Kyle Kellams: There is news regarding health almost every day, but it’s not often that that news penetrates the zeitgeist. But a new type of food pyramid from the federal government — well, that’s receiving all kinds of attention. We thought we’d spend some time on our first 2026 edition of “Balance”, that’s our series dedicated to health, exercise and nutrition, considering nutrition guidelines.
Balance is co-hosted by Erin Howie, associate professor of exercise science at the University of Arkansas, and Jamie Baum, associate professor in the University of Arkansas Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Arkansas. Jamie says there is a requirement that nutrition guidelines be updated.
Jamie Baum: I can’t remember what the specific name of the policy is, but every five years it is a policy to update the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Or you may see it in the news or on social media as DGA oftentimes. And what that basically means is that every five years, within the field of nutrition — and sometimes physical activity, because we know we need balance, we can’t have one without the other — experts from national societies and international societies are nominated and put forward to be part of a scientific panel. They spend quite a bit of time meeting and discussing what has changed in the last five years in terms of science to make more up-to-date recommendations.
Some years things don’t change. Some years you may see a bigger change because more science has come out and stronger, more substantiated studies have been released. These scientists put together a scientific report. It’s open for public viewing. Public comment peers and experts can ask them questions. And in the end, they deliver a scientific report based on the newest findings for dietary guidelines to then be developed and communicated to the public.
Kellams: So what has happened over the last couple of weeks is there is what we’re calling, colloquially anyway, the new food pyramid.
Baum: Correct.
Kellams: Updated?
Baum: Yes.
Kellams: And is it different?
Baum: It is very different. One of the things that happened — which if you look at LinkedIn or social media, at least because I pay attention to this field — is some controversy where they didn’t really use the report from this last Dietary Guidelines committee. They created a smaller committee and a smaller document to make this new revised pyramid, which is more like an inverted triangle.
A lot of people are wondering, what does this mean? How does it change? But in reality, I think most people know, like you said in the beginning, there is some sort of recommendation. But when we poll people, no one really knows what those recommendations are because we aren’t really taught nutrition beyond maybe a week in high school or elementary school. Most of us don’t pay attention or have training later in life. So a lot of people want to know, what does this mean?
Kellams: Erin, when you look at this new pyramid, I think you and I both have the same image. It’s one that’s in the public domain. It’s a little bit hard to understand. There’s this raw steak at the top. There’s this block of cheese, this chicken, asparagus, carrots. But the image itself doesn’t tell me, should I have five times as much steak as I do the bowl of rice?
Erin Howie: Right, the turkey and broccoli are really big.
Kellams: Yeah.
Howie: And I think we all grew up with the original food pyramid that was in the normal shape, and it kind of told you how many servings of each thing to eat.
Kellams: Yeah, it was gridded off.
Howie: Yeah. And then we had MyPlate, which was a specific plate for your meal and kind of divided into sections, if you’ve ever seen it, which was helpful. So yeah, as a non-nutrition expert, I’m really excited to hear from Jamie about what this tells me to eat.
Baum: I think that’s a really great question. One of the struggles that I’ve seen as I’ve looked at debate online and listened to people’s feedback is, unlike MyPlate, it doesn’t give you a very good visual on what to eat or how to eat it. Instead, it does talk about different serving sizes or portion sizes, but Americans in general don’t know the serving or portion size.
I think it’s something that a lot of people are being tasked with now to develop. I know within our state, Extension has been asked to put together something of how this information should be communicated. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is also looking at how to interpret this.
I think the biggest changes are — the last two iterations over the last 10 years of the Dietary Guidelines have focused on recognizing cultural differences in the foods we eat and different dietary patterns. A dietary pattern is the pattern of foods and beverages you eat over the course of a day, a month, a year. Popular ones we may have heard of are the Mediterranean diet, the MIND diet or the DASH diet, which have all been recognized year after year as being some of the most healthy dietary patterns with scientific evidence to support them. We don’t really see a talk about dietary patterns anymore. We don’t see paying attention to cultural differences anymore.
But we do see an emphasis on limiting ultra-processed food intake. One of the weaknesses of ultra-processed food is that there isn’t a great definition of what that means. I know the MAHA movement does seek to —
Kellams: Make America Healthy Again
Baum: Sorry. To create a definition of what ultra-processed foods mean in terms of the American diet, so that will come. And when you think of ultra-processed foods, it is things like added sugar, added sodium, saturated fat. These are things that have consistently been recommended to limit in the diet because they can lead to diseases like diabetes or heart disease. Now it’s packaged under the term ultra-processed foods.
Kellams: You know about protein.
Baum: Right.
Kellams: It would appear that this new pyramid suggests more protein than previous pyramids or plates. Fair?
Baum: Fair. One of the challenges as a protein scientist in protein foods is that there’s a lot of debate about protein — how much protein should we eat, what type of protein, plant versus animal sources of protein, environmental impact of protein. It’s a really nuanced field. Traditionally, there is not a lot of science backing the previous Dietary Guidelines for Americans for protein. We know it should be higher than what it was, but I don’t know what any of us can define what it should be for most of the population, which is what the dietary guidelines are for.
We do know it needed to be more, but I don't think the evidence is there yet across the lifespan or life cycle. What that should be. So they did take a step in the right direction by increasing it. But one of the things they did take away is the talk about incorporating more plant-based protein foods and vegetarian or vegan dietary patterns. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for people who may not follow a traditional high animal-protein diet.
Kellams: So how do we navigate?
