The Dictatorship
What RFK Jr. and the USDA’s new food pyramid get wrong
ByBrian Kateman
The Trump administration unveiled dietary guidelines this week that flip the food pyramid Americans have known for decades, encouraging greater consumption of protein, particularly meat and dairy.
That’s not exactly what the average American, who already eats 227 pounds of meat a year, needs to hear. The recommendations, the latest work of the Make America Healthy Again movement of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., actually puts health at greater risk.
The new nutrition recommendations actually put health at greater risk.
For one thing, protein is among the few nutrients in which most Americans are not deficient. Health experts widely agree that most of us eat much more protein than necessary. The new pyramid illustration includes a big hunk of steak and a package of ground beef at the top; never mind, apparently, that the American Cancer Society considers red meat to be “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The American Heart Association has long advised people to limit consumption of red meat because of its deleterious health effects, including as a contributor to heart disease.
In an event Thursday with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins promoting the revised nutrition policy, Kennedy referred to the heart association as a “big villain.” In Kennedy’s telling, the organization “continues to accept millions of dollars from the biggest processed food makers in this country.” Doing so, he argued, “fortified a dogma that vilified and demonized good food.”
The new nutrition guidelines also recommend full-fat dairy, directly contradicting the heart association’s recommendation of reduced-fat options, such as fortified plant-based milk alternatives.
Cancer, heart disease and diabetes are among the leading causes of death and drivers of health care costs in the United States, according to a different federal agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The USDA nutrition guidelines say they target those same chronic illnesses but promote the high-fat, high-cholesterol foods that study after study shows contribute to them.
Ultimately, this isn’t just bad advice; it’s also dangerous to public health and the planet.
The slogan of the guidelines is “Eat Real Food,” which is defined as “whole, nutrient-dense, and naturally occurring.” Putting aside that animal products — most of which come from factory farms — are arguably the most processed foods on Earth, the only thing about these guidelines that’s significantly different from past pyramids is the emphasis on meat and dairy. This happens to be the opposite of the advice of virtually every credible health-related organization.
The Department of Agriculture may put out nutritional guidelines, but it’s worth remembering that it isn’t a medical body — it represents farm operations, including cattle ranchers and dairy farmers. As Kennedy said on Thursday, “It’s important that the American people know that sometimes they are getting medical advice from people who have an economic stake in that advice, and we have a responsibility to question that.”
Indeed. The USDA has been accused of having a revolving door for lobbyists and of promoting the interests of industry over public health. In October, Rollins announced a battery of plans to “strengthen the American beef industry, reinforcing and prioritizing the American rancher’s critical role in the national security of the United States.” What beef has to do with national security, I can’t say, but Americans’ health clearly isn’t the only priority of the Trump administration.
To be fair, dietary guidelines have often been shaped by corporate interests.
To be fair, dietary guidelines have often been shaped by corporate interests. In the mid-20th century, global attention to a “protein gap” in developing countries led the United Nations to establish a Protein Advisory Groupwhich promoted Western nutritional ideas and helped create markets for surplus food exports. By the 1970s, experts recognized that the real problem was not protein deficiency but a lack of sufficient calories. Companies such as Nestlé profited from these international nutrition programs, raising questions about the influence of industry on dietary advice.
Now the U.S. government is effectively pushing another protein panic. A lot of nutritional science is more up in the air than many might think, but this is an area where medical authorities have some consensus. There’s just no basis for the claim that Americans need more protein, and certainly not from animal sources. It’s not just the American Heart Association pointing in the exact opposite direction.
There’s just no basis for the claim that Americans need more protein, and certainly not from animal sources.
And decades’ worth of scientific evidence shows the deleterious effects of industrial animal agriculture on the health of the planet. It’s a major contributor to climate change, putting people around the world at greater risk of extreme weather events, respiratory illnesses, heat-related illnesses, insufficient access to clean water and exposure to water-borne disease. In a sad irony, climate change threatens our food systems and limits the amount of decent food humans are able to produce. Agricultural practices in the meat industry have made it a vector for disease and have led to mass outbreaks of illness.
Dietary guidelines shape school luncheshospital meals, public assistance programs and more, including the advice given to millions of people who do not have the luxury of opting out. When federal guidance elevates red meat and full-fat dairy — foods long associated with higher rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and environmental harm — the costs are shouldered by poorer families, many already struggling with chronic illness, and by communities facing a warming planet.
This isn’t just a technical disagreement about nutrition; it’s a choice about whose interests public policy serves. And in this case, the answer is not the health of the American public but the balance sheets of meat and dairy companies. Such is the price of Making Agribusinesses Happy Again.
Brian Kateman
Brian Kateman is a co-founder and the president of the Reducetarian Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing consumption of meat, eggs and dairy to create a healthy, sustainable and compassionate world. He is the author of “Meat Me Halfway” — inspired by a documentary of the same name — and the editor of “The Reducetarian Cookbook” and “The Reducetarian Solution.” He is an adjunct professor of environmental science and sustainability at Kean University and teaches environmental communications at Fordham University.
The Dictatorship
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President Donald Trump called the celebrations in the streets of Iran “fantastic” following the killing of the country’s supreme leaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, during a brief phone call with MS NOW on Saturday night.
Trump told MS NOW that he’s seen the celebrations in Iran and in parts of America, after joint U.S.-Israel airstrikes killed Khamenei.
