A majority of Americans back recent changes to the food pyramid and federal dietary guidelines, according to a new poll.
Sixty percent of respondents to the new poll, released on July 9, said they supported the changes, which were announced in January by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials.
Even higher majorities backed specific measures.
Ninety percent of respondents said they supported recommendations to avoid or limit sugar and highly processed foods, and 85 percent voiced support for increasing protein intake as recommended.
About six in 10 respondents also said they supported the recommendations to eat more beef and drink more whole milk, with most support coming from Republicans.
While majorities of Republican and Democrat respondents supported specific changes, most Democrats did not back the overall update to the food pyramid. There was only 37 percent support among Democrats, compared to 83 percent among Republicans.
The poll was conducted from March 19 to April 1 by the de Beaumont Foundation’s Public Health Listening Lab and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. There were 2,205 adult respondents. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
The Trump administration said in January that the key message from the updated food pyramid and dietary guidelines was “eat real food.”
“To Make America Healthy Again, we must return to the basics. American households must prioritize diets built on whole, nutrient-dense foods—protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains,” Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at the time.
“Paired with a dramatic reduction in highly processed foods laden with refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excess sodium, unhealthy fats, and chemical additives, this approach can change the health trajectory for so many Americans.”
More than half of respondents to a separate survey released earlier in June said they had heard of ultraprocessed food, or food that has been adulterated using industrial processes. About half of respondents to the poll, carried out in 2025 by YouGov and health researchers, said that the U.S. government is responsible for addressing harms from ultraprocessed food, with higher percentages of respondents expressing the belief that companies, parents, and individuals are responsible.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication on the new poll from Harvard, which also found that trust in recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dropped from about 75 percent in 2025 to 50 percent this year. The decline was recorded among Democrat and independent respondents; trust increased slightly among Republicans.
Kennedy has been behind major changes to CDC guidance, including recommendations on vaccines and the CDC’s updated stance on autism. The vaccine changes are on hold under a federal judge’s March ruling as an appeal is considered.
