`U.S. Dietary Guidelines Put Olive Oil and Table Olives at the Center of Healthy Eating - Olive Oil Times
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U.S. Dietary Guidelines Put Olive Oil and Table Olives at the Center of Healthy Eating

By Daniel Dawson
Jan. 9, 2026 20:00 UTC
Summary Summary

The United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services have rec­om­mended incor­po­rat­ing olive oil and table olives into the American diet in their new dietary guide­lines, which will remain in place until 2030. While indus­try groups wel­comed the empha­sis on olive oil, con­cerns were raised about other ele­ments of the guide­lines, includ­ing rec­om­men­da­tions related to fat and pro­tein intake, as well as the redesigned food pyra­mid.

Olive oil and table olives have been placed at the heart of new dietary guide­lines rec­om­mended by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The government’s offi­cial health and nutri­tion rec­om­men­da­tions, which will remain in place until 2030, call on Americans to con­sume more nutri­ent-dense foods and healthy fats from whole foods, includ­ing table olives, and to cook with ​“essen­tial fatty acids, such as olive oil.”

The U.S. government’s guid­ance on food and drink is highly influ­en­tial, shap­ing meals served by pub­lic insti­tu­tions such as hos­pi­tals, mil­i­tary bases, pris­ons and schools, as well as food dis­trib­uted through fed­eral assis­tance pro­grams.

Leading indus­try groups wel­comed the empha­sis on olive oil, while some food, health and nutri­tion experts expressed reser­va­tions about other ele­ments of the guide­lines.

USDA

“We applaud the strong rec­om­men­da­tions to inte­grate olive oil into the American diet as an essen­tial means of improv­ing U.S. health,” said Kimberly Houlding, chief exec­u­tive of the American Olive Oil Producers Association. ​“The sci­ence is defin­i­tive: extra vir­gin olive oil is a cor­ner­stone of a healthy dietary pat­tern.”

Joseph R. Profaci, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the North American Olive Oil Association, echoed those views in a LinkedIn post.

“The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025 – 2030 place extra vir­gin olive oil at the cen­ter of the food pyra­mid for the first time,” Profaci said. ​“The guide­lines also explic­itly advise pri­or­i­tiz­ing olive oil when cook­ing or adding fats to meals. This is a clear sig­nal from U.S. health author­i­ties: olive oil isn’t optional — it’s foun­da­tional to healthy eat­ing.”

Beyond olive oil, experts also wel­comed rec­om­men­da­tions to con­sume five daily serv­ings of fruits and veg­eta­bles, include two to four serv­ings of whole grains, and limit ultra-processed foods and added sug­ars.

However, con­cerns were raised about guid­ance related to fat and pro­tein intake.

While broadly sup­port­ing the guide­lines, the American Heart Association warned that some rec­om­men­da­tions could lead to exces­sive con­sump­tion of sat­u­rated fat and sodium.

The guide­lines advise keep­ing sat­u­rated fat below ten per­cent of daily calo­ries, but also endorse cook­ing with but­ter and beef tal­low, sea­son­ing food with salt to taste, and con­sum­ing sig­nif­i­cantly more pro­tein than pre­vi­ously rec­om­mended.

Decades of research — widely accepted by many health and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als but dis­puted by some U.S. offi­cials — have linked high intake of sat­u­rated fats, includ­ing but­ter and lard, to poorer car­dio­vas­cu­lar health.

Other experts ques­tioned the rec­om­mended pro­tein intake of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilo­gram of body weight per day, warn­ing that excess pro­tein may be con­verted into fat. Previous guid­ance advised 0.8 grams per kilo­gram per day.

Some health pro­fes­sion­als also crit­i­cized the redesigned food pyra­mid, which replaces the tra­di­tional pyra­mid with an upside-down tri­an­gle.

The new design aims to help con­sumers com­pare food vol­umes for daily con­sump­tion, but experts ques­tioned the logic behind the place­ment and rel­a­tive size of cer­tain food groups.

For exam­ple, fruit — rec­om­mended at two daily serv­ings — appears in the mid­dle sec­tion of the tri­an­gle, while whole grains, rec­om­mended at two to four serv­ings, occupy a smaller area at the bot­tom.

Health experts also said the lack of clear def­i­n­i­tions for ​“nutri­ent-dense” foods and ​“essen­tial fatty acids” could cre­ate con­fu­sion.

Still, they wel­comed the oppor­tu­nity to clar­ify that polyphe­nols, includ­ing those found in extra vir­gin olive oil, qual­ify as nutri­ent-dense.

Current U.S. dietary guide­lines dif­fer sig­nif­i­cantly from the Tuscan food pyra­mid, which reflects Italy’s offi­cial rec­om­men­da­tions.

In the Tuscan model, fruits and veg­eta­bles form the base, fol­lowed by whole grains and extra vir­gin olive oil, while non-dairy fats and ani­mal-based pro­teins sit at the top and are meant to be con­sumed spar­ingly.

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