The Super Bowl this year it blessed us with Mike Tyson biting into an apple while sharing his sister's death at 25 from obesity-related heart failure. The $8M spot, funded by the MAHA Center, sent 100 Million viewers to RealFood.gov where the Trump administration's rewritten dietary guidelines await with their unmistakable message: processed food kills, and decades of official nutrition advice enabled it.
The Pyramid Gets Flipped
Picture the old food pyramid you saw in health class. Grains at the bottom, fats squeezed into a tiny triangle at the top. The new version inverts everything. Protein, dairy, and healthy fats now share the widest section with vegetables and fruits. Whole grains shrink to a narrow base. HHS Secretary RFK Jr. calls this a historic reset. Critics say Big Meat money bought the revision. Either way, the change signals massive shifts for anyone building in food, health tech, or consumer products.
Recent research tells a stark story. Multiple 2024-2025 studies covering nearly 10M participants link ultra-processed food consumption to serious health problems. The numbers: 24% higher diabetes risk, 14.5% higher hypertension risk, 50% greater cardiovascular death risk. Each 100g daily increase in ultra-processed food bumps all-cause mortality by 2.6%. Meanwhile Americans get roughly 70% of their calories from ultra-processed sources.
The new guidelines recommend zero added sugar for kids under 10, no more than 10g per meal for adults (roughly 2 teaspoons), three daily servings of full-fat dairy instead of low-fat versions, and explicit warnings to avoid packaged ready-to-eat foods. Previous guidance allowed 12 teaspoons daily in a 2,000-calorie diet. Most Americans consume 17 teaspoons. That gap between official advice and actual behavior has been both a public health disaster and a business goldmine.
Where Scientists Actually Disagree
Some nutrition experts praise calling out ultra-processed foods while questioning the heavy emphasis on red meat and saturated fat. Stanford's Christopher Gardner, who sat on the bypassed advisory committee, objects to red meat dominating the pyramid's top against decades of cardiovascular research. Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler argues that reducing highly processed carbs represents genuine progress. The applauded spotlighting processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages.