The White House unveiled new dietary guidelines Wednesday, with officials calling it the “most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history.”

The new guidelines were represented with an upside-down pyramid placing vegetables, fruits, proteins, dairy and healthy fats at the top and whole grains at the bottom.

“The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said

“The new framework centers on protein and healthy fats, vegetables, fruits and whole grains. It’s upside down, a lot of people say. It was actually upside down before,” he added.

The initial food pyramid was introduced in the 1990s, showing a small amount of sugars at the top, recommending 2-4 servings of dairy, meat, fruit and vegetables in the middle, and 8-11 servings of bread, rice, pasta and other grains at the bottom. It was updated to “My Plate” under the Obama administration.

The new guidelines are laid out on a new website, realfood.gov.

Federal health leaders including Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins joined White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in the White House briefing room to present the new dietary guidelines.

It was the first White House press briefing of 2026.

“Diets rich in vegetables and fruits reduce disease risk more effectively than many drugs,” Kennedy added. “All grains outperform refined carbohydrates. Added sugars, especially sugar-sweetened beverages, drive metabolic disease, and today, our government declares war on added sugar, highly processed foods loaded with additives, added sugar and excess salt.”

Rollins said these guidelines will apply to whole foods whether they are “fresh, frozen, canned or dried.”

“These new guidelines are going to update the food that is served to America’s children in our public schools to the plates that are served to our great men in uniform, in our military, our veterans, in the food that they are consuming at the VA, and these new guidelines are also going to impact nutritional programs for the needy in our country, such as WIC and Head Start,” Leavitt said, adding that the guidelines would also help Americans save “thousands” on groceries.

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) emphasize “nutrient dense foods,” highlighting alternative choices for common groceries, such as choosing plain shredded wheat cereal in place of frosted shredded wheat or buying low sodium canned black beans instead of regular ones.

Although Kennedy repeatedly spoke in favor of eating more saturated fats, the guidelines notably did not deviate from the long-held guidance to limit saturated fat consumption to 10 percent of daily intake, similarly maintaining the 10 percent limit for added sugars. The DGA also “does not recommend that individuals who do not drink alcohol start drinking for any reason.”

When Kennedy was asked about the disparity in his rhetoric on saturated fats and what ultimately made it into the DGA, Oz jumped in and claimed that prior conclusions that saturated fats are linked to heart attack, noting the example of former President Eisenhower, were never substantiated.

“In this new guide, guidance, we are telling young people, kids, schools — you don’t need to tiptoe around fat and dairy. You don’t need to push low-fat milk to kids, and we are maintaining the 10 percent of calories as saturated fat in the guidance,” said Oz. “The real issue is protein. The fact that 60 to 70 percent of the calories of kids today in America is ultra-processed food. These are the issues that have become giant blind spots where we’re not putting attention.”

The DGA did not include a definition of what it considers to be “ultra-processed foods,” though it does include the word “processed” about a dozen times.

During the press briefing Wednesday, Oz also offered some clarification when it came to alcohol.

“There is alcohol on these dietary guidelines but the implication is don’t have it for breakfast,” he said.

An interactive website laying out the new guidelines was also launched Wednesday called realfood.gov, explaining Kennedy’s new “upside down” pyramid. The site’s echoes language echoes that of Kennedy’s rhetoric, saying update ends “the war on protein.”

Health groups called the new guidelines a “mixed bag,” with one major organization claiming they showed evidence of industry influence.

“The Guidelines are right to limit cholesterol-raising saturated (‘bad’) fat,” Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said in a statement. “But they should spell out where it comes from: dairy products and meat, primarily. And here the Guidelines err in promoting meat and dairy products, which are principal drivers of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.”

The guidelines do note that saturated fats come from full-fat dairy products such as whole milk, ice cream and cheese and do suggest choosing low-fat options like fat-free or low-fat milk.

The dairy industry welcomed the guidelines.

The International Dairy Foods Association said it “applauds HHS and USDA for grounding the 2025–2030 DGA in today’s nutrition science, including the evidence showing that dairy products at all fat levels support healthy eating patterns.”

“Recommending the consumption of whole and full-fat dairy products such as whole milk, yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products is an important victory for consumer choice and public health. Americans can now enjoy the wholesome dairy foods that work for their cultural, dietary and lifestyle preferences knowing that they are benefitting from dairy’s unique nutrient profile,” the organization added.

—Updated at 1:28 p.m. EST