Last week, we explored the idea that some of the biggest health shifts do not come from adding more, but from gently removing what drains us. This week, I want to begin with a piece of news that shows just how relevant that idea has become.
In the United States, national dietary guidance is being reshaped, and the change is more significant than most headlines suggest. While this is a U.S. policy shift, these frameworks often influence global thinking about nutrition, including here in the UK and across Europe, so they are worth paying attention to.
Why the Food Pyramid Is Changing
For decades, the food pyramid shaped how people thought about eating well. It presented health as a matter of balance. No food was really harmful, only overconsumed. Processing barely featured in the conversation at all.
That model has already been quietly dismantled. In 2011, the U.S. replaced the pyramid with MyPlate, and now, with the 2025 to 2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, another shift is underway. This time, it is not just about portion sizes. It is about food quality and processing.
For the first time, U.S. federal guidance is explicitly advising people to reduce their intake of highly processed foods as a central recommendation. It is placing renewed emphasis on food quality. This is being shaped by researchers and policy advisors working under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA. It is not driven by trends. It is driven by data.
Why? Because the evidence has become too strong to ignore.
Rates of metabolic disease, insulin resistance, cardiovascular illness and chronic inflammation have risen alongside ultra-processed food intake, even when calorie intake and macronutrient balance appear similar.
In other words, the issue is no longer just what we eat. It is what has been done to our food.
A Renewed Focus on Fats
One of the most noticeable changes in the new recommendations is a renewed emphasis on the types of fats we consume. This matters because fats are not just fuel. They are structural components of our cells, including the membranes that surround and protect mitochondria, the tiny structures responsible for generating energy.
Every heartbeat, every thought, every repair process depends on mitochondria. When they are supported, the body feels resilient. When they are under strain, everything feels harder.
Ultra-processed foods tend to rely on a very specific category of fats.
This is where seed oils come in.
Seed oils now appear in the majority of packaged foods, not because they are nourishing, but because they are cheap, shelf-stable and easy to use at scale.
The issue is that they are heavily refined and easily oxidised. When consumed in large amounts, particularly alongside high sugar and low fibre intake, they can increase oxidative stress and inflammatory signalling.
Mitochondria are especially vulnerable to this kind of oxidative load. When their membranes are repeatedly exposed to unstable fats and inflammatory signals, energy production becomes less efficient. Instead of generating steady energy, they are forced into constant repair mode.
Seed oils are not the only issue in ultra-processed foods. But they are a clear example of how modern ingredients can place a quiet, continuous strain on the body.
Fortunately, the guidelines now differentiate between types of fats and highlight those that are beneficial. If you’d like to explore this further, you can read more about how the right kinds of fats support health in our latest article here.
Why Subtraction Can Be So Powerful
This is where we return to the idea of subtraction, and if there is one place where subtraction matters most, it is here.
The good news is that when that stressor is removed, something else happens naturally. People begin to replace those foods with simpler, more nourishing options. Foods that contain minerals, fibre, antioxidants and healthy fats that the body actually knows how to use. In other words, subtraction often makes room for better nutrition without force or rules.
For some people, that might mean clearing packaged snack foods out of the house for a few weeks and noticing how they feel. For others, it might mean cooking more from basic ingredients, even if that is just a few meals a week. It might mean choosing foods with short, recognisable ingredient lists and gradually moving away from those designed in factories rather than kitchens.
This is not about restriction. It is about giving your biology a quieter environment to work in.
And when the load reduces, the body often does what it has always known how to do.
Let me know how you are getting on with this idea of subtraction. Although I’ve focused heavily on food recently, there are many more areas to explore.
