Changes are likely coming to school lunches.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said Monday that new nutritional guidance will be released, driving changes in school lunch programs, as well as food provided in prisons and the military.
Kennedy stressed that the guidance will focus on nutrient-dense foods, less sugar, and will be easier to read.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are released every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The last set of guidelines was released in 2020. The document is 164 pages and lays out recommended diets for Americans of various ages and the science behind those recommendations.
In December, nutrition experts released their recommendations for the 2025 update. The new report reiterated much of what we already know: A healthy diet is lower in red and processed meats, as well as sugar-sweetened foods, refined grains and saturated fats.
RELATED STORY | Ranking the best diets for 2024
It also addresses topics like portion sizes and the practice of intermittent fasting. The panel said, "Time-restricted eating, especially when foods are consumed earlier in the day may be linked to improvements in metabolic conditions."
Kennedy wants to simplify the science behind these recommendations.
The report filed in December was over 400 pages long and went into greater detail than the previous finalized report.
"They were driven by the same commercial impulses that put Froot Loops at the top of the food pyramid, and they were incomprehensible, and we are going to release dietary guidelines that are four, five or six pages long that are understandable, that are simple and will allow people to make good choices about their food," Kennedy said. "They will drive changes in the school lunch program and prison lunches and military food, and they will begin to change America almost immediately."
The food pyramid was replaced by "MyPlate" in 2011.
