Dr. Kim Williams, cardiologist: “Butter fat, beef tallow, red and processed meat — are all closely associated with more deaths”

Every five years the United States updates its dietary guidelines, but some of the recommendations in the latest set released recently by the Trump administration have health experts flabbergasted.

While the Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture restricted added sugars, refined grains, and ultraprocessed foods, a move applauded by experts, the lack of clarity on limits for alcohol consumption and a push for Americans to eat more protein from foods loaded with saturated fats have caused concern.

Experts say White House new dietary guidelines are bad for your heart

Some of the “real foods” that HHS Secretary Rober F Kennedy Jr.’s new dietary guidelines moved to the top of the food pyramid include saturated fat containing full-fat dairy like whole milk and red meat as well as beef tallow. This is concerning to health experts like Dr. Kim Williams, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

“Promoting saturated fat and increasing the amount of protein goes against all nutrition and cardiology science,” he told CNN. “We’ve been researching this for decades, and we definitively know saturated fat — such as butter fat, beef tallow, red and processed meat — are all closely associated with more deaths from cardiovascular disease."

He pointed out that the recommendations go against executive order 14303 issued by President Trump. It mandates that all federal policies must use the best scientific evidence available.

Scientific studies, using randomized controlled clinical trials that are condiered the gold standard, have found a 30% drop in cardiovascular disease when saturated fats were replaced with vegetable and seed oils.

Saturated fat consumption limits impossible to meet under new guidelines

Albeit the American Heart Association says your total daily calories that come from saturated fats should be under 6 percent, the new dietary guidelines kept the decades-old recommendation of less than 10%, first put into place in 1990.

However, the HHS and FDA guidelines for consuming more “real foods” like whole milk, butter and red meats make keeping saturated fat consumption below that amount essentially impossible.

CNN points out that a person would be pushing the 10% limit after enjoying a serving of full-fat Greek yogurt (6 oz, ¾ cup) and whole milk (8 oz, 1 cup), and single serving of cheddar cheese (1 oz, the size of a die). Those three servings would add up to 17 g, leaving just a 3 g allowance for a 2,000-calorie per day diet.

That leaves no room to put some butter on your toast, a tablespoon serving will tack on 7 grams. Want to enjoy a hamburger for lunch or dinner at home, minus the cheese? That will be another 13 grams of saturated fat on your daily total.

Forget about enjoying a Steak ’n Shake Steakburger along with some French fries, cooked up in beef tallow, something RFK Jr is fond of. That combo will surpass your daily allowance by over four-fold with 90 grams of saturated fat in total.

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