2026 Dietary Guidelines: What You Need To Know

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I debated whether I even wanted to do this video, but everybody is talking about it, so here we are.

The big nutrition news over the past couple of weeks is the release of the 2026 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines are typically released every five years, with the last version covering 2020 through 2025.

I want to give you a few quick thoughts on what I think about the changes that were made, whether these guidelines really matter, and most importantly, whether they actually apply to you as a tactical athlete. The biggest change, of course, is the protein recommendation in the new guidelines compared to the previous ones. In the 2020 guidelines, the recommended protein intake for someone following a 2,400-calorie diet was only about 45 grams per day.

"One of the positive changes in the new guidelines is that protein intake has been increased to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram per day. This is still relatively low."

My athletes know that we are usually consuming about 45 grams of protein per meal at a minimum, so that recommendation was clearly too low. One of the positive changes in the new guidelines is that protein intake has been increased to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram per day. This is still relatively low, but it’s important to remember that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are written for the general population. Most of you are performing far more physical activity and have much more physically demanding jobs than the people these guidelines are designed to serve.

My athletes are consistently above 1.6 grams per kilogram per day, and there are many cases where we approach 2.4 grams per kilogram because we are following sports nutrition recommendations.

One thing I am not particularly impressed with is how much attention is being given to the inversion of the food pyramid, as if this represents some major shift. The reality is that we have not used the traditional food pyramid, where grains were at the base and recommended at six to eleven servings per day, for well over a decade. We have been using the MyPlate model instead, which divides the plate into protein, grains, vegetables, and fruit, with dairy on the side. When you actually look at the new pyramid, the content is exactly the same; it has simply been rearranged into a different visual format.

One thing I did appreciate about the MyPlate model is that it allowed people to visualize what a balanced meal should look like at any given time, assuming a standard nine- to ten-inch plate. The problem is that most restaurant plates are twelve to sixteen inches wide, which completely changes portion perception. The saturated fat recommendations have not changed.

In the 2020 guidelines, saturated fat was limited to less than ten percent of daily intake, and the same recommendation exists in the 2026 guidelines. At the same time, we are emphasizing higher protein foods, butter, and whole-milk dairy products, which makes staying under that threshold difficult for many people. It’s important to remember that saturated fat is not inherently the enemy. What matters is how much saturated fat you’re consuming relative to your fiber intake, unsaturated fat intake, stress levels, alcohol intake, and sleep quality. Saturated fat can contribute to elevated LDL cholesterol, but it is rarely acting alone.

The recommendations for added sugar and sodium intake did not change. One notable difference is that the previous guidelines recommended that at least half of starch intake come from whole grains, whereas the new guidelines suggest that all grain intake should come from whole grains.

There are some positive elements in the guidelines, some that don’t really matter, and some that are not particularly helpful. Another point people like to highlight is how short the new guidelines are, coming in at around twelve pages compared to the previous 160 to 170 pages. While this sounds appealing, the reality is that the document is not actually shorter. The scientific reasoning, research, and data have been moved into a roughly 400-page addendum that lives online. If you scroll through the presentation on the website, you’ll find detailed appendices that include life-stage nutrition guidance and supporting science, which were previously included in the main document. For practitioners like myself, that information can be valuable, but for the average person simply trying to eat healthier, it often just creates noise.

So what does all of this mean for you as a tactical athlete or high-performing individual?

Honestly, it doesn’t mean much. We typically don’t follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to begin with. We follow sports-based recommendations because they are far more appropriate for individuals who train regularly and have physically demanding jobs. These guidelines are primarily relevant when they are used to drive institutional changes.

The core message has always been to eat more real food, and that message isn’t new, despite how it’s often framed. One of the biggest influences on nutrition and eating habits is the environment we live in. Our food environment is poor and not conducive to healthy eating, with widespread access to fast food, limited availability of truly fresh and minimally processed foods, and higher costs associated with quality nutrition. At the same time, we live more sedentary lifestyles, with fewer people engaged in physical labor. The need for increased physical activity is often underemphasized, even though lack of physical activity and poor cardiovascular fitness are greater risk factors for mortality than alcohol intake.

Do I think the guidelines are going to change much?

I’m not sure, but I do think we are seeing positive changes at the individual level, with people becoming more health conscious and more engaged in their own healthcare. This is why, in my coaching, we focus heavily on education and self-reliance. It’s not about meal plans or hand-holding indefinitely; it’s about helping athletes develop the discernment to make informed decisions based on their training, goals, and lifestyle so they can support performance, recovery, and long-term health on their own.

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