Why the Dietary Guidelines’ Advice to Restrict Highly Processed Foods Matters
Including highly processed foods in the Dietary Guidelines is an excellent first step, but education alone is not enough.
For the first time, the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, issued by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, recommend “Limiting highly processed foods, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates. Although the guidelines do not use the term “ultra-processed,” the language points toward the same broader concern: how industrially processed foods affect health.
The recommendation reflects the growing body of research linking ultra-processed foods to higher calorie intake, chronic disease, and overall mortality. It also reflects an increasing consensus about the need to consider not only nutrients like sugar, sodium, and fat, but also at how industrial processing affects food metabolism.
The takeaway: including highly processed foods in the Dietary Guidelines is an excellent first step, but education alone is not enough. Helping people eat fewer ultra-processed foods will require a wider range of policy options – including taxes, subsidies, marketing limits, procurement standards, and product placement restrictions – aimed at making healthier foods more available, accessible, and affordable.