Baum: As someone who’s seen lots of iterations of dietary guidelines, consistently you see we need more fiber in our diet, which would be hard to interpret from the current picture. Whole grains, which are a great source of fiber, tend to be at the bottom of the pyramid. Fruits and vegetables are in there, but it tells you to eat two servings of fruit a day and three servings of vegetables a day, but most of us don’t know what a serving means.
Kellams: Does my salad at lunch count as one or three?
Baum: It depends on your volume and what you’re putting in there. Are you eating fruits and vegetables? Are you limiting processed foods, added sugars, saturated fats? Another controversy I’ve seen online is now, in this pyramid, the recommendation to consume full-fat dairy, which was not in previous recommendations. They recommended low-fat dairy because we need calcium, protein, vitamins and minerals, but we do have a problem with high saturated fat intake. So that cap of less than 10% of calories from saturated fat was removed.
But again, what do people know when planning their meal about 10% of calories from saturated fat? So some of the dietitians and medical professionals I've seen online who are obesity and chronic disease experts have said, well, by putting butter and cheeses towards the top in bigger pictures where fruit is maybe towards the bottom in a lower picture, it could actually make some of these diseases worse if we don't provide the proper education.
Kellams: Is there any sort of exercise pyramid that ever comes out?
Howie: No. The original pyramid, remember it had the stairs,
Kellams: Right.
Baum: No, no, no, that was G2. The original pyramid had whole grains at the bottom.
Howie: One of the pyramids had some people running up it and it usually gets mentioned. I haven’t read the full, full report.
Baum: I know they do talk about hydration, which we’ve had an expert here. They don’t really talk too much about it, but that it’s important to stay hydrated.
But usually there’s some sort of recommendation about the importance of physical activity. And I know there were a couple of physical activity people, I think, on this panel, but I didn’t see a specific recommendation toward that, but I could be missing it. I have not. There’s been a lot of news dump since, so it’s hard to sit down and decipher. What does it mean? Go check the science. Look at the old report.
Howie: But it’s definitely not a priority.
Kellams: Right. But it should be in our lives, right? We should move. We should exercise.
Baum: 100%, Kyle.
Kellams: I wanted to ask you, Erin, because I heard a day or two into the new year, I was listening to NPR, and they were talking about strength training for people who were 60-plus. And that is not only a good idea, but maybe a really good idea to do strength training.
Howie: Yes.
Moore: What’s an easy way for a 60-plus-year-old who maybe hasn’t done it ever, or for a while, to safely get into strength training?
Howie: I think one of the things about strength training and what scares people, I think, is that there is some technique or skill involved and knowledge around it to do it safely and not put yourself at risk of injury. So if you really have never done it before, doing something like SilverSneakers or just getting some orientation classes.
Kellams: Hold on, hold on. SilverSneakers.
Howie: So it’s an exercise program. Usually it’s free through insurance or Medicare, I think. And it’s in various locations. There’s various programs at different community centers.
Baum: OK. Jones Center.
Kellams: OK. Oh. Silver, referring to, like, people of a certain age. I got it.
Howie: Yeah. OK. So that can give you kind of that entry level to make you feel more comfortable. But it doesn’t have to be formal lifting weights. We were actually just talking about a project for older adults about strength training and how do you measure strength training. And one of the things that’s a great strength-building activity can be gardening.
Kellams: Ah.
Howie: So kind of vigorous gardening. But you know, where you’re actually lifting things and digging, that’s really good for your muscles. So it doesn’t have to be traditional strength training, going to the gym, lifting weights. And gardening is obviously a popular activity for older adults.
Baum: Yeah. And I think, you know, when we’re talking about aging well or successful aging, healthy aging, this is where also higher protein intake is important. So the dietary guidelines recommend 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram body weight.
They also have a conversion to pounds, which is a little bit difficult to figure out. But we do know that that range, as we age, there’s a lot of research around those numbers, to support muscle health and prevent muscle breakdown as we age, which we’ve talked about on some other episodes of “Balance”.
Howie: And within the written description in these new guidelines, they are pretty general. So while the picture does have a steak and it says to emphasize protein and protein from animals, it doesn’t prescribe like you need to have animal protein with every meal. I think you could do that and fit within these guidelines, but you could also choose some of the other protein options and still meet — I have no idea how to get 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram — but having protein in it.
Baum: And I think we’re doing a study right now with increasing protein intake in postmenopausal women. And we’re providing red meat for this study, grocery gift cards, dietary guidance and a financial compensation at the end. And it’s still a challenge for us, especially women, I think, to get to some of these higher protein intake goals because you do have to plan your meals.
So I would say maybe roughly for a 150- to 170-pound person, it’s about 25 to 30 grams of protein a meal. And so a serving size of animal protein is around 3 ounces. And I think that gives you about 20 grams of protein.
Howie: And that’s like a deck of cards, right, or the size of your palm.
Baum: Or your computer mouse. And there are other things in your meat like water and fat, depending on the cut. So that’s where you also have to think of time and energy. So I worry in trying to get people to eat these protein goals, they’re going to turn to ultra-processed protein products.
Kellams: Right, because that might be the easiest.
Howie: Yeah.
Baum: So but I think, you know, I personally think especially as we age, I don’t think there’s a lot of talk about fiber, but it’s well established that we need to meet like the 20 to 30 grams of fiber a day for our colon and our gut health. And they do mention, like with dairy, about probiotics and prebiotics that you would find in some yogurts and things to help with your gut health. So in the end, I think it’s about balance.
Kellams: And “Balance” is the name of our series about health, nutrition and exercise. Jamie Baum is an associate professor in the University of Arkansas Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Arkansas. Erin Howie is an associate professor of exercise science at the University of Arkansas.
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