A Real Food Revolution to Reverse Metabolic Health
- Moira Newiss
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
History was made on 7th January when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy released the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030. Astonishingly the new guidelines turned the existing food pyramid upside down. Many of us who study nutrition science have long believed it was upside down, and the focus on grains as the mainstay of the diet ushered in our current epidemic of poor metabolic health. However, we were all taken by surprise, and of course delighted, by how big the changes were. Although we hoped and dreamed, we did not really expect steak and butter to be at the top but it was!
The other thing that was surprising about the new guidelines were the way they were presented, in simple, visual terms, only a few pages, making them highly accessible. You can view the new guidelines here, and a nice presentation about the state of health and why the previous advice has failed here.
This is by far the most significant reset of nutrition policy since the first set of US dietary guidelines in 1980. The premise for these were set by the US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs which stated that “Too much fat, too much sugar or salt, can be and are linked directly to heart disease, cancer, obesity, and stroke, among other killer diseases.”
The goals set by these guidelines were focused on increasing carbohydrates, decreasing fat, cholesterol, sugar, and salt and ushered in a low-fat, grain-based era of human nutrition. The US guidelines were followed a few years later by other countries, including the UK. In 1994 the UK Department of Health launched "The Balance of Good Health," which was a visual guide to the types and proportions of food needed for a healthy diet. Between then and now various versions of these guidelines have been published without any significant change, they have all focused on encouraging choices from grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables as well as limiting saturated fats from meat and dairy.
Here is a comparison of the old and new US dietary guidelines (new on right).
The most recent version of the UK guidelines, the current UK Eatwell Plate is now ripe to be replaced. In the nutrition world it has been a source of ridicule for many years. It is not evidence-based, too heavily influenced by commercial interests, and potentially harmful to those with metabolic conditions like type 2 diabetes. You can read more about this at my friend Zoe Harcombe’s blog titled “Designed by the food industry for wealth, not health: the ‘Eatwell Guide’.”
We want to see the UK government act and follow the US by promoting good metabolic health through real food. In addition, like the US guidelines we want to see a low carbohydrate option included as long term sustainable dietary approach for anyone with poor metabolic health. The reality is unfortunately that most our populations has poor metabolic health. Whereas obesity and diabetes are the most obvious conditions linked to metabolic health problems the key pathological process of insulin resistance is also involved in most other chronic diseases including mental health.
It really isn’t complicated when we get back to the basics.
What is Real Food?
Minimally Processed: It is not manufactured or heavily refined.
Nutrient-Dense: It provides all the essential vitamins and minerals.
No Artificial Additives: It does not contain artificial flavours, colours, or preservatives.
Simple Ingredients: it should only contain a few ingredients, which should be real food themselves.
This month also saw the publication of an important document from the World Economic Forum, a briefing on “Catalysing Cross-Sector Leadership for Metabolic Health “. The report highlights that up to 90% of Americans have sub-optimal metabolic health, that not only is it a major health issue, but also an economic one too. The report estimates that if metabolic health problems were addressed globally, it would result in an increase in GDP greater than the current GDP of Germany.
In particular the report highlights how medical solutions, like GLP-1 drugs, the mounjaro, wegovy and ozempic, which were initially praised as the way forward for metabolic health, are not sustainable options and come with worrying side effect. You can’t just take a jab and expect everything to be fine, you still need to change your diet and lifestyle, and people need support to do so. Taking action on metabolic health requires actions at many levels, from the individual, health professionals, health systems, public health information, education systems, food industry, agriculture policy and government priorities. We need to create new opportunities for people at every level to support real food approaches and help tackle our biggest health issue.
Towards the end of 2025 there was a series of articles published in the Lancet medical journal including a combined narrative and systematic review that assessed dietary patterns based on ultra-processed foods and how they were linked to poor metabolic health. The authors found that increased consumption of ultra-processed food was escalating the global burden of multiple diet-related chronic diseases. Not a surprise, but important that the message is heard. Another paper investigated how cheap and widely available ultra-processed food was leading to malnutrition linked to obesity, being overfed with calories but undernourished with nutrients. One of the papers talked about how the power of the food industry plays a big role in why we are in such a bad situation. There needs to be a reform of public health policy procedure to make sure commercial interests don’t interfere in nutrition science. This isn’t just true for big food, but also big pharma. The problem is that commercial companies exist to benefit their shareholders and being ill is good for business. Reversing chronic disease using real food doesn’t make anyone much money, that is until you look at it through a wider economic lens and the contribution that a healthy population can make to the wider economy.
It was very pleasing to see that the launch of the new US guidelines was done in partnership with the Department of Agriculture. We need to be supporting our farmers and growers to help put real food on the table again. Please do advocate for and eat your local food. Here on the west coast of Scotland that includes venison, lamb, beef, fish, seafood along with a few seasonal vegetables and berries. Not only delicious but a source of metabolic magic too!
For those of you in the UK, please help to spread the message that we want to see the Eatwell Plate binned and a new science-based approach based on real food developed here in the UK. After all we are all humans and we just need to eat the human diet which is the produce farmed and grown in our local area, not fake food produced in a factory which are highly palatable, addictive, and cost us our health. We need a real food revolution to help reverse the trend of metabolic health and make us healthy again.
References
Real Food Starts Here: State of Our Health https://realfood.gov/
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA_508.pdf
Jahns L, Davis-Shaw W, Lichtenstein AH, Murphy SP, Conrad Z, Nielsen F. The History and Future of Dietary Guidance in America. Adv Nutr. 2018 Mar 1;9(2):136-147. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmx025. PMID: 29659693; PMCID: PMC5916427.
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