His focus has been so intense that the leading researcher, Kevin Hall, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who was responsible for establishing some of the strongest evidence of ultra-processed foods’ health harms, left the agency because he felt like Kennedy’s HHS wouldn’t allow him to communicate unbiased study results unless they continued to back that conclusion up, regardless of what the research found. (HHS spokespeople have disputed his assertion.)
According to the law, changes to the dietary guidelines must be based on what is called a “preponderance of evidence.” The committee conducted a systematic review of research on the relationship between eating ultra-processed foods and risk of weight gain and obesity. The researchers did conclude that diets high in ultra-processed foods were associated with more body fat, higher body mass indexes, and a higher risk of obesity in adults, with a similar finding for children.
But it rated the evidence as “limited.” Since that didn’t meet the standard of a “preponderance of evidence,” the committee declined to recommend limits on ultra-processed foods in the guidelines.
Fung said that makes sense, since the definition of ultra-processed foods was only developed in 2009. In her mind, it still needs work. And these changes take time: It took ages for nutrition science to evolve to recognize healthy fats instead of cautioning against all fat in the diet, for example.
“It is a hot-button topic, and people want answers,” CSPI’s Chamberlin said. “We want to know what’s going on and what’s making us sick. But honestly, the advisory committee not being able to put forth a strong recommendation is a testament to how scientifically rigorous their process is. Their guidance can only be as strong as the underlying science.”
Not everyone agrees with that. Nestle, for one, who is also a stickler about the science, thinks it’s high time to tell Americans to eat fewer ultra-processed foods.
Either way, members of the Trump administration have mischaracterized how the advisory committee evaluated ultra-professed foods—and how the current guidelines currently handle them. In the Megyn Kelly interview, for example, Makary said, “No longer are we going to say, ‘You have these calories, it doesn’t matter how you get them, it doesn’t matter if it’s all ultra-processed foods.’”
“We do not need the term ultra-processed to help us differentiate between healthy versus unhealthy foods.”
In fact, the 2020 guidelines recommended “nutrient-dense” foods, which means it’s not just calories that matter.
In the end, Fung said the best dietary advice hasn’t changed much over time. Based on the review, she’d give this advice: “Eat more fruits and vegetables, whole grains. Eat a wide variety of foods. Mostly plant-based, especially the proteins, and choose whole foods and minimally processed [foods].”
She—and pretty much any nutrition expert—will recommend sticking most to whole and minimally processed foods. “We do not need the term ultra-processed to help us differentiate between healthy versus unhealthy foods,” she says.
Kennedy and those around him see it differently. They want to emphasize the ultra-processed nature of the foods. “Ultra-processed food is comprised of three ingredients primarily that did not exist 120 years ago,” said Kennedy advisor Calley Means at the MAHA Institute launch, citing refined grains, added sugar, and seed oils.
Some experts, including Nestle, disagree with many of the nitty-gritty details but understand where the arguments and frustration are coming from: She’s been pointing to corporate influence on dietary advice for decades, while others have documented how a food system driven by corporate profit transformed the way Americans eat in less than a century, while chronic disease rates ticked up.
It can start to feel like splitting hairs, but the tension between what conclusions can be drawn from the observable reality at hand, the scientific evidence available, and the desire to make change right away has existed for as long as nutrition has been studied. It’s hard to do controlled trials that isolate what humans eat. It’s hard to boil down complicated studies into simple advice on which foods to eat for optimal health. Kennedy doesn’t seem to agree.
“We are going to have four-page dietary guidelines that tell people, essentially, ‘Eat whole food,’ ” he told members of Congress in May. “ ‘Eat the food that’s good for you.’ ”
