The message of the new American dietary guidelines is simple: eat real food.

Revolutionary, if you forget Michael Pollan’s famed line from 2007 to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”. Or Michelle Obama’s invocation in 2009 to swap oversweetened, oversalted foods for fresh, nutritious foods.

Steak is on the menu for RFK’s new Food Pyramid.Credit: Oscar Colman

What about the current Australian guidelines or the previous dietary guidelines for Americans?

“Dietary guidelines in Australia and internationally have always recommended that people consume whole foods – this is not new,” says Associate Professor Evangeline Mantzioris, who is on the working committee for the 2026 Australian guidelines to be released later this year.

So why, if the message is so simple (and unoriginal), have the guidelines caused such a stir?

They contain a “strange mixture” of good and bad advice, says public health nutritionist Rosemary Stanton. We’ll get into that. But, not before mentioning the weird press release from Robert F. Kennedy’s (aka RFK’s) Health and Human Services announcing the guidelines.

It states that “too many Americans are sick and don’t know why. That is because their government has been unwilling to........

© The Sydney Morning Herald