A Beef Industry Leader Called the USDA's 2025 Proposed Dietary Guidelines 'Elitist' — Here's Why
That food pyramid you grew up learning about via the U.S. Dietary Guidelines is about to get a major overhaul.
Remember that food pyramid you grew up on via the U.S. Dietary Guidelines? It's about to get an update — and people are already mad about the proposal.
If you don't remember those handy posters of the food pyramid from grade school, let us jog your memory. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines provide "advice on what to eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, promote health, and prevent disease," the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) explains.
The organization noted, it's specifically written for a "professional audience, including policymakers, healthcare providers, nutrition educators, and Federal nutrition program operators." Which, in turn, affects all of us. The guidelines are updated every five years, with the current edition expiring in 2025. That means a brand-new set of guidelines is on the horizon. Here's what you need to know.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines launched in 1980 as a joint initiative between the (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). "Each edition of the Dietary Guidelines reflects the current body of nutrition science," the USDA noted.
The recommendations in 1980 were simple: Eat a variety of foods, maintain an "ideal" weight, avoid too much fat and cholesterol, eat foods with adequate starch and fiber, avoid too much salt, and if you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.
Over the years, the graphics for the guidelines have evolved to include a "range of amounts of food across three calorie levels" in 1992, to the addition of oils in 2005, to switching over to the "My Plate" graphic in 2011 to "help grab consumers’ attention with a new visual cue "that was meant to serve as a reminder for healthy eating, not intended to provide specific messages," which was only slightly updated in 2020. Of course, the actual guidelines are much more in-depth. Here are the current 2020-2025 guidelines.