The research behind the new Dietary Guidelines

In January 2026 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The scientific report behind them opens its account of modern diets with this sentence:

“The diets consumed throughout most of human history consisted exclusively of minimally processed plant