“I think it’s fantastic,” the president said of the celebrations. “I’ve seen them in Los Angeles, also — celebrations.”
“I’ve seen them in Los Angeles, celebrations, celebrations,” Trump said, accentuating the point.
The interview took place roughly 11 hours before the Pentagon announced the first U.S.military casualties of the war. U.S. Central Command said three American service members were killed in action, and five others had been seriously wounded.
Revelry broke out in Iran, the United States and across the globe on Saturday, with Iranians cheering the death of Khamenei, who led Iran with an iron fist for more than 30 years, cracking down on dissent at home and maintaining a hostile posture with the U.S. and Israel.
Asked how he was feeling after the strike on Khamenei, whose death was confirmed just a few hours earlier, Trump said it was a positive development for the United States.
“I think it was a great thing for our country,” he said.
The call — which lasted less than a minute — came after a marathon day, which began in the wee hours of the morning with strikes on Iran and continued with retaliatory ballistic missiles from Tehran targeting Israel and countries in the Middle East region that host U.S. military bases.
The day ended with few answers from the White House to increasing questions about the long-term future of Iran, how long the U.S. will continue operations there, and the metastasizing ramifications it could have on the world stage. In fact, the president has done little to convince the public to back his Iran operation, nor to explain why the country is at war without the authorization of Congress.
On perhaps the most consequential day of his second term, Trump did not give a formal address to the public, nor did he hold a press conference. Instead, he stayed out of public view at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, where he attended a $1 million-per-plate fundraising dinner on Saturday evening.
But throughout the day, Trump took calls from reporters at various new outlets, including from MS NOW at around 11 p.m. ET.
The strikes, known formally as “Operation Epic Fury,” came after months of talks over Iran’s nuclear program, and warnings from Trump that he would strike Tehran if they did not agree to his often shifting conditions.
At 2:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, Trump posted a video to social media announcing the operation, which he said was designed to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.”
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war,” Trump said when he announced the strikes on Iran.
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.
Laura Barrón-López covers the White House for MS NOW.
Three U.S. service members were killed and five seriously wounded as the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, U.S. Central Command said Sunday morning.
The three service members — the first Americans to die in the conflict — were killed in Kuwait, a U.S. official said.
Several others sustained minor injuries from shrapnel and concussions but will return to duty, the Pentagon said. The identities of the dead and wounded have not been made public.
“The situation is fluid, so out of respect for the families, we will withhold additional information, including the identities of our fallen warriors, until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified,” Central Command said in a statement.
The U.S. and Israel launched sweeping airstrikes on Iranon Saturday, killing Ayatollah Ali Khameneithe country’s supreme leader for nearly four decades. Iran has vowed retaliation and hit several U.S. military bases across the region.
According to U.S. Central Command, Iran has also attacked more than a dozen locations, including airports in Dubai, Kuwait and Iraq, and residential neighborhoods in Israel, Bahrain and Qatar.
Israel Defence Forces said Sunday that Iran fired missiles toward the neighborhood of Beit Shemesh, killing civilians. The missile hit a synagogue, killing at least nine people, according to the Associated Press.
AP reported that authorities said at least 22 people were killed and 120 others wounded when demonstrators tried to attack the U.S. Consulate in Karachi in Pakistan.
The violence came after the United States and Israel attacked Irankilling its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Police and officials at a hospital in Karachi said that at least 50 people were also wounded in the clashes and some of them were in critical condition.
On Sunday, Israel Defence Forces said on X, “It’s official: All senior terrorist leaders of Iran’s Axis of Terror have been eliminated.”
President Donald Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen on Sunday that the operation in Iran is “moving along very well, very well — ahead of schedule.”
In a phone call with MS NOW late Saturday, Trump called the celebrations in the streets of Iran “fantastic” following the killing of Khamenei.
Confirming Khamenei’s death, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday: “We have eliminated the tyrant Khamenei and dozens of senior figures of the oppressive regime. Our forces are now striking at the heart of Tehran with increasing intensity, set to escalate further in the coming days.”
The exchange of hostilities comes after weeks of fragile negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Iran’s nuclear operations.
Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, called the joint U.S-Israeli attack an “unprovoked, unwarranted act of aggression” in an interview with MS NOW’s Ali Velshi on Sunday. He said Iran’s nuclear program has been used a pretext for the attack.
“We have every right to defend our people because we have come under this egregious act of aggression,” Baghaei said.
Trump announced the attack early Saturday during a short video posted on his Truth Social account. He called for an end to the Iranian regime and urged Iranians to “take back the country.”
Negotiators and mediators from Oman were supposed to meet in Vienna on Monday to discuss the technical aspect of a potential nuclear deal.
Rep. Eric Swawell, D-Calif., told MS NOW’s Alex Witt on Sunday afternoon that the president’s military operation in Iran was illegal, echoing what many lawmakers have said in citing that under the U.S. Constitution only Congress can declare war.
“This is a values argument. We don’t just lob missiles into other countries when we are not provoked, attacked and have no plan for what comes next,” he said.
“We have been shown zero evidence that anything changed in Iran from last year when the president did not come to Congress and took a strike on Iran,” Swalwell said.
In June the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear sites. Trump said the facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.” But experts and U.S. officials said the sites were damaged but not destroyed.
Erum Salam is breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian and is a graduate of Texas A&M University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Follow her on X, Bluesky and Instagram.
Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
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