Changes may be coming to the U.S. dietary guidelines: If public comments from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are any indication, Americans could see a big difference when it comes to saturated fat.
In July, Kennedy said at a meeting of the National Governors Association that new guidelines would be “common sense” and “stress the need to eat saturated fats, dairy, good meat, and fresh meat and vegetables.” He has called guidelines that promote low-fat dairy over full-fat versions “antiquated.” He has also praised fast-food chains that have switched their fryers from vegetable oil to beef tallow. Beef tallow is 50% saturated fat.
Saturated fats are known to raise the risk of heart attack, stroke and other types of cardiovascular disease. For 45 years, federal dietary guidelines have recommended Americans eat less of them.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Agriculture Department update the dietary guidelines every five years; 2025’s update has not been released yet. They historically rely on the recommendations of an expert advisory committee that spends two years sifting through the latest research and issues a detailed report.
The current expert committee published its report nearly a year ago and endorsed the existing recommendation for saturated fat: Americans should limit saturated fat intake to less than 10% of their daily calories starting at age 2, replacing it with unsaturated fat, particularly polyunsaturated fat. It added that Americans should try to get their unsaturated fat from plant-based sources.
Kennedy’s comments suggest that the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments may ignore the committee’s advice for the 2025 dietary guidelines, said Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “We all are waiting to read it,” he said.
HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard said in an email: “Secretary Kennedy is committed to new dietary recommendations that are rooted in rigorous science. The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will be a big part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to Make America Healthy Again.”
What is saturated fat?
Saturated fats include butter, lard and shortening. They’re typically solid at room temperature and are naturally found in beef, pork, poultry, full-fat dairy products and eggs, as well as in coconut and palm oils. They’re often added to processed foods like savory snacks, desserts and prepared meals.
Polyunsaturated fats, on the other hand, are typically liquid at room temperature — they tend to come in the form of oils. Canola, corn, soybean and sunflower oils are high in polyunsaturated fat. So are oily fish — like anchovies, herring, salmon, sardines and striped bass — some nuts and seeds, and soybeans and tofu.
Processed foods and fats and oils account for nearly 42% of the saturated fat in the American diet. Dairy is the next largest source, at about 28%, followed by meat, at 22%.
What’s the evidence say about saturated fat and health?
In its report last year, the dietary guidelines advisory committee reviewed randomized controlled trials, as well as observational studies that followed thousands of people for decades.
“The research is pretty clear,” said epidemiologist Cheryl Anderson, a committee member and the dean of the University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. Decades of data shows that eating saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol levels and contributes to cardiovascular disease, she said.
Too much LDL cholesterol — the so-called bad cholesterol — can combine with fats and other substances to create a thick, hard substance called plaque that builds up in the inner walls of blood vessels, reducing blood flow.
“If you obstruct blood flow to a heart, you have a heart attack. If you obstruct blood flow to the brain, you have a stroke,” said Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Some of the committee’s findings with the strongest scientific evidence are:
- Replacing butter with plant-based oils and spreads that contain mostly unsaturated fats decreases LDL cholesterol levels.
- Substituting whole grains, vegetables or plant sources of protein for red meat is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Replacing oils high in saturated fats with vegetable oils higher in unsaturated fats decreases LDL cholesterol.
- Substituting white meat for red meat is not associated with a difference in cardiovascular disease risk.
Research about dairy — milk, cheese and yogurt — and cardiovascular health is limited, according to the committee. Until more definitive studies are conducted, it advised the government to continue to recommend that people eat fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese.
How to eat less saturated fat
Reducing the consumption of foods high in saturated fat is important for both adults and children — other than infants, who need a high-fat diet for rapid growth — according to nutrition experts.
“You start putting fatty deposits in the lining of your blood vessels in childhood,” said Dr. Mark Corkins, chair of the committee on nutrition at the American Academy of Pediatrics and the chief of pediatric gastroenterology at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. “We may not see coronary artery disease until you’re middle-aged or older, but that’s when it starts.”
To reduce saturated fat intake, nutrition experts advise parents and adults to focus on foods rather than individual nutrients.
“It’s best to think about changing all of your diet, eating more fruits and vegetables, eating less processed meat, and if you’re going to eat red meat, have smaller portion sizes,” Rimm said.
The committee recommends getting less protein from meat and more from beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds and soy. It also recommends using less butter and coconut and palm oils and more vegetable oils high in unsaturated fats.
Olive oil contains mostly monounsaturated fats and is considered a healthy alternative to saturated fats. Vegetable oils high in polyunsaturated fats, like corn, canola and soybean, are seed oils, which have come under a recent wave of criticism, particularly on social media, including from Kennedy, who has posted on X that Americans are being “unknowingly poisoned” by seed oils.
“It’s really baffling to scientists,” said Kristina Petersen, an associate professor of nutritional science at Penn State who studies diet and risk of cardiovascular disease. The collective body of research shows that consuming seed oils is linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, she said. “There is no evidence to support that they are harmful.”
Yancy, of Northwestern, said there are several “irrefutably beneficial” diets that people can follow: the Mediterranean Diet, the DASH diet and a combination of the two called the MIND diet.
When the government finally publishes the latest dietary guidelines for Americans, no matter what it says, Yancy strongly encourages everyone “to become much more self-aware of what a healthy lifestyle means, seek conversations with trusted health care professionals and find guidance in truth.”
