The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) first introduced its food pyramid in 1992. The pyramid offered visual guidance on the optimal number of servings of the different food groups. Bread, rice, pasta, and cereal were at the bottom, and fats, oils, and sweets were at the top. Fruit, vegetables, milk, yogurt, cheese, meat, eggs, and nuts were sandwiched in between.
Since then, the food pyramid has had several makeovers, eventually being replaced with what was known as “MyPlate” in 2011. That graphic featured a plate divided into four sections with fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein, and dairy adjacent to the plate.
But last month, the USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly announced they were bringing back the food pyramid, flipping it on its head quite literally. Part of the 2025-2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), the new inverted pyramid features red meat, cheese, whole milk, vegetables, and fruits at the very top.
“An inverted pyramid is an odd construct,” said Susan Mayne, professor (adjunct) of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. “The pyramid that was used in the past was designed to show a strong foundation and what foods contribute to that. This pyramid conveys a shaky foundation, which is ironically consistent with some of the underlying science.”
Susan Mayne
In an interview, Mayne discusses why we have dietary guidelines, how the federal government determines them, and what we need to know about the new changes.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What stood out to you about the new dietary guidelines?
Susan Mayne: What first stood out to me is the new inverted pyramid, where meat, butter and whole milk were given really striking prominence. Protein is emphasized but not plant-based proteins such as beans. Also, the mismatch between recommended servings in the text of the guidelines and what is shown in the pyramid was surprising, with the pyramid appearing to minimize whole grains while the text outside the pyramid states consumers should eat two to four servings of whole grains daily.
In the text itself, there are some changes that may help people achieve healthier dietary patterns, including an emphasis on whole foods, advice to eat less highly processed foods high in added sugars and salt, and stricter sugar limits, although stating that children under 11 should have no added sugars is clearly infeasible. No birthday cake? And what about Halloween?
You worked for the federal government, specifically leading the food center at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for many years. How does the federal government put together dietary guidelines? What is that process like?
Mayne: It’s a joint effort between HHS and USDA. The process begins with an independent, transparent review of nutrition science, through a process that has been scrutinized by both Congress and the National Academies. The independent committee produces a public scientific document summarizing the science that would normally be the foundation of the guidelines.
Then HHS and USDA take that science and write guidelines. If those guidelines deviate from the scientific report, they are to document why. In my experience, FDA nutrition scientists (and those from numerous other federal agencies) were involved in reviewing every word of the prior draft guidelines for accuracy and consistency through the inter-agency review process.
Unfortunately, that process was not followed this time. The result is a document that does not reflect existing science, or the important processes designed to build public trust.
Why do we even have dietary guidelines? How is this guidance typically used?
Mayne: The guidelines are often described as the “north star” for federal nutrition policy, in that they are used as a foundation for federal nutrition programs such as the school lunch program. All subsequent federal nutrition policy is meant to be consistent with the dietary guidelines. For example, mandating added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label along with a percent daily value was done by my team at FDA to implement the guideline to reduce added sugars intake.
The guidelines also inform nutrition education for health professionals, educators, and the public. Usually, extensive consumer-facing materials are developed. The current guideline (10 pages long), in contrast to the last one (164 pages long), appears to be more targeted to consumers than policymakers, lacking things like food pattern modeling to demonstrate how it could be implemented to assure the pattern meets required amounts of nutrients.
Historically, how much do dietary guidelines influence the diets of everyday people?
Mayne: They are very impactful for anyone participating in federal nutrition assistance programs and are also used for institutional feeding programs. For example, the new guidelines eliminated the prior guideline recommendations for eating a variety of different vegetable subgroups, so cash-strapped meal programs may use potatoes alone to meet minimum vegetable recommendations.
For consumers, they are meant to provide information. Research has looked at how well consumers adhere to past dietary guidelines and as you might expect there is much room for improvement. This reflects the data that cost, taste, access, and convenience are enormous drivers of intake, not just nutrition.
How should the new dietary guidelines be used by people like you and me? Are there other resources we should consult to improve our diets?
Mayne: Ideally, people would use them to help plan a healthy dietary pattern. The problem we now have is that the current guidelines and especially the pyramid are not fully consistent with nutrition science, instead being a mix of ideology and science. For an alternative, more science-based resource, you can consult the Uncompromised Dietary Guidelines [for Americans], which took the latest science report produced by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, and created an independent dietary guideline. For example, for people who don’t want to or can’t drink milk, it includes fortified soy milk. It also does not promote full fat dairy over reduced fat options. In contrast to the new guideline, it recommends that most people eat less red and processed meat, has a greater emphasis on plant proteins, and promotes vegetable oils higher in unsaturated fats as healthy fats, consistent with guidelines from peer countries around the globe.
