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The US has recommended Americans double their protein intake and avoid added sugar after federal dietary guidelines were updated to help shape meals in schools and food aid programmes.
The guidelines, released on Wednesday by officials including health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, break from past dietary recommendations that are updated every five years.
Kennedy has long argued diets rich in sugar and processed foods have led to a crisis of obesity and chronic illness in the US. He described the guidelines as the “most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history”.
“These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common sense goals and gold standard scientific integrity,” Kennedy said at the White House. “These new guidelines will revolutionise our nation’s food culture and make America healthy again.”
The new guidance recommends eating 1.2 to 1.6 grammes of protein per kilogramme of body weight daily, up from 0.8 grammes. The health department said former guidelines “demonised protein in favour of carbohydrates”.
They also urged “no amount” of added sugars or sugar-free sweeteners in the diet, and said parents should “completely avoid” added sugars for children aged four and younger. The previous guidelines advised limiting added sugars to less than 10 per cent of calories.
While the guidelines do not regulate foods sold at grocery stores, they can serve as influential advice on diets.
Kennedy said the federal standards affected 45mn school lunches daily, meals for 1.3mn active-duty service members and 9mn people receiving treatment in government-run veterans’ hospitals.
They would also influence food subsidised through social safety-net programmes, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Federal money had previously “promoted low-quality, highly processed foods that lead to scores of long-term health issues”, she said.
The guidelines also recommended consumers avoid packaged, highly processed foods, including salty snacks and sweets, sugary sodas, energy drinks and fruit drinks. These products, from such food companies as PepsiCo, General Mills and Mars, fill the centre aisles of supermarkets and typically feature higher profit margins for grocers.
Kennedy accused previous administrations of “lying” to the public “to protect corporate profit-taking”.
The Consumer Brands Association, whose members include the largest packaged foods companies, offered a measured assessment of the guidelines.
Sarah Gallo, the association’s senior vice-president of product policy, said: “American consumers continue to seek a diverse selection of foods and beverages and the makers of America’s trusted household brands provide a wide variety of products to choose from that are affordable, safe and nutritious.”
Courtney Gaine, chief executive of the Sugar Association trade group, said the added sugar guidelines were “inconsistent, unrealistic and lacking scientific support”.
The new guidelines also remove a long-standing suggestion that adults consume no more than one to two units a day of alcohol. The recommendations now advise Americans to drink less alcohol but do not impose limits.
Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, defended the move, saying: “Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together. In the best-case scenario, I don’t think you should drink alcohol . . . there is alcohol on these dietary guidelines, but the implication is don’t have it for breakfast.”