Latest from Food Politics: PCRM sues government to cancel the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines

As anyone familiar with my work will know, I have made a career out of commenting on government dietary advice.   The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are particularly entertaining as quintessential examples of food politics in action, the latest ones ...

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By Marion Nestle August 25 2026 PCRM sues government to cancel the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines As anyone familiar with my work will know, I have made a career out of commenting on government dietary advice.  The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are particularly entertaining as quintessential examples of food politics in action, the latest ones in particular. To summarize: They offered two excellent messages–Eat Real Food, and limit ultra-processed foods–but undermined them with unsubstantiated advice (double the protein), inconsistencies (eat more sources of saturated fat, but limit it to 10% of calories), omissions (salt, mentioned but no guideline), and errors (no, beef tallow is not a source of essential fatty acids). And now the latest: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has sued to have the guidelines withdrawn and not used. Guidelines Violated Federal Law Requiring Transparency, Balance, and Evidence…A “Secret Panel” of food-industry insiders handpicked by the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture illegally influenced the recommendations in the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, argues a lawsuit the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 19, 2026…“The government allowed the meat and dairy industries to ghostwrite the Dietary Guidelines,” said Physicians Committee President Neal D. Barnard, MD. “They put money in industry’s pocket and cholesterol in Americans’ arteries.” PCRM is a Washington, DC-based group “dedicated to saving and improving human and animal lives through plant-based diets and ethical and effective scientific research.” It particularly objects to the way the new guidelines and pyramid food guide prioritize meat and dairy foods. Its lawsuit focuses on the unusually hasty and non-FACA [Federal Advisory Committee Act] process: Instead of issuing Dietary Guidelines based on an internal review of the DGAC Report as had been the longstanding practice, Defendants, without any oversight or public  input, hastily assembled a handpicked panel of meat, dairy, and fad diet industry insiders (“Secret Panel”) for the purpose of attacking the FACA-compliant DGAC Report and creating a substantially altered report entitled The Scientific Foundation for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030….Although Defendants had previously vowed to “toss out the people who were writing the guidelines with conflicts of interest,” Defendants assembled a Secret Panel that was rife with conflicts of interest…Defendants then published Dietary Guidelines tha…embrace saturated fats, halve the recommended fruit and vegetable servings, remove daily alcohol intake limits, and promote fad diets. PCRM says the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines pose dangers to Children, whose school food programs must adhere to the Dietary Guidelines Individuals with medical conditions who might follow the baseless medical advice incorporated into the Dietary Guidelines Americans who are at risk for diet-related diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and might follow the scientifically unfounded Dietary Guidelines, which are designed to promote fatty, high-cholesterol products of industries with which the Dietary Guidelines’ authors are affiliated. I can’t wait to see what happens with this one.  Stay tuned. The post PCRM sues government to cancel the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle      Related Posts Setting the record straight: Calley Means Ultra-processed foods are not increasing sales as much as unprocessed foods American Journal of Public Health series on Ultraprocessed Foods: My Editorial   Now Available: What to Eat Now My new book, What to Eat Now, is officially out! It's both a field guide to food shopping in America and a reflection on how to eat well—and deliciously. For more information and to order, click here. You can explore the full archive of this (almost) daily blog at foodpolitics.com, where you'll also find information about my books, articles, media interviews, upcoming lectures, favorite resources, and FAQs. Visit the Site » ​​​​​​​ Marion Nestle Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, Emerita © Marion Nestle. You're receiving this email because you've signed up to receive updates from us. If you'd prefer not to receive updates, you can unsubscribe. Safely Unsubscribe • Archives • Preferences • Contact • Subscribe • Privacy

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The $3,000 question your patients are already answering

New analysis on what GLP-1 marketing gets right, and what it means for how you talk to patients.

