The new dietary guidelines signal a reset. Here’s what Ohioans need to know about protein and fat

The recently released 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans mark a long-overdue reset in federal nutrition advice — one with real potential to change how we prevent and manage obesity, diabetes, and chronic disease.

For decades, government guidance prioritized carbohydrate-heavy diets, a move that coincided with skyrocketing rates of metabolic illnesses like type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and others.

The updated guidelines break that pattern, ending the war on fat while elevating protein and nutrient-dense whole foods from both plant and animal sources.

As someone who has spent my entire career researching metabolic health, I see this as the most meaningful step in decades to bring federal policy into closer alignment with clinical evidence.

But guidance of this scope inevitably raises questions from the public — and, understandably so, about how to bridge the gap between policy and the plate.

Much of the early debate has centered on two categories of major nutrients: protein and saturated fat.

Here’s what Americans need to know.

For the better part of half a century, health officials treated protein as secondary to carbohydrate intake.

The original Food Pyramid encouraged Americans to consume up to 11 servings of grains per day, while limiting dairy and protein-rich foods like meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and beans to just 2-3 servings.

And the more recent 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines maintained this starch-heavy model, recommending six servings of grains per day — half of which could be refined grains — exceeding the servings allotted for protein foods.

The updated guidelines flip that hierarchy.

Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and full-fat dairy — alongside vegetables and fruits — now form the foundation of a healthy diet.

Whole grains still have a place, but the recommended intake dropped to 2-4 daily servings, and the guidelines advise Americans to “significantly reduce” highly processed, refined carbohydrates.

Protein now takes prominence.

The latest guidelines advise a daily protein intake of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight — a meaningful increase from the longstanding 0.8-gram benchmark, which was designed primarily to maintain “nitrogen balance” and prevent nutrient deficiency, not optimize health.

This shift matters because protein is the body’s primary building block, supplying the essential amino acids required for tissue repair, immune function, and organ function.

And protein is the most satiating, or filling, macronutrient.

In a food environment dominated by packaged, low-nutrient products, sufficient protein intake helps regulate appetite and support weight management.

In practical terms, 300 calories of candy or chips won’t satisfy in the same way as 300 calories of full-fat yogurt or turkey.

Still, there’s an important nuance missing in how these protein recommendations are applied.

The guidelines suggest calculating protein needs based on current body weight rather than what’s referred to as “ideal” or “reference” weight for your height.

Given that three-quarters of American adults are overweight or obese, this distinction is critical.

For many individuals with excess body fat, basing intake on current weight will overestimate protein targets, potentially leading to overconsumption of protein.

Anchoring protein targets to ideal weight is a more precise way to achieve the benefits of protein on metabolic health and weight loss.

Dietary fat presents a similar need for nuance.

The new guidelines retain the recommendation that saturated fat make up, at most, 10% of daily calories.

This cap — rooted in outdated assumptions about fat and heart disease — creates a practical contradiction with the guidelines’ emphasis on whole foods like red meat and full-fat dairy.

A breakfast of two eggs cooked in butter can bring someone near the daily limit before lunchtime.

Thus, in practice, the 10% saturated fat cap is not realistic and not based on rigorous scientific evidence.

The updated guidelines now recognize that low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets can be appropriate for certain chronic conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Yet long-standing fear about dietary fat often clouds understanding of these diets.

When people eat fewer carbohydrates — such as sugar and refined grains — the body shifts to fat as its main source of energy.

In that setting, higher fat intake — including saturated fat — becomes the body’s preferred fuel.

Research shows that saturated fat behaves differently when carbohydrates are reduced.

In fact, despite eating two to three times more saturated fat on a ketogenic diet, blood levels of saturated fat actually decrease significantly alongside decreased insulin levels, while levels of HDL cholesterol — the “good” cholesterol — rise.

Put plainly: For individuals living with prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, or insulin resistance, reducing refined carbohydrates while eating more dietary fat is not only safe but beneficial.

More than 120 million Americans live with at least one chronic disease, and 9 in 10 show signs of cardiometabolic dysfunction.

The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines represent the most promising opportunity in decades to turn the tide on our metabolic health crisis.

By calibrating protein targets to our target, or ideal, weights — and modernizing how we think about saturated fat — we can translate these new guidelines into real, lasting metabolic gains.

Jeff Volek, PhD, is a professor and researcher at The Ohio State University and an advisory committee member for the Coalition for Metabolic Health.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal. View the original article.