Why the U.S. Is Backing Meat & Dairy and Side-Lining Plant-Based Proteins?

The new U.S. Dietary Guidelines just out have done something almost unthinkable in the post-2019 food wars as they’ve re-centred red meat, dairy, eggs, poultry and seafood as primary protein sources, while quietly sliding plant-based proteins further down the nutritional hierarchy. Not banned. Not dismissed. But no longer treated as nutritionally equivalent. That alone tells you something fundamental has shifted.

On the surface, the language is about “nutrient density,” “bioavailability,” and “whole-food patterns.” Underneath, it reads like a strategic course-correction. For years, public nutrition policy leaned hard into substitution with meat out, plants in. But the commercial results have been messy: ultra-processed plant foods, shaky long-term adherence, consumer fatigue, and rising questions about micronutrients, satiety, and metabolic outcomes. The new guidance doesn’t attack plant-based eating. It simply stops pretending that all protein is created equal.

And yes, this is also politics. Re-elevating beef and dairy aligns neatly with America’s most powerful agricultural sectors. But it’s not just lobbying. It’s realism. The U.S. food system still runs on animal agriculture. Plant-based alternatives never scaled economically, nutritionally, or culturally at the speed policymakers once imagined. The US Food pyramid has just snapped back to 'business as normal'.

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