starches, and certain additives that are often present in highly processed protein products.

• Saturated Fat Limits Remain Unchanged, with New Emphasis on Fat-Rich Whole Foods.
  
  Notably, the 2025–2030 DGAs do not revise the longstanding recommendation that saturated fat intake should account for no more than approximately 10 percent of total daily calories, notwithstanding prior public statements suggesting that the new Guidelines would revisit recommendations. At the same time, the DGAs encourage Americans to prioritize fat-containing whole foods—such as eggs, avocados, seafood, nuts, and dairy—and to use traditional added-fat sources, including olive oil, butter, and beef tallow. Relatedly, the DGAs emphasize full-fat dairy consumption, recommending three servings per day as part of a 2,000-calorie dietary pattern.

• Explicit Recognition of Dietary Supplements Signals Greater Policy Acceptance.
  
  The DGAs expressly recognize dietary supplements as a tool to help address nutrient gaps for certain populations. This acknowledgment reflects a broader shift in federal nutrition policy toward viewing supplements as a legitimate complement to dietary intake rather than a peripheral or discouraged category. Industry groups, including the Council for Responsible Nutrition, publicly welcomed this recognition as “evidence-based and practical.” For supplement manufacturers and food companies with supplement-adjacent portfolios, the DGAs may support expanded use, positioning, and integration of supplements within nutrition strategies tied to federal guidance.

• Heightened Focus on Processed Foods, with Definitions Still Unsettled.
  
  The DGAs recommend avoiding “highly processed packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat, or other foods that are salty or sweet,” including “sugar-sweetened beverages, such as sodas, fruit drinks, and energy drinks.” The Guidelines further state that highly processed foods may disrupt a “well-balanced microbiome and healthy digestion” and recommend that Americans “limit foods and beverages that include artificial flavors, petroleum-based dyes, artificial preservatives, and low-calorie non-nutritive sweeteners.” Notably, while the Guidelines repeatedly refer to “highly processed” foods, the term “ultra-processed foods” does not appear. As discussed in our prior MoFo client alert, FDA and USDA last summer separately sought public input on whether and how “ultra-processed foods” should be defined for federal purposes via a Request for Information.

• Federal Nutrition Programs Are Likely to Be the First Area of Practical Implementation.
  
  We anticipate that federal nutritional programs will be recalibrated to reflect the DGAs’ emphasis on higher protein intake, reduced added sugars, and greater reliance on whole foods. For manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers serving these programs, this raises the likelihood of changes to procurement standards, menu requirements, and product eligibility as implementing rules are updated.

If you have any questions concerning the developments discussed in this client alert, please contact the authors.

[1] The previous version of the Guidelines, for the years 2020–2025, was published in December 2020.