By Shenandoah Fischer

On January 7, the federal government released a new set of quite controversial dietary guidelines and a new official food pyramid.  The new food guidelines and pyramid prioritizes protein, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, and dairy being at the top. While grains are at the very bottom of the pyramid, being the smallest serving. 

Robert F. Kennedy was one of the main people who decided to make new dietary guidelines and worked on them.  He has been the U.S Secretary of Health and Human Services since February 13th 2025. His job is to protect the health of U.S. citizens. He oversees 13 different government agencies including the FDA (food and drug administration) and the CDC (centers for disease control and prevention). However, some of his beliefs and actions he did in the past were very controversial. For one thing RFK is Anti-Vaccine even calling some vaccines deadly or saying that they cause autism. This led to lots of criticism.

Dana Bourn, Policy Advisor for the NYC Department of Food Policy, said “I think the pyramid is maybe a little confusing in some ways because it places some items at the top like red meat and full fat dairy really emphasizing those kinds of items but it hasn't actually changed the recommended limit for saturated fat which is only 10% of calories.” Saturated fats are a type of fat that are usually solid at room temperature. They are found mostly in animal products but are also sometimes in plant oils. Saturated fats can cause high cholesterol which is very bad for your heart. Full fat dairy also contains a lot of saturated fat compared to low fat dairy. 

For example, if after school you went to Shake Shack with your friends and got a Shack Burger and medium fries, you would have about 18 grams of saturated fat. That wouldn’t put you over your limit, but it would put your daily fat allocation pretty close. Also, considering all the other food you eat, you would probably go over your daily limit. 

As for students in the New York City Department of Education, the federal government hasn’t officially changed the nutrition guidelines for schools yet.  Even though we might not see a drastic change in our school lunches because of the federal guidelines, NYC also passed some dietary guidelines recently. 

Dana Bourne said,  “assuming that (change) happens,  then we would have to do a comparison with the new federal guidelines and the New York City food standards. But, because our food standards already have a focus on moving towards more whole and minimally processed foods, and away from added sugars and sweeteners and highly processed foods, we expect that the new NYC food standards will still align well with the federal standards.” 

The new NYC guidelines were released in August 2025. They apply to places that serve food supplied by 11 different city agencies and their contractors. This includes schools, jails, and senior living facilities. The official date that all the agencies have to start complying with the guidelines is July 1, 2026. 

The new New York City guidelines forbid artificial coloring, low calorie sweeteners and sugar alcohol. Sugar alcohols are the sweeteners that are often in the sugar free snacks that you like. For example, lots of gums use sugar alcohols. Artificial colorings are in countless junk foods, most of the time you see a soda with a vibrant color there’s a pretty high chance that there is artificial coloring in it. There is also a limit on how much sugar can be in flavored milks for places that serve adolescents aged 5-18. They aren’t allowed to have more than 10 grams of sugar. There is also a limit on how much sodium can be in our foods. There aren’t just limits on ingredients however there are also some recipes being changed and some foods being taken off the menu. 

Molly O’Hare,705, exclaimed,  “I don’t think school lunches are healthy at all!” 

According to Orlando Nazario, who is the assistant cook in MS447’s cafeteria at MS 447, “We have new recipes. They took some food out too. They took out the chicken nuggets, they took out the turkey hamburger, and they took out the regular french fries.” 

NYC school lunch staff are actually required to take classes on how to make sure the foods they're making are up to the standards. Ultimately, even though sometimes students don’t notice it, our school lunches are a big deal and a lot of work goes into making them healthy and good tasting. So, the next time you complain about your school lunch, think of all the work that goes into putting a healthy meal on your plate.