ADVOCATING FOR SCIENCE-BASED DIETARY GUIDELINES
In January 2026 the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services released an unprecedented, unscientific version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Rather than follow decades of established nutrition science and the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to prioritize plant sources of protein over animal ones, it pushes animal products high in saturated fat such as meat and dairy.
In response the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) created evidence-based resources that fill the gap left by the agencies.
The Uncompromised Dietary Guidelines for Americans shows what the guidelines would have looked like had they followed the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s recommendations. A Model for Healthy and Sustainable Dietary Guidelines for Americans explores the need to address environmental sustainability in nutrition recommendations; the Implementation and Policy Recommendations Guide helps different stakeholders put these resources into practice.
For a list of organizations and individuals who endorsed the nutrition guidelines in these resources, click here.
See what leading health organizations say on the dangers of saturated fat.
the importance of dietary guidelines
National dietary guidelines are one of the most powerful policy tools available to encourage shifts toward healthy, sustainable diets. When it comes to government recommendations, dietary guidelines shape how we eat and even how we talk about food, from national policy to education on health and nutrition.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years, also determine the menus for billions of meals served in schools, government cafeterias, military bases, prisons, healthcare institutions and even social programs like Meals on Wheels.
These programs and many others are required by law to follow the Dietary Guidelines’ recommendations. A Center analysis found that the government spends tens of billions of dollars per year on food and nutrition programs.
Read our report, Sustainability in the Dietary Guidelines: Influence on Government Policies and Programs, to learn about the widespread impact the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has on federal food programs, policies, and agencies.
By promoting more sustainable diets through the guidelines, the federal government has the power to reduce millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
These national recommendations also influence how we think about food and what foods are available, accessible and affordable. By basing recommendations on what’s healthy and what’s sustainable, dietary guidelines can help shift food production and eating habits away from unhealthy and environmentally destructive menus that are far too heavy in meat and dairy and toward plant-based foods that are better for us and the planet.
food policy as climate policy
Several countries around the world are recognizing the importance of food policy as climate policy by encouraging more sustainable diets in their national guidelines.
The Netherlands, for example, released 2016 guidelines that called for no more than two servings of meat per week. Similarly the U.K.’s national dietary guidelines recommended a 7% reduction of dairy consumption and replacing several animal protein servings with plant protein each week.
Sweden directly links meat consumption to environmental damage in its guidelines and calls for people to reduce the amount of meat in their diets. For its 2019 food guide revision, Health Canada made a commitment to science-based guidelines free from industry influence. As a result the food guide acknowledges the benefits of plant-forward diets and replaces dairy with water as the beverage of choice.
However, the United States — where people eat 2 to 4 times the global average of meat — has failed to address the connection between high meat consumption and unsustainable diets in its federal dietary guidelines. Read our analysis: U.S. Lags Behind Other G20 Nations at Adding Sustainability into Dietary Guidelines.
an urgent need for reform
The need for reform is urgent. It's becoming increasingly clear that dietary guidelines are an important part of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A 2021 study comparing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with dietary guidelines in seven countries found that the U.S. guidelines have the biggest carbon footprint. Even the vegetarian version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans had a larger footprint than other countries’ guidelines due to the amount of dairy recommended. India’s guidelines, which focus on plant proteins, had the smallest footprint.
A 2020 report by EAT found that fewer than 25% of national dietary guidelines around the world recommend reducing meat consumption and the dietary guidelines of the G20 countries, including the United States, are helping drive the planet closer to climate catastrophe. Food-related emissions in G20 countries, which host two-thirds of the world’s population, account for 75% of the world’s carbon budget for food. If these diets were adopted worldwide, it would exceed the planetary boundary for food-related emissions by 263% by 2050.
Another 2020 study analyzed 85 countries and found that most national guidelines were incompatible with the Paris Climate Agreement and other environmental targets such as land use and freshwater use. This study also found that improving dietary guidelines would also benefit public health, such as reducing premature death from diet-related illnesses.
Sustainable dietary guidelines can support food systems that help meet global climate targets and address the wildlife extinction crisis. Learn more about the role of dietary guidelines in climate food policy in our Appetite for Change policy guide.
About Our Work
In 2015 the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommended that the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans include sustainability concerns and call for less meat and more plant-based foods in our daily diets for our own health and the health of the planet. Despite the outpouring of public support for these recommendations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture omitted the environmental impact of meat and dairy from the final guidelines. Read our letter to the USDA here.
In both 2020and 2025, the Center again urged the USDA to include sustainability in the Dietary Guidelines. The issue was again ignored in the final guidelines.
One positive development in the 2020 guidelines was the first-ever recommendations for infants, which urge parents to feed infants exclusively human milk for the first six months, if possible. Read our op-ed about why breastfeeding is a health, justice, and environmental issue.
However, the 2025-2030 Guidelines marked a reversal of basic nutrition advice by heavily promoting meat, including red meat, and full-fat dairy. The Center continues to fight for healthy and sustainable dietary guidance.
mORE RESOURCES
- Sustainability in the Dietary Guidelines: Influence on Government Policies and Programs
- Appetite for Change: A Policy Guide to Reducing GHGs of U.S. Diets
- Blog Post: How MAHA Could Upend U.S. Diets – For the Worse
- Blog Post: New Dietary Guidelines Contradict Longstanding Nutrition Advice on Meat and Dairy
- Blog Post: Why Sustainable Dietary Guidelines Matter
- Letter to USDA 2016 RE: Meat and Dairy Consumption in the DGA
- Op-Ed: New Dietary Guidelines Should Recognize Link Between Planetary and Human Health
- Public Comment to USDA 2020 RE: Sustainability in the DGA
- Public Comment to USDA 2025 RE: 2025 DGAC Report
- U.S. Lags Behind Other G20 Nations at Adding Sustainability into Dietary Guidelines