by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

In an earlier post about the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, I said I’d explain more about one of the many confusing statements in these guidelines, namely, that despite the Guidelines stating that they prioritize whole foods, the number of recommended servings of grains has a been reduced. That’s only one of a number of problems, specifically with the Guide to Daily Servings that is a companion to the Guidelines.

Warning: This is a somewhat technical discussion, but it is important for those who are concerned about issues like how these flawed Guidelines will be used to develop meal plans for everything from school lunch to congregate meal sites to military cafeterias and how they may be used to develop educational materials. All comparisons in this post will be to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines.

The Latest Dietary Guidelines Tell Americans to Eat Fewer Grains

Calorie needs depend on age, sex, and physical activity level. The average moderately active 4-year old needs about 1400 calories per day; a sedentary woman age 51 years and older needs 1600 calories; a moderately active 26-45-year old woman needs about 2000 calories; a moderately active 26-45-year old man needs about 2600 calories; and an active 16-year old boy needs about 3200 calories;. Here’s how many servings of grain products the two most recent editions of Dietary Guidelines call for.

It’s clear that the number of servings of grains recommended has decreased by anywhere from 1-1/4 servings per day to 6-3/4 servings per day. The 2025-2030 Guidelines say that all grain servings should be whole grains whereas the 2020-2025 Guidelines called for at least half of grain servings being whole grains, but this does not explain why the total number of servings of grains has been slashed. Grain foods provide many nutrients including B-vitamins, iron, zinc, fiber (whole grains), folic acid (enriched grains), and protein. Grain products include breads, tortillas, chapatis, rice, quinoa, breakfast cereals, oatmeal, pasta. To see why the number of servings of grains is markedly reduced in the 2025-2030 Guidelines, we need to see which food group now has an increased number of servings.

The Latest Dietary Guidelines Tell Americans to Eat More “Protein Foods”

It’s a little challenging to compare the 2020-2025 and the 2025-2030 Guidelines recommendations for “protein foods” because each edition uses different serving sizes. For illustration purposes, I will convert recommendations into ounces of meat, fish, and poultry.

The number of ounces recommended has increased from 2 ounces per day to 8 ounces (or a half pound of cooked meat) per day. In honesty, I must note that the “protein foods” group also includes eggs, beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, nut butters, seed butters, and soy products. I’d like to think that people would be eating more plant “protein foods” under the new guidelines, but I think it’s more likely that many people will continue to equate meat with protein and use these guidelines to rationalize eating more animal products. This is bad for human health, the environment, and animals. And, there’s no evidence that Americans are deficient in protein. The group developing the most recent Guidelines has been criticized for their ties to the meat and dairy industry.

The Latest Dietary Guidelines Offer Confusing Advice About Amounts of Protein Foods

Things start getting really confusing when we compare what a serving of “Protein Foods” looks like in the 2025-2030 Guidelines and the 2020-2025 Guidelines. Serving sizes in the 2020-2025 Guidelines were based on a careful analysis involving looking at the nutrient content of foods included in a food group and how frequently the food was consumed. If you’re interested in the details of this process, you can read the entire report here. It’s not clear how serving sizes in the 2025-2030 Guidelines were determined. This has led to some surprising recommendations.

In the 2020-2025 Guidelines, based on careful analysis, an ounce-equivalent from the “Protein Foods” Group is:

• 1 ounce of lean meat, poultry, or seafood or
• 1 egg or
• ¼ cup cooked beans or tofu or
• 1 Tablespoon of nut or seed butter or
• ½ ounce of nuts or seeds

All of these foods have similar amounts of nutrients including protein and of calories.

The 2025-2030 Guidelines equate a serving of “Protein Foods” as 3 ounces of meat, poultry, or seafood; 1 egg; ½ cup beans, peas, or lentils; 1 ounce of nuts or seeds; 2 Tablespoons of nut or seed butter; 3 ounces of soy. If we convert these amounts so they can be compared with an ounce of meat, poultry or seafood we get:

• 1 ounce of meat, poultry or seafood is equivalent to
• 1/3 of an egg or
• 1/6 cup of beans, peas, or lentils or
• 1 ounce of soy or
• 2 teaspoons of nut or seed butter or
• 1/3 of an ounce of nuts or seeds

These amounts have wildly different amounts of calories, protein, and other nutrients. This suggests to me a glaring lack of analysis, consideration of nutrient amounts, and awareness of food composition. It will make it even more challenging to plan meals using these Guidelines.

To read more about the Dietary Guidelines for Americans see:

2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Released

What do the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Say About Vegan Diets? See: https://www.vrg.org/blog/2026/02/06/what-do-the-2025-2030-dietary-guidelines-for-americans-say-about-vegan-diets/

The Vegetarian Resource Group Submitted Testimony Concerning the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

VRG Testimony on 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines

The Dietary Pattern in Dietary Guidelines for Americans Could Easily Be Made Vegan and Nutritionally Adequate

What Have the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Said About Vegan and Vegetarian Diets?

2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Released

VRG’s testimony about the 2020 Dietary Guidelines and the Scientific Report Underlying the 2020 Dietary Guidelines