The announcement, posted on the White House’s Some advice – particularly avoiding ultra-processed foods and added sugars – has been well accepted by dietitians and health organizations such as the American Heart Association. But other aspects of it represent shocks that defy the scientific consensus. For example, the recommended intake of saturated fats found in full-fat milk, butter, and beef fat contradicts previous nutritional guidance, which generally advised limiting saturated fat.
But one of the biggest things from the new food guide — which will affect everything from SNAP to school lunches — is that Americans should consume more protein, ideally from animals.
“Today the lies stop,” Kennedy, the leader of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, the powerful and fractious branch of MAGA, said in an announcement about the new guidance on January 7. Protein and healthy fats are essential and were incorrectly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines.
The thing is, there is no war on protein. If there ever was one, it was lost long ago. Americans have never really been as obsessed with protein as they are today, with consumption levels in the United States reaching record highs, so much so that protein deficiency is almost negligible.
Still, Kennedy’s point makes sense in the context of the MAGA movement that has made body image, fitness, and masculinity central tenets.
“They’re trying to tie it into a war on masculinity, a war on warrior culture. All of these things are connected,” said Colin Davis, a personal trainer and political commentator who has been critical of MAGA’s encroachment into the fitness sphere.
In August, Kennedy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted videos online of themselves doing push-ups and pull-ups as part of the “Pete and Bobby Fitness Challenge”. Hegseth also convened an unprecedented meeting of American generals in September at Quantico, Virginia to brief them on the military’s fitness and grooming standards. “It is completely unacceptable to see obese generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,” Hegseth told the hundreds of generals attending.
President Trump himself has linked his movement to fitness through his friendship with UFC CEO Dana White, making several campaign appearances at UFC events in 2024. These virtual rallies brought the then-presidential candidate closer to young, physically healthy men, who sometimes seemed to support him after a fight; During the 2024 election, Trump will take the young male vote in his favor by a margin of about 30 points. Trump has said that in June, the White House is hosting a UFC cage fight as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration.
Some experts say Kennedy’s reworking of the dietary guidelines is a continuation of that project, particularly the emphasis on animal proteins, playing into long-held and well-researched cultural assumptions around food and gender to present a form of ideal masculinity.
“Men have a longstanding association with meat, fire, cooking outside,” said Charlotte Biltekoff, a professor of food, wine and culture at the University of California, Davis. “And women eat light food, diet for weight loss, consume vegetables, fruits and salads.”
All of this serves to bring the president and his broader political movement closer to a kind of aspirational masculinity that is high agency, strong, physically attractive, and situated well within traditional gender roles.
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