What Parents Need To Know About These Confusing New Dairy Guidelines, According To Experts

In the first week of the new year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department ordered changes and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced revamped national nutrition guidelines that the organization claimed would improve Americans’ health by centering “real food.” Many of the guidelines were familiar — prioritize fruits and veggies, and be mindful of sugar intake — while others were a complete reversal of previous recommendations. This was the case for dairy, and it’s a confusing shift for parents who just want to know: What kind of milk is best for kids? What should we put on our grocery lists and in our refrigerators?

The new dietary guidelines state that when consuming dairy, Americans should opt for “full-fat dairy with no added sugars.” This is because dairy “is an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.” If you’re eating the average 2,000-calorie per day diet, you should aim for three servings. The previous guidelines suggested the opposite, saying that Americans should “move to low-fat or fat-free dairy milk or yogurt (or lactose-free dairy or fortified soy versions).”

But this is all rhetoric, experts say. The actual amount of saturated fat you’re recommended to consume per day — l0% of your total calories, or 20 grams if you eat a 2,000-calorie diet — never changed.

“The dietary guidelines still recommend getting no more than 10% of daily total calories from saturated fat,” says Alyssa Wassil, MSRD, LDN, clinical dietician at Children’s National Hospital. “With these new guidelines, it does make it a little bit challenging to meet that recommendation when we're now suggesting choosing whole-fat dairy, because it does have more saturated fat in it compared to the lower-fat dairies. So it's a little bit confusing about how exactly that's going to work out.”

“Whole milk, butter, eggs, full fat dairy were never bad. It’s just that RFK Jr., the person who represents health authority, is communicating in this way because he wants to showcase rupture. On Twitter and on TV he’s saying ‘whole milk is back, butter is back,’ and it creates an impression of ‘new’. But the recommendation to limit saturated fat to 10% hasn’t changed. What I see is a gap between what the guidelines say and how they’re being framed publicly,” says Dr. Kéra Nyemb-Diop, a nutrition scientist with special expertise in dairy science.

What is this really about?

While the amount of saturated fat you should consume in a day did not change, RFK Jr.’s messaging has been very pro-whole milk, framing dairy as a source of healthy fats. The American Heart Association considers healthy fats to be those of the unsaturated variety, while dairy products are made up of saturated animal fats. Saturated fats raise cholesterol levels and increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, an understanding based on decades of scientific research and evidence reviews.

But there have been some reevaluations of studies in more recent years that appear to call the relationship between saturated fats and heart disease into question, as reported by The Hill. In one such eval in 2016, researchers determined there was insufficient evidence to support the conclusion that reducing saturated fat in the diet would “lower risk of death from coronary heart disease or all causes.” Another in 2010 found “no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of [coronary heart disease] or CVD.” It’s possible RFK Jr.’s HHS has glommed on to these — he has a history of making policy changes based on less evidence. (The authors of the new dietary guidelines also disclosed having financial ties to both the dairy and cattle industries, The Hill reports.)

Nyemb-Diop says these studies do not negate the research that came before them, but rather add nuance to the story of how dairy works in our bodies. “It doesn’t reverse what has been said before. It shows that saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol in many people, which is a causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The latest research on dairy helps us understand that dairy fat behaves differently when consumed as part of a whole food, compared to saturated fat in isolation. That’s an important nuance, but it doesn’t erase cardiovascular risk.”

RFK Jr.’s HHS has cited ultra-processed foods as a contributing factor to America’s obesity and chronic illness rates. There is also a (false) idea that whole milk is less processed than lower fat milks, which may be another reason whole-fat dairy is being promoted so heavily by this administration.

“Whole milk is not less processed. When milk arrives at the factory, the fat is separated and then it is re-added at a specific percentage. Whole milk is 3.25%. I know there’s a whole debate around ultra-processed food, processing, and kind of the underlying ideology of the new administration. My belief as a scientist is that RFK Jr. wanted to say raw milk. He cannot write that so he said whole milk because it’s closer to what’s perceived as less processed,” Nyemb-Diop says.

What kind of milk is best for kids & families?

That’s really what parents want to know, and the answer was made a lot less clear by the promotion around the new dietary guidelines. And since your average mom doesn’t have the time or background in statistical analysis to read through all the research on her own, we asked experts what we really need to know: What milk should I be buying for my family?

For starters, if your family doesn’t consume dairy for cultural, health, or personal reasons, don’t feel like you suddenly have to start, Wassil says. “The nutrients we're really concerned about that come from dairy are calcium and vitamin D. And while dairy [products] are major sources of that in the diet, they're not the only sources.”

Second, nutrition is nuanced, and Nyemb-Diop doesn’t want parents to feel like what milk they put in the fridge is a make-or-break decision. “Whole milk, 2%, low-fat milk, anything can fit, and it’s really going to depend on the child and the family’s overall diet.” Her family drinks 2% — it’s easy, it’s accessible, and everyone likes it and can tolerate it.

Because of that body of research linking saturated fat intake to cardiovascular disease, Wassil still recommends low-fat dairy for the general population (though, of course, there may be individual cases where whole-fat dairy is needed, like if a child is having trouble gaining weight). You may also need to choose low- or no-fat options if you have high cholesterol or a family history of heart disease.

“What I would suggest for families is going with one dairy that does not have sugar added into it, like white milk, and then if you are doing yogurt, I would suggest Greek yogurt or skyr. Those tend to be higher in protein and generally are lower in sugar than other yogurts. Generally, what we recommend is no more than 10 grams of sugar per serving in yogurts. And then doing low-fat cheeses like mozzarella,” Wassil says.

While it’s easy to get caught up in what our kids eat and how we might be doing things wrong as parents, Wassil says not to laser focus on one specific category of food and everything that’s in it. Instead, think about your family’s “dietary patterns,” and bring any questions about you or your child’s specific needs your doctors.

“Are we getting an appropriate amount of the lower-fat, higher-nutrient foods like fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and whole-grain foods? Are we trying to minimize the amount of added sugar and higher-fat foods in the diet? How is this all working together to support the body's health and the wellness?”

As for Nyemb-Diop, she says to choose foods that work for your family and, when possible, get guidance from health professionals. Understand that whole milk or skim milk is not the problem, and we should “replace ideological messaging with nutritional nuance.”