Administration promises to adapt dietary guidelines across government 

At an extraordinary event that featured former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who was featured in a Super Bowl TV commercial criticizing processed food, Trump administration officials on Wednesday promised to adapt the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025 to 2030 to the Agriculture Department’s nutrition programs and to the food served in military facilities and prisons. 

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that, with the midterm elections coming up, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has switched focus from his unpopular positions on vaccines to his more popular views on food. 

In the one-hour event that can to be seen on C-SPAN video, Calley Means, a Kennedy aide described as a White House adviser, said the Trump administration is determined to move the federal government’s food purchasing power away from ultraprocessed foods. 

Means held up a can of what appeared to be soda, describing it as the No. 1 food purchased under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as a bag of chips that he said is allowed in the school meals program and a doughnut he said is a breakfast item served to millions of school children daily.  

“Lobbyists say we cannot afford a better diet,” he said, noting the United States spends $4.60 per school lunch while other countries spend less and serve healthier foods. 

Only President Trump “has the political will” to serve healthier foods, Means said before calling for a round of applause for Trump. 

Joe Gebbia, a founder of the Airbnb vacation home rental system and the nation’s first “chief design officer,” a position created by Trump along with the National Design Studio, claimed credit for the new Dietary Guidelines’ inverted pyramid that puts high protein foods at the top. 

Nutrition guidance should be “beautiful,” not “bureaucratic,” Gebbia said. The National Design Studio, which operates within the executive office of the president, is credited with designing the RealFood.gov website.

Brett Ratner, a filmmaker who made the recently released documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, said that making the commercial with Tyson was “the topper.”

“We didn’t make a commercial for the Super Bowl,” said Peter Arnell, a prominent designer and branding expert who helped direct the ad. “We started a movement.” 

American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala, who practices in Flint, Mich., said that the Dietary Guidelines preference for high protein foods over those that are high in sugar and sodium will make it easier for physicians to talk to their patients about nutrition. 

Andrew Gruel, a chef, restaurant owner and member of the Huntington Beach City Council in California, said “real food is common sense.”

Due to the Magnuson-Stevenson Fishery Conservation and Management Act “we have a bounty of seafood,” he said, although he noted the United States imports 85% to 90% of it and has low consumption of seafood.

Army Undersecretary Mike Obadal said the Army is changing its model for serving food to a concessions-based model that will make lean protein and complex carbohydrates available. At Fort Hood in Texas, the Army is already trying the new model, he said, and working with Food Network celebrity chef Robert Irvine to come up with the new menus. 

Defense Department schools and Army commissaries will also provide fresh seafood and produce, Obadal said. 

Irvine has been brought in by the “wonderful DOW Secretary Pete Hegseth,” Kennedy said a few moments later, using Trump’s designation of Defense as the Department of War.

Director of the Bureau of Prisons William Marshall said that federal prisons are improving their food offerings to the more than 152,000 inmates under their custody. Studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown better diets can reduce disciplinary infractions and aggressive behavior, he said, describing the results as “modest but very meaningful.”

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rolllins mentioned that she and Kennedy were confirmed by the Senate on the same day. She noted in jest that she may have gotten a few more votes, but added she does not know how the vote would go today.

Rollins said USDA is in the “final weeks” of writing new stocking standards for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that will require merchants accepting SNAP benefits “to double healthy food options.”

Rollins noted that USDA also is releasing new guidance for regional directors of child nutrition programs and will produce new school meals regulations in about a month.

Kennedy said Rollins “is the best USDA secretary in American history,” and maintained that for decades the U.S. government has “lied to Americans” by saying that ultraprocessed food is just as good as “real” food. 

Both government and industry officials have “gaslit” Americans by underplaying the dangers of added sugars, Kennedy said, noting that federal lunch standards have allowed unlimited amounts of sugar.

Trump “had the courage to take on the big food industry,” and the the administration is “putting the full weight of the federal government behind one goal — making healthy affordable food accessible to every American,” Kennedy said. 

Ultraprocessed food takes power away from farmers, ranchers and local producers and concentrates it “in the hands of people who are not looking out for American health,” he said. 

Fresh, not frozen food, will be served, Kennedy said, claiming that fresh salmon can be purchased for $6 per pound while frozen salmon costs $9. 

At the end of the event, Kennedy invited Tyson to the stage. After brief remarks repeating statements he made in the commercial, Tyson posed for photos with Rollins and Kennedy.