FOR DOCTORS. FOR PRACTICE LEADERS. FOR MODERN MEMBERSHIP-BASED CARE. Concierge Medicine Today THE INDUSTRY'S LEADERSHIP BRIEF & TRADE PUBLICATION. AUGUST 24, 2026 The Industry's Annual Medical Education Conference Returns CMF 2026 · OCTOBER 15–17, 2026 · ATLANTA, GA Save $50 off registration with code FOR50 -- ends August 31st  -- Register for CMF 2026 Three days with 200+ physicians who've already built what you're trying to build. Starts at $219 · Save $50 with code FOR50 Home  |  About  |  CMF 2026 Conference  |  Schedule  |  Top Docs  |  Podcast  |  National Stats  |  News  |  Shop  |  Contact Sponsor Packages | Research Briefs | Legal & Ops  | Latest Podcast Episode | Register for CMF 2026 IN THIS ISSUE GLP-1 telehealth spends $200 to get a patient. Here's what that buys them -- GLP-1 telehealth brands spend $150 to $250 to acquire a paying patient and it works because they built a system, not a campaign. We broke down the full funnel, the pricing, and the exact playbook, then compared it to what concierge medicine members and DPC patients actually pay. If your marketing is still based on hope for the referral, one social media post a week and a "mid" or "meh" (as the kids say) website, this is the marketing knowledge gap you need to close. (Read More) Inside the “Adaptive Primary Care” framework and the thinking behind it. (Podcast) CMF 2026 Keynote, Speakers, Workshops & Breakouts Announced - October 15-17 in Atlanta, GA USA Hot TOPIC: Why pushback might mean you're doing it right: What to Say When Someone Calls Your Practice "Elitist" (Read More) The real reason patients get upset (Read More) The one danger more dangerous than opposition (Read More) A story about a Saturday nobody asked her to give (Read More) What Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out can teach healthcare about marketing (Read More) Latest Job Opportunities (Summer 2026) Legal & Op Ed Commentary  Marketing Workshops, October 15-17 Membership Medicine 101 Workshop, October 15-17 Annual industry conference, Atlanta, GA USA - Get tickets Become a Sponsor at CMF 2026 - Pricing & Application CONCIERGE MEDICINE TODAY · PHYSICIAN SPOTLIGHT The $3,000 question your patients are already answering They're not confused about whether to invest in their health. They're deciding who deserves the dollars.   Every patient walking into your office has already been sold something this year, a subscription, an app, a quick fix. What most of them haven't been offered is a physician who has time to ask more than five questions. Our new research brief lays out exactly what patients are paying elsewhere, and what that says about the case you're not making yet. Read this week's featured article | LISTEN TO FULL INTERVIEW HOT TOPIC · EDITOR'S TAKE A Patient’s Honest Take on Why the Concierge Practice Used to Get Called “Elitist” "That’s the thing about holding the line. It’s rarely won in an argument. It’s won in the quiet, repeated decisions nobody sees at first." (Editor-In-Chief, CMT) Read this week's featured article CONCIERGE MEDICINE TODAY · PHYSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Inside the “Adaptive Primary Care” framework and the thinking behind it. (Podcast) Dr. Charles “Trey” Williams didn’t set out to disrupt pediatrics. He set out to be the kind of doctor his own kids deserved. After a decade in corporate, insurance-driven practice and a stint inside a health-tech startup, Williams reached the same conclusion many physicians on this podcast have reached: the system was built for throughput, not relationships, and pediatrics runs on relationships. Read this week's featured article | LISTEN TO FULL INTERVIEW LATEST NATIONAL STATS & VISUALS CONCIERGE MEDICINE TODAY · RESEARCH BRIEFS · PUBLISHED SINCE 2007 · OBJECTIVE Peer-cited briefs on the business, economics, workforce, and policy dimensions of concierge and membership-based medicine. The Future of Membership-Based Healthcare — CMT Research Brief "Everyone assumes concierge medicine is exploding. It's not. It's under 2%. 8,000 to 12,000 practices out of 1.1 million doctors. That's the truth. Here's the other truth: a quarter of those practices are now specialists, cardiology, endo, OB-GYN, even oncology. Small numbers. Massive signal. That's how you know a model is becoming the standard, not the size of it, the direction of it."   — Michael Tetreault, Editor-in-Chief, Concierge Medicine Today Research Brief 2026 State of Concierge & Membership Medicine:   Market Size, Physician Workforce, and Practice Economics "Stop measuring concierge medicine by market share. Wrong metric. Measure it by who's borrowing from it. Specialists are building subscription models off it. Hospital systems are launching premium-access programs modeled on it. Even inside Direct Primary Care, physicians are reaching for the same core idea: a direct relationship with the patient, no insurance company in between. Fewer than 2% of U.S. physicians practice concierge medicine today. And the rest of healthcare is quietly getting graded against a model that small. That's not a niche. That's a reference point."   — Michael Tetreault, Editor-in-Chief, Concierge Medicine Today Research Brief The Physician’s Guide to Understanding Concierge Medicine Inside a Health System Research Brief A Field Guide to Professional Organizations in Membership Medicine Research Brief What Makes a Concierge Medical Practice Successful?  — CMT Research Brief Research Brief Concierge Medicine vs Direct Primary Care: A Structural Comparison Listen to Episode Helpful Legal Questions Concierge Physicians Can’t Afford to Skip Read full story Editor's Perspective Editor's Take "Everyone assumes concierge medicine is exploding. It's not. It's under 2%. 8,000 to 12,000 practices out of 1.1 million doctors. That's the truth. Here's the other truth: a quarter of those practices are now specialists, cardiology, endo, OB-GYN, even oncology. Small numbers. Massive signal. That's how you know a model is becoming the standard, not the size of it, the direction of it."   --Editor-In-Chief, CMT "Stop measuring concierge medicine by market share. Wrong metric. Measure it by who's borrowing from it. Specialists are building subscription models off it. Hospital systems are launching premium-access programs modeled on it. Even inside Direct Primary Care, physicians are reaching for the same core idea: a direct relationship with the patient, no insurance company in between. Fewer than 2% of U.S. physicians practice concierge medicine today. And the rest of healthcare is quietly getting graded against a model that small. That's not a niche. That's a reference point."   --Editor-In-Chief, CMT “Concierge medicine may be small in size, but it’s big on purpose. While industry sources note year after year that fewer than 2% of all licensed U.S. doctors practice in some version of subscription-based healthcare delivery model—(that’s about 8,000 to 12,000 practices in the U.S.— at least a quarter of those are now specialists. We’ve also observed incremental growth in adoption and entry into these models and it’s been steady at what we hear is about 4–7% a year — some would say higher but we like to stay realistic, not evangelistic. So while concierge medicine is still a small percentage of the 1.1 million U.S. physicians, it’s quickly becoming the new reference point—the model others are measured against.”   --Editor-In-Chief, CMT Latest Positions Available MISSOURI Concierge Physician, Family or Internal Medicine – St. Louis, MO Learn More FLORIDA Jacksonville, FL - Join Mayo Clinic’s Concierge Team as a Physician Leader in Personalized Care Learn More View All Jobs Unsubscribe Concierge Medicine Today LLC 4080 McGinnis Ferry Road Building 800, Suite 801 Alpharetta, Georgia 30005 United States +17704551650