New Dietary Guidelines Emphasize Reducing Processed Foods and Sugary Drinks

Experts say simple diet shifts can significantly cut disease risk

Feb. 3, 2026 at 8:15pm

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The latest version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2026, focuses on improving overall diet quality rather than just targeting individual nutrients. Nutrition expert Michael I. Goran, who served as a scientific advisor, says the guidelines highlight the strong evidence that reducing highly processed foods, sugary beverages, and increasing whole grains can meaningfully improve health by lowering the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and dementia.

Why it matters

The new guidelines represent an important shift in dietary advice, moving away from a focus on individual nutrients toward an emphasis on overall diet quality. This aligns with growing scientific consensus on the outsized role that processed foods and sugary drinks play in driving the epidemic of chronic diseases in the U.S.

The details

Goran and his team reviewed studies on processed foods, sugary drinks, and whole grains, and found moderate to high-quality evidence that reducing consumption of the first two and increasing the latter can significantly lower disease risk. For example, drinking just one less sugary beverage per day lowers diabetes risk by 26% and heart disease risk by 14%. Similarly, eating one more serving of whole grains daily reduces diabetes risk by 18% and overall mortality by 13%. The guidelines now explicitly recommend decreasing processed foods, a change from previous versions.

  • The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released on January 7, 2026.
  • Goran wrote the book "Sugarproof" in 2020 about reducing added sugars to improve health.

The players

Michael I. Goran

A professor of pediatrics and vice chair for research at the University of Southern California, Goran served as a scientific advisor for the new dietary guidelines and has studied nutrition and chronic disease for over 35 years.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Federal dietary guidelines first published in 1980 and updated every five years to provide science-based advice on healthy eating patterns to promote health and reduce chronic disease risk.

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What they’re saying

“I chose to participate in this process, despite its accelerated and sometimes controversial nature, for two reasons. First, I wanted to help ensure the review was conducted with scientific rigor. And second, federal health officials prioritized examining areas where the evidence has become especially strong - particularly food processing, added sugars and sugary beverages, which closely aligns with my research.”

— Michael I. Goran, Professor of Pediatrics and Vice Chair for Research, University of Southern California

What’s next

The new guidelines will now be used to inform federal nutrition programs and policies, as well as provide practical advice for the public on making healthy dietary changes.

The takeaway

The updated Dietary Guidelines emphasize simple, actionable shifts like reducing processed foods and sugary drinks, and increasing whole grains, that can have an outsized impact on chronic disease risk. This represents an important evolution in dietary guidance toward an overall focus on diet quality rather than just individual nutrients.