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The Renegade Report · Jan 20, 2026

Inside The NEW Food Pyramid

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The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines: Once A Food Pyramid "Scheme", Now A Food "Breakthrough"


In This Report…

  • The Feature Story: A bold, unfiltered breakdown of the one story you can’t afford to miss.

  • The HHS Watch: Stay informed on what’s new inside Health & Human Services. From reform-driven leadership to pro-health policies under Kennedy, this is your go-to update on where things are headed — and how it affects you.

  • Renegade Peak Performance Picks: Curated recommendations for commanding your body, mind, and environment. From protocols to products, this is where high-performance living meets independent thinking.

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The Feature Story…

“Inside The NEW Food Pyramid: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines — Once A Food Pyramid “Scheme”, Now A Food “Breakthrough”

Press play below to listen to the audio read by Andrew Cass:


February, 2024: The Renegade Report

The very first issue of my Renegade Report in February 2024 was titled:

How Did We Get Here? Inside The USDA Food Pyramid ‘Scheme’

Two years ago, almost to the day, I said the Food Pyramid was upside down. I called it exactly what it was: a Pyramid Scheme. I half-jokingly said they should just flip it upside down…

(Read it HERE )

What I wrote in Issue #1 of The Renegade Report is now official United States policy.

As I stated in the About section of The Renegade Report, I’ve been consistently three to five years ahead of the mainstream health and science media for a very, very long time now. This, yet another example.

I think the former Food Pyramid was the single biggest attack on humanity of all time. It fueled the diabetes, heart disease and cancer epidemic we’ve now found ourselves in. The old Food Pyramid is at the core of why America is the sickest, fattest, chronically ill nation on earth. And on January 7, 2026, the government finally told the American people the truth…

January 2026: Health & Human Services

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stood before the American people and did exactly what I said needed to happen.

They literally flipped the food pyramid upside down.

This marked a historic display of political courage. For decades, we have known that the explosion of highly processed food, refined carbohydrates, and added sugar in our diets was the chief cause of America’s chronic disease epidemic. Bad government recommendations and bad incentives caused this.

Kennedy called it “the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history.”

He’s right. This is the most significant change to federal dietary guidance since 1980.

The message is simple: Eat real food.

Beyond all the noise and controversy, beyond the critics and the corporate interests, the core of the new guidelines is exactly what real nutrition experts have been calling for: go back to real food and common-sense healthy eating.

What Actually Changed

Here’s what the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 tell the American people to do:

✅ AVOID highly processed food. This matters because highly processed food currently makes up 70% of a child’s diet in America.

✅ AVOID refined carbohydrates. The white bread, the crackers, the flour tortillas — they’re sugar in disguise.

✅ AVOID added sugar and sugary drinks. No hedging. No exceptions. Just avoid them.

✅ CELEBRATE REAL FOOD. This is a position the Dietary Guidelines have never taken in their 45-year history!

The document released impacts dozens of government procurement programs. It shapes what schools serve 30 million children every day. It determines what the military feeds our troops. It influences Medicare, Medicaid, and federal food assistance programs.

This is the most important public health document in modern American history.

I wonder why the former HHS Secretary, Xavier Beccera, wasn’t able to make these obvious, life-changing food changes since he was so “qualified” for the position… 🤔

The Pyramid Returns — Inverted

The pyramid is back. But this time, it’s inverted.

At the top — the widest part of the pyramid — sits protein, dairy, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables.

At the bottom — the smallest point — whole grains.

“The new framework centers on protein and healthy fats, vegetables, fruits and whole grains,” Kennedy said at the White House briefing. “It’s upside down, a lot of people say. It was actually upside down before.”

He’s dead right. As always.

The original Food Pyramid from the 1990s told Americans to eat 8-11 servings of bread, rice, pasta and grains daily while limiting fats and proteins. That guidance helped create the very chronic disease epidemic we’re now fighting to reverse.

Think about that for a moment.

6 to 11 servings per day of high carbohydrate/sugar foods as the BASE of the pyramid.

Knowing full well that excess carbs and sugars spike insulin, which causes diabetes, stimulates cancer cells, and is horrible for the heart. And now 2 out of 3 Americans are pre-diabetic or diabetic.

This tells me only two things:

One, this was massive incompetence at a level never seen in public health.

Or two, this was designed to fuel the medical industrial complex.

You choose. But these are the only two choices. There is no third choice.

Hard to imagine this wasn’t deliberate to fuel a mass medicine campaign…

Diabetes medications, heart disease medication and cancer treatments are off the charts in America.

For over thirty years, the government told Americans to fear fat and fill up on carbs. Chronic disease rates exploded. Diabetes became an epidemic. Obesity became the norm.

The pyramid was upside down. And millions of Americans paid the price with their health.

The Big 4: Reversing Decades Of Lies

The new guidelines center on four major shifts that reverse decades of catastrophically bad advice.

1. Prioritizing Protein

The guidelines now recommend high-quality, nutrient-dense protein at every meal — 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. That’s 81-109 grams for a 150-pound person.

This includes animal sources like eggs, poultry, seafood, and red meat, plus plant-sourced proteins like beans, peas, lentils, nuts, and seeds.

The previous recommendation? Just 0.8 grams per kilogram — about 54 grams daily for a 150-pound person. My post workout protein shake is 50 grams!

