Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Jan. 7, 2026: New Dietary Guidelines Unveiled
January 7, 2026 · The White House · 1:05:59
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What happened
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt used the January 7, 2026 briefing to unveil the administration’s new federal nutrition guidelines, flanked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and Dr. Ben Carson. She first ran the MAHA record as the administration stated it: more than a dozen food manufacturers committing to remove artificial food dyes; the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program; 18 states banning junk-food purchases with SNAP benefits starting this year; most-favored-nation drug pricing deals; and the CDC’s updated childhood vaccination schedule adopted that Monday.
Secretary Kennedy presented the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans under the message “eat real food”: the government, he said, “declares war on added sugar,” and highly processed foods loaded with additives, added sugar, and excess salt should be avoided. The guidelines, he said, shape dozens of federal feeding programs — 45 million school lunches a day, meals for 1.3 million active-duty service members, and food for nine million veterans in VA hospitals, as he stated the reach — and for the first time directly address ultra-processed foods and set firm sugar limits. He cited the stakes as he stated them: 90 percent of health-care spending treats chronic disease. Secretary Rollins described the guidelines partnership between HHS and USDA, worked on, she said, since the two took office.
Why it matters
The dietary guidelines are the MAHA agenda’s foundational document — the standard that flows into school lunches, military dining, and VA hospitals — and this briefing is their public unveiling, delivered by the two secretaries who wrote them a week before the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act signing paged in this collection carried the same message into statute.
Scoreboard watch
Scoreboard candidate: the release of the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, unveiled at this briefing. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; the entry itself stays review-gated.
Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Jan. 7, 2026,” The White House, January 7, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated at the briefing.