Environmental Sustainability: A Missing Ingredient in the Advisory Committee’s Report for the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The federally mandated, recurring 5-year update of the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans is simmering in the hands of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is set to be served later this year. 

In the US, the Dietary Guidelines outline the government’s recommendations on what to eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, promote health, and reduce the risk of chronic disease. More than a healthy eating guide, these guidelines act as a cornerstone for national programs like the National School Lunch Program and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children while driving nutrition education efforts like MyPlate.

Following a rigorous, multi-year process involving expert reviews, scientific analysis, and public input, these guidelines will shape the next five years of nutrition policy and public health initiatives. In December 2024, HHS published the outcome of an independent review of the scientific evidence by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC): the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.^[1] Now, it’s at the hands of HHS and USDA to consider the evidence and recommendations as they develop the 2025-2030 update. 

What’s on the Menu?

Like previous and current guidelines, the spotlight stays on vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, fortified soy alternatives, and protein foods as the main course. In contrast, foods and beverages high in added sugar, sodium, and saturated fats remain on the back burner. However, the DGAC offers fresh, noteworthy recommendations for the 2025-2030 guidelines. Here’s a taste of what’s being recommended:

• Spotlight on plant proteins: A notable update is the reclassification of beans, peas, and lentils as a leading source of protein. Previously part of the vegetable subgroup, they are now positioned within the protein food group and listed first before other protein sources like nuts, seeds, soy products, seafood, meats, poultry, and eggs. This move would align the guidelines with the body of evidence that plant-rich diets simultaneously protect human and planetary health^[2].

• Health equity focus: The DGAC incorporated a health equity perspective for the first time, considering socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors that impact diet and health. This inclusive approach supports the growing call to embed sociocultural and economic considerations into policies to drive effective, sustainable, and transformative change in the food system^[3].
  
  
• “Eat Healthy Your Way” pattern: The DGAC has streamlined three dietary patterns into a single, flexible, and inclusive approach. This pattern emphasizes intakes of beans, peas, and lentils and reduced intakes of red and processed meats while promoting consumption of vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, fish/seafood, unsaturated vegetable oils, and low or non-fat dairy and recommending reduced intake of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains, and saturated fats. By emphasizing flexibility and promoting plant-forward eating, this approach respects the personal and local aspects of eating while encouraging choices that have reduced environmental impacts compared to current dietary patterns.
  
  
• Systems-level strategies for health: The DGAC calls for policy, systems, and environmental strategies to drive changes in environments and systems to make healthy eating more accessible, relevant, and appealing across different life stages, populations, and settings. Given that behavior, practices, and policies are shaped by a complex interplay of interpersonal relationships, organizational structures, environmental contexts, and broader socio-political and economic systems, a holistic approach is vital to tackle the root causes of unhealthy and unsustainable behavior and drive meaningful changes toward healthier and more sustainable diets.^[4]

Environmental Sustainability – the Missing Ingredient

While many of these recommendations inherently benefit the planet, the DGAC stopped short of explicitly addressing environmental sustainability. 

What we eat and how food is produced is a leading cause of climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water and air pollution, and resource depletion^[5]. The average U.S. diet generates around 4.4 kg of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂eq) per person per day^[6], more than double the per capita food system limit of 2.04 kg CO₂eq per day needed to keep global warming within 1.5°C by 2030.^[7] Research consistently shows that dietary patterns dominant in animal foods have a significantly higher carbon footprint than those more dominant in plant foods.^[8,9] Furthermore, evidence relating to the need to reduce animal protein to deliver health benefits is strong, reinforcing the need for a dietary shift toward more plant-based eating.^[10] However, despite this evidence, the recommended quantity of meat, poultry and eggs remains unchanged at 26 ounces (737 grams) per week, nearly twice the mean recommended intake of the Planetary Health Diet.^[5] While the DGAC acknowledges that increasing plant-based protein intake and reducing animal-based protein is possible while still meeting nutrient needs, it stops short of making a definitive shift in its recommendations.

