RFK Jr To Recommend Americans Eat More Saturated Fats, Dairy, And Meat

RFK Jr is expected to recommend eating more saturated fats, dairy, and meat.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior, commonly known as RFK Jr, is set to unveil new guidance that encourages Americans to eat more foods that are generally considered unhealthy by doctors, nutritionists, and major health organizations.

As reported by The Hill, RFK Jr has argued that Americans need to eat more foods high in saturated fats, not less, in direct conflict with messaging from experts. In particular, he has praised animal foods like cheese, milk, and red meat, which he claims have been unfairly demonized. The guidelines are also expected to reference the need for more vegetables and less sugar, which does reflect expert advice.

“New dietary guidelines that are common sense, that stress the need to eat saturated fats of dairy, of good meat, of fresh meat and vegetables […] when we release those, it will give everybody the rationale for driving it into our schools,” said RFK Jr.

Nutrition science is nuanced, but for decades, experts have stated that substituting a source of saturated fats (such as butter or tallow) for unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (like olive oil or walnuts) reduces blood cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the leading global cause of death.

Foods high in saturated fats increase CVD risk

In a comprehensive presidential advisory on the topic published in 2017, the American Heart Association warned about the need to swap out saturated fats to cut CVD risk in the US, and noted that it has been making this recommendation since 1961, and in that time, CVD rates have fallen by approximately 75 percent.

“Taking into consideration the totality of the scientific evidence, satisfying rigorous criteria for causality, we conclude strongly that lowering intake of saturated fat and replacing it with unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats, will lower the incidence of CVD,” wrote the authors of the advisory.

RFK Jr, US health policy, and public safety

Photo shows a plate of bacon, eggs, and buttered toast — Adobe Stock Bacon and butter, in particular, are high in saturated fats

This guidance marks the latest in a series of controversial statements on health policy from RFK Jr and his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative. Many of his statements on health, nutrition, vaccines, and neurodivergence have been widely debunked, and last month, more than 1,000 HHS workers urged the health secretary to quit in the interest of public safety after his “attack” on the CDC and HHS.

In August, RFK Jr described a detailed 400-page report from The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) – a panel of leading experts that voluntarily meets every five years to offer recommendations for updating the dietary guidelines – as “bloated,” and said that his version of the guidelines could be as short as four pages.

The updated 2025-2030 nutrition guidelines from RFK Jr and the Trump Administration’s Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) were expected in September, but are currently still in development. The HHS has said they are still expecting to publish by the end of the year.