It looks like cheese and other full-fat dairy products will soon be on the menu again. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced America’s soon-to-be-released new dietary guidelines will include more dairy.
“I grew up in a world where milk was the healthiest thing that you could eat. There’s been an attack on whole milk and cheese,” he said, adding the Department of Health and Human Services is “about to release new dietary guidelines in the next several months that will elevate dairy.”
Kennedy made the comments alongside dairy industry leaders who pledged to remove artificial food colors from ice cream within the next three years. He said dairy’s health benefits are numerous.
“There’s a tremendous amount of emerging science that talks about the need for protein in our diet and more fats in our diet and there’s no industry that does that better than this industry,” Kennedy said.
However, the idea of recommending more dairy, especially full-fat dairy, such as whole milk, cheese, and full-fat yogurt, has some doctors concerned.
Nutrition expert and bestselling author Ian K. Smith, M.D., told CBN News he recommends Americans limit their dairy intake and try to consume the low-fat or non-fat varieties because the higher-fat dairy products can prove harmful to heart health.
“It gives you a lot of protein, calcium, vitamin D, and other nutrients, absolutely, but it also can give you a lot of saturated fats. And saturated fats we’ve known for a long time is a predictor or a contributor to cardiovascular disease,” he said. “For years it’s been very clear, with all kinds of research, that limiting, I’m not saying eliminating, but limiting dairy intake for many people is important.”
However, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, also attending the dairy industry event with HHS Secretary Kennedy, said he supports the new dietary guidelines, and said the current dairy recommendations are based on flawed science.
“This is a renaissance moment in health in America, and part of that is rewriting the broken food and nutrition guidelines in the United States. No longer are we going to have a broken food pyramid and a continuation of a 70-year demonization of natural saturated fat,” he said. “We are going to have dietary guidelines that are based on science, not based on medical dogma.”
It’s unclear whether the new dietary recommendations will include raw milk, which Kennedy has said is the only milk he drinks. Raw milk is unpasteurized, so it is not subjected to heat treatments that kill bacteria that can prove beneficial to gut health. However, raw milk is currently banned in many states.
“Raw milk coming from a cow can be filled with pathogenic microorganisms. Pathogenic means they can cause disease,” said Dr. Smith, adding that raw milk can be particularly dangerous for pregnant women and immunosuppressed individuals.
***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters to ensure you receive the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***\