Globally, countries are making bold moves to link dietary guidelines with environmental sustainability. For instance, the Netherlands' 2015 dietary guidelines incorporate ecological considerations, recommending less consumption of animal-based foods, more plant-based options, limiting fish intake to once per week, and choosing sustainably sourced fish.^[11] While these measures reduce environmental impacts, experts argue that even more significant changes are necessary. In collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature Netherlands, we used our diet optimization tool Optimeal® to model culturally appropriate, nutritionally adequate diets within planetary boundaries for the Netherlands.^[12] The results revealed that significantly greater shifts towards plant-based diets are needed. Specifically, the study found that to stay within these boundaries by 2050, the Dutch diet should consist of approximately two-thirds plant-based protein, necessitating a substantial reduction in meat consumption to about 0.5 to 1.5 servings per week. 

Mexico’s 2023 updated dietary guidelines were developed to encompass all dimensions of sustainability: ensuring citizens’ health and well-being, promoting equity, being safe, accessible, and culturally relevant, and, last but not least, minimizing environmental impact. The recommended composition of a healthy and sustainable plate includes 50% fruits and vegetables, 22% grains and cereals, 15% legumes, 5% healthy fats and oils, and 8% animal-based foods. While encouraging an increase in the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, and legumes, the guidelines call for reducing red and processed meats while promoting plant-based foods, eggs, poultry or fish. In general, red meat like beef, is associated with a proportionally higher environmental impact compared to other animal foods like poultry and fish, primarily due to its higher greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water consumption.^[13] 

This and similar research underscore the need to explicitly integrate environmental sustainability into dietary guidelines to address the dual challenges of promoting public health and operating within planetary boundaries^[14,15]. By making environmental sustainability a core principle, dietary guidelines can become a transformative tool for reshaping food systems and ensuring a healthier, more sustainable future for both people and the planet.

As dietary guidelines evolve to address health and sustainability better, the food industry has a key role in driving meaningful change. Forward-thinking leaders can leverage our Life Cycle Assessments services for diet optimization approaches to assess how their product portfolios align with sustainable and health-focused dietary patterns. By integrating these insights, food businesses can proactively contribute to a future where nutrition and planetary health go hand in hand.

Ready to align your products with the future of health and sustainability? Contact us today to learn how our diet optimization solutions can help your business make a meaningful impact.

References

[1] 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee: Advisory Report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Secretary of Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.52570/DGAC2025 (2024).

[2] Musicus, A. A. et al. Health and environmental impacts of plant-rich dietary patterns: a US prospective cohort study. Lancet Planet. Heal. 6, e892–e900 (2022).

[3]Biesbroek, S. et al. Toward healthy and sustainable diets for the 21st century: Importance of sociocultural and economic considerations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 120, e2219272120 (2023).

[4] Even, B., Thai, H. T. M., Pham, H. T. M. & Béné, C. Defining barriers to food systems sustainability: a novel conceptual framework. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 8, (2024).

[5] Willett, W. et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet 393, 447–492 (2019).

[6] Frank, S. M. et al. Dietary quality and dietary greenhouse gas emissions in the USA: a comparison of the planetary health diet index, healthy eating index-2015, and dietary approaches to stop hypertension. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 21, 36 (2024).

[7] Broekema, R. et al. Future-proof and sustainable healthy diets based on current eating patterns in the Netherlands. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 112, 1338–1347 (2020).

[8] Clark, M. A., Springmann, M., Hill, J. & Tilman, D. Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 116, 23357 (2019).

[9] Springmann, M., Godfray, H. C. J., Rayner, M. & Scarborough, P. Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 113, 4146–4151 (2016).

[10] Sawicki, C. M. et al. Planetary health diet and cardiovascular disease: results from three large prospective cohort studies in the USA. Lancet Planet. Heal. 8, e666–e674 (2024).

[11] Health Council of the Netherlands. Dutch dietary guidelines 2015. (2015).

[12] WWF. Gezond eten binnen de grenzen van één aarde, in Dutch (Healthy eating within the boundaries of one planet).
https://www.wwf.nl/globalassets/pdf/rapporten/wwf-nl-2023-gezond-eten-binnen-de-grenzen-van-een-aarde-uitgebreid.pdf (2023).

[13] Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science (80-. ). 360, 987–992 (2018).

[14] Rose, D., Heller, M. C. & Roberto, C. A. Position of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior: The importance of including environmental sustainability in dietary guidance. J. Nutr. Educ. Behav. 51, 3-15.e1 (2019).

[15] Dooren, C. van et al. The planet on our plates: approaches to incorporate environmental sustainability within food-based dietary guidelines. Front. Nutr. 11, (2024).