US Dietary Guidelines Under Fire for Alleged Industry Influence
A group of physicians has sued the US government over the 2025-30 dietary guidelines, claiming they were influenced by the meat and dairy industries.
The US government has been sued for allegedly allowing the meat and dairy industries to influence the 2025-30 dietary guidelines.
A group of physicians, led by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), has filed a lawsuit against the US government, claiming that the Trump administration hastily assembled a panel of meat, dairy, and fad diet industry insiders to replace the independent Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC).
The PCRM argues that this new panel was rife with conflicts of interest, with eight of the nine members receiving some form of funding from the livestock industry. Three members have received grants or performed consulting work for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and of these, one was also awarded a research grant from the National Pork Board.
| Member | Funding Source | | --- | --- | | 1 | National Cattlemen's Beef Association | | 2 | National Cattlemen's Beef Association | | 3 | National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Pork Board | | 4 | National Dairy Council | | 5 | Dairy Management Inc. | | 6 | HLTH (high-protein meal replacement brand) | | 7 | USDA's checkoff programmes | | 8 | USDA's checkoff programmes | | 9 | USDA's checkoff programmes |
The resulting guidance endorsed the consumption of beef, pork, and other red meats, put whole milk back into the spotlight, and promoted butter and tallow, despite the recommendation to keep saturated fat intake under 10% of total calorie intake.
PCRM president Neal Barnard stated that the government allowed the meat and dairy industries to ghostwrite the dietary guidelines, putting money in industry's pocket and cholesterol in Americans' arteries.
The lawsuit is asking the court to order the Trump administration to withdraw the advice and forbid government agencies from using them in any future decisions while they develop new guidelines in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
The PCRM has previously sued the US government ahead of the 2000 guidelines, when six of the 11 advisory committee members had financial ties to the livestock sector. A federal judge agreed that the administration had violated the FACA and the Freedom of Information Act.
Industry-influenced dietary guidelines "destroy any semblance of healthfulness" in federal initiatives like the National School Lunch Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for low-income families, Barnard said.
The 2025-30 guidelines have been roundly criticised by health and nutrition experts, including NYU Professor Emerita Dr Marion Nestle, who stated that the recommendations "take us back to the diets of the 1950s", adding that asking people to eat more protein "makes no sense" since they already consume enough.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Science in the Public Interest released an alternative "uncompromised" version of the dietary guidelines, showing what the Trump administration's recommendations would look like "if they had actually followed scientific consensus".
The American Heart Association published its own guidelines that prioritised whole foods and plant-based proteins and oils over meat and animal fats, just as an open letter co-signed by MAHA-aligned groups urged the Trump administration not to increase the current requirement of meat in schools.
