HHS, USDA release 2025–2030 dietary guidelines
New guidance aligns with ADA priorities on added sugars, beverages and diet quality
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture released Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 on Jan. 7. Several elements of the new guidance align with long-standing ADA recommendations related to sugar intake and diet quality, while other areas highlight topics where additional research and evaluation are ongoing.
“It is helpful to see added sugars addressed more directly in the new guidelines, especially as we continue to understand the impact of excess sugar intake on oral and overall health,” said ADA President Richard Rosato, D.D.S.
Introduced in 1980, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is a compendium of recommendations about what and how much to eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, prevent disease, and promote health. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services jointly update the Dietary Guidelines every five years.
The latest iteration takes a firmer stance on added sugars, stating that “no amount of added sugars or non-nutritive sweeteners is recommended or considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet.” It urges avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages, such as sodas, fruit drinks and energy drinks. It also states added sugars should comprise no more than 10 percent of daily calories.
While taking care to distinguish added sugars from naturally occurring sugars, the guidelines also urge limiting consumption of 100% fruit or vegetable juice or diluting it with water.
“From a dental perspective, no amount of sugar can be consumed without increasing the risk for tooth decay,” the ADA wrote in a Feb. 5, 2025 comment letter to HHS on the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. “Even milk has a measurable amount of sugar.”
The guidelines also call for limiting foods and beverages that include artificial flavors, petroleum-based dyes, artificial preservatives, and low-calorie non-nutritive sweeteners.
The Dietary Guidelines include a dedicated section focused on reducing highly processed foods, calling on Americans to avoid packaged or ready-to-eat foods that are salty or sweet. The ADA House of Delegates adopted a 2023 policy that for the first time acknowledged the general health benefits of avoiding ultra-processed foods.
The document also moves away from earlier low-fat messaging, recommending that most dietary fats come from whole-food sources such as nuts, seeds, olives, avocados, eggs, seafood and full-fat dairy, with olive oil identified as a preferred cooking fat. The guidelines also recommend limiting saturated fat to no more than 10% of total daily calories.
