WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Science in the Public Interest released dietary guidelines today showing what the Trump administration’s nutritional recommendations would look like if they had actually followed scientific consensus.

The Uncompromised Dietary Guidelines for Americans and A Model for Healthy and Sustainable Dietary Guidelines for Americans are a healthy rewrite of the administration’s industry-pleasing 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines, which were released today.

“Trump’s Big Ag-friendly team provided unsound nutritional advice by promoting red meat, full-fat dairy, and beef tallow in the Dietary Guidelines. They’re rejecting longstanding scientific consensus and making up their own industry-friendly fantasy that will harm America’s health,” said Leah Kelly, food and agriculture policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our healthy and sustainable model provides the evidence-based guidance people need to make well-informed dietary choices that are better for themselves, their families and the planet.”

The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, is the latest edition of the government’s most influential nutritional advice document for Americans.

Breaking with precedent, the agencies declined to follow the science-based recommendations of top nutrition experts on the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, who recommended emphasizing plant-rich diets, prioritizing plant sources of protein, limiting saturated fat intake, and reducing red and processed meat consumption.

Instead, the new guidelines consistently prioritize meat, poultry, dairy and eggs above plant sources of protein, recommend red meat and full-fat dairy, and push for increased consumption of protein and “healthy” fats from animal products without adequately addressing the dangers of too much saturated fat or the need for increased fiber intake. They also recommend cooking with beef tallow, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has frequently touted and most nutrition experts reject.

“The dietary guidelines are supposed to provide clear, evidence-based advice to inform federal nutrition policy and education, but this version is both insufficiently detailed and contradictory,” said Grace Chamberlin, policy associate at Center for Science in the Public Interest. “Our organization has always stood behind science-based guidelines, and the Uncompromised DGA is our effort to provide the clarity, transparency, and scientific integrity the federal guidelines should have delivered.”

The Center and CSPI’s Uncompromised Dietary Guidelines fixes the unscientific and dangerous recommendations in the 2025-2030 Guidelines by following the 2025 advisory committee’s recommendations and scientific consensus. A Model for Healthy and Sustainable Dietary Guidelines outlines the urgent environmental and health considerations suppressed during the Trump administration’s guidelines drafting. That includes how plant-rich diets are healthier for people and the planet by lowering risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and environmental devastation.

The five nutrition guidelines included in these resources have been endorsed by more than 20 organizations in the health, nutrition, environment, education, and food system fields, including the National Education Association, National WIC Association, and the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. They are also endorsed by 13 individual members of previous Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees, including seven members of the 2025 advisory committee.

The model guidelines are accompanied by an Implementation and Policy Recommendations Guide to help healthcare, government and community-based programs build a healthier and more sustainable food environment.

The food system is responsible for one-third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, with animal-based foods accounting for an outsized proportion. Sustainable diets can lower environmental harm by prioritizing plant-based foods and minimizing food loss and waste. These diets are also healthier, as plant-based foods tend to be the most nutritious and nutrient-dense.

The Center previously released analyses revealing that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans shapes more than $40 billion in federal spending, with sweeping impacts on food-related greenhouse gas emissions, and that the U.S. is one of the only G20 nations to exclude sustainability considerations from its national dietary guidelines.

For the past decade, federal agriculture and health department officials have ignored widespread calls, including from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and the United Nations, to address sustainability.