The guidelines essentially recommend DOUBLING protein intake for most Americans.

For years, protein was demonized. The establishment pushed carbohydrates as the foundation of a healthy diet while treating meat like a toxin.

Insane.

I didn’t even mention the “sarcopenia” epidemic we are in (a severe loss of muscle throughout the body) due to most being so under-nourished with very low protein levels in their diet.

That lie stops today.

2. Ending The War On Healthy Fats

“We are ending the war on saturated fats,” Kennedy declared.

The guidance calls for receiving the bulk of dietary fat from whole food sources: meats, poultry, eggs, omega-3 rich seafood, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, olives, and avocados.

When cooking or adding fats to meals, the guidelines recommend olive oil, butter, and yes — beef tallow.

Full-fat dairy is prioritized for the first time in decades. Three servings daily, with no added sugars. The guidelines embrace full-fat milk, cheese and yogurt in school meals for the first time since the war on fat began.

For years, Americans were told to fear butter and red meat. The government pushed seed oils and low-fat products while chronic disease rates exploded.

The evidence linking full-fat dairy to better health outcomes has been there all along. “Both low-fat and whole-fat dairy versions of milk, cheese and yogurt have been linked to lower cardiovascular risk,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. “What’s quite interesting is that the fat content doesn’t seem to make a big difference.”

The government just refused to admit it.

Well sourced, grass fed and grass finished red meat is THE most nutritious food on the planet. Bar none. There is ZERO impact on heart health. The studies that state otherwise used cheap, poor, industrial meat polluted with steroids and hormones.

Those lies stop today.

3. Declaring War On Added Sugars

Previous guidelines didn’t take a hard line against added sugar, especially for children.

The new guidance is crystal clear: “No amount of added sugars or non-nutritive sweeteners is recommended or considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet.”

For children aged four and under, parents should completely avoid added sugar.

“Today our government declares war on added sugar,” Kennedy said.

A recent CDC report found that 55% of Americans get more than half their daily calories from ultra-processed foods.

Please read that again.

More than half of what most Americans eat isn’t even real food.

4. Whole Grains In, Refined Carbohydrates OUT

The guidelines take a firm stand to “prioritize fiber-rich whole grains” while Americans must “significantly reduce the consumption of highly processed, refined carbohydrates.”

That means cutting white bread, ready-to-eat or packaged breakfast options, flour tortillas, and crackers.

These are “sugar in disguise” — the exact foods that spike insulin and cause the metabolic chaos driving our chronic disease epidemic.

For the first time in federal dietary guidance history, the guidelines explicitly tell Americans to avoid highly processed foods.

Not limit. Not reduce. Avoid.

The American Medical Association Steps Up

In a move that surprised many, the American Medical Association attended Kennedy’s briefing and publicly applauded the new guidelines.

“The guidelines affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health,” said Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the AMA.

The AMA pledged to launch educational resources for physicians and patients, hold expert roundtables on nutrition, work with Congress to incentivize nutrient-dense foods, expand food labeling efforts, define ultra-processed foods, and increase investment in nutrition research.

This is significant.

The largest physician organization in America is putting real food at the center of medicine.

Why This Matters More Than You Realize

The numbers tell the story of a nation in crisis:

Nearly 90% of U.S. healthcare spending goes toward treating chronic disease — much of it linked to diet and lifestyle.

More than 70% of American adults are overweight or obese.

Nearly 1 in 3 adolescents has pre-diabetes.

Diet-driven chronic disease now disqualifies many young Americans from military service, threatening national readiness and limiting opportunity.

This isn’t just a health crisis. It’s a national security crisis.

The federal government is the largest purchaser of food in the country. These guidelines influence what schools, the military, and other institutions buy with public dollars.

This reset will result in more available and affordable healthy food for all Americans.

The Mission Ahead

The guidelines are now published at realfood.gov.

Kennedy acknowledged the work ahead: “We are working on an education and information program that will allow American families all over the country to come onto our website and find the healthiest foods at the lowest cost for themselves.”

The idea that processed food is cheap is an illusion. You’re paying for it on the back end — with diabetes, with obesity, with illness, with shortened lifespans, with a lower quality of life.

When you internalize the true cost of eating bad food, real food becomes the bargain.

I’ll leave you with a great video overview of the all-new Food Pyramid here below from Dr. Eric Berg. Press play below to watch it.

The NEW Food Pyramid is a game changer.

Until next time...


The HHS Watch…

“Ultra-Processed Foods Are a National Security Threat”: RFK Jr. warns that addiction to ultra-processed foods is harming children’s health, weakening the economy, and undermining national security. He calls it a preventable crisis driven in part by government policy — and says President Trump has ordered it to end. Watch HERE

“Fear-Based Pressure Led to Irreversible Medical Decisions”: NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya says parents were pressured into hormone blockers and surgeries for their children through suicide-related fear tactics. He argues families were misled about the reversibility of these treatments, despite a lack of supporting scientific evidence. Watch HERE

“The 2026 MAHA Agenda: Eight Reforms to Restore Public Health”: A new MAHA post outlines eight major reforms aimed at accountability, medical safety, and structural public-health change. The piece argues that meaningful reform requires confronting politically uncomfortable issues — not incremental fixes. Watch HERE


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