A century ago, would anyone have asked whether their food was real?
Today, in an age of sugar, salt, fat, and chemicals, the ‘Eat real food’ tagline of the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans sounds like a promising return to timeless nutrition. 🥗
“We are putting real food back at the center of the American diet,” writes Robert F. Kennedy Jr and the MAHA team in the new guidelines. “Real food that restores health.”
Research points to minimally processed food as a key factor in reversing obesity, chronic disease, and accelerated aging caused by excess salt, sugar, and chemical exposure. 🧂🧪
But what real food you eat (and how much) still matters.
And recommendations in the new written and visual guidelines might be working against healthy aging.
When you hear “Eat real food,” what feels most confusing right now?
🎯 Where the guidelines are aligned with longevity science
According to Stanford Medicine and large reviews, these aligned recommendations include:
🍎 More vegetables/fruits: Antioxidants and fiber reduce inflammation and heart risk by 20-30% in long-term studies, extending health span.
🫘 Whole grains > refined carbohydrates: Foods like barley, legumes, and oats can stabilize blood sugar, support microbiome diversity, improve menopause symptoms, and slow biological aging.
🍟 Limit sugars/sodium/saturated fats/processed foods: These changes can reduce liver fat, insulin resistance, and aging accelerators like metabolic disease.
🦠 Microbiome focus (fiber/fermented foods): Promotes the production of anti-inflammatory compounds (short-chain-fatty acids). A healthy gut can add 10+ healthy years to your life.
Feel familiar? These are principles of the Mediterranean diet! 🫑 🫒 🍊
Named the "Best Diet Overall" by U.S. News & World Report for eight consecutive years, variations of it consistently reflect the eating patterns of the healthiest older adults, reducing the risk of mortality and the rate of cellular aging.
A step in the right direction, the guidelines and the pyramid may not be as clearly oriented for longevity.
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✍ Murky messaging: The food pyramid problem
“If the goal was to make nutrition clearer, this pyramid does just the opposite,” writes dietitian Hannah Van Ark in STAT.
Real food alone isn’t a problem.
But, because the quality, pattern, and proportion of certain foods can shape disease risk and the rate of aging, aspects of the new pyramid might be…
🍔 Saturated fat: As healthy as vegetables?
The guidelines recommend that less than 10% of daily calories come from saturated fat, but steak, cheese, and butter–foods high in saturated fat–dominate. They are placed next to fruit and veggies in the visual.
“You can't [eat more meat] without raising the saturated fat content…That's a contradiction," says Marion Nestle, a nutrition expert and professor emerita at New York University in Axios.
Saturated fat can quickly increase ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol compared to diets rich in polyunsaturated fat (olive oil, avocados 🥑 , nuts), significantly increasing the risk of diabetes, fatty liver disease, and heart disease.
Whole-milk dairy also replaces low-fat dairy in the guidelines.
Longevity takeaway: Replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat from olive oil or nuts 🥜 can reduce cardiovascular events by about 30%, based on landmark studies like PREDIMED. It also slows epigenetic aging.
🌾 Whole grains and legumes are sidelined
The guidelines endorse fiber-rich whole grains, but the pyramid doesn’t. They appear at the bottom, visually more “limited” than saturated fat, meat, and dairy.
That may contradict longevity data.
Whole, unprocessed grains and legumes are staples in the longest-living populations. A large study of middle-aged women even found that those with the highest intake of whole grains and fiber had a greater likelihood of healthy aging. 👵
Longevity takeaway: 🫘 Whole grains, beans, and lentils support metabolic health, fulfill protein and fiber needs, and reduce the risk of top killers in the U.S.
🥔 Fiber: The overlooked longevity nutrient
In the past decade, perhaps one of the biggest aging revelations has been the science of fiber.
Fiber feeds the bacteria 🦠 that live in your gut, cuts inflammation, improves insulin sensitivity, supports a healthy weight, and helps bacteria produce SCFAs that support the immune system and slower biological aging.
🫘 Beans barely appear in the pyramid, but they are among the best sources of fiber and healthy protein, associated with a 15–20% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to a paper in Nutrients.
Longevity takeaway: Aim for 30g fiber, ideally from 30+ different plants, based on research from Dr. Tim Spector. Choose polyphenol and antioxidant-rich foods like oats, lentils, and berries. 🫐
🍻 Processed food and alcohol
This is the first time that nutrition guidelines explicitly warn against consuming highly processed foods. 🍔🍟 🍜 The kink is that there is no one science-backed definition of processed food.
For example:
Sourdough bread is ‘processed,’ but it’s a healthy staple in longevity populations and featured in the pyramid. This makes anti-processed recommendations confusing.
🍷 The alcohol guidance is also non-specific. “Consume less for better health,” they write. Long-term studies suggest there is no benefit to drinking any alcohol, linked to accelerated biological aging, dementia risk, and cancer risk.
Longevity takeaway: 🛑 No amount of alcohol is technically good for healthy aging, so drink at your own risk.
🍖 Protein: It’s nuanced
The pyramid recommends 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Although higher than the daily recommended intake, it may be a solid recommendation from a longevity perspective.
Eating a higher amount of protein – especially for adults 50 and older – from mostly plant-based 🧆 sources can prevent muscle loss, preserve bone density, and support metabolism.
But protein needs can differ depending on age, sex, activity level, and individual nutrition needs. The concept of “energy safety” could be an alternative way to think about protein.
🚫 And not all protein is equal. Fiber-rich plant-based protein sources from tofu and beans are widely recognized as healthy forms of protein that support slower aging, yet they are downplayed in the pyramid.
“[It’s] deeply misleading,” Van Ark says.
Longevity takeaway: 🐟 Aim to get enough high-quality protein from fish, lean meat, legumes, and plant-based sources. Consider your activity level and age for protein requirements.
🗝 Key takeaways
The guidelines contain some solid, scientifically backed data for healthy eating, but they might not wholly support longevity eating patterns.
To age well and maintain health span, choose real food, but be mindful of quality, quantity, and pre-existing health conditions. Listen to your body, talk to your doctor, and follow the science.
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🍾 Is Dry January Worth It?
This week’s episode is exclusively available on the Livelong podcast.
Poll response
We asked, you answered: If you could redesign one space for longevity, where would you start?
Answer: “I’m craving more beautiful nature in my daily life.”
Nature is a living medicine for healthy aging. One response that really spoke to me was “clutter is depressing.” Whether it’s traffic, people, things, or worries, space helps us tune into calm more easily.
Thanks for reading!
The information provided about wellness and health is for general informational and educational purposes only. We are not licensed medical professionals, and the content here should not be considered medical advice. Talk to a doctor before trying any of these suggestions.
