By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -New dietary guidelines for Americans will be released before August and will be four pages long, directing Americans to “eat whole food,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday.
The current U.S. dietary guidelines are 160 pages longer than those to be proposed by the new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy has promised to make major reforms to the U.S. food system, despite the limited role of his department in food policies, which are primarily implemented by the Department of Agriculture.
Kennedy has had support from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and from President Donald Trump in efforts so far to phase out synthetic food dyes and to overhaul the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are released every five years.
The prior administration of Joe Biden began the process of drafting new guidelines, which must be finished by the end of the year under statutory requirements.
“We have until January, but we’re going to do it, I think we’ll have it done even before August,” Kennedy told the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee’s health subcommittee.
The guidelines are written by HHS and the USDA and shape federal nutrition and school lunch programs.
Kennedy said a scientific report that advises drafting of the guidelines produced by the Biden administration was overly influenced by the food industry and called it “incomprehensible.”
“We’re going to have four-page dietary guidelines that tell people essentially, eat whole food, eat the food that’s good for you,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also told lawmakers that HHS would study food additives and suggested food packaging should contain labels indicating the presence of some additives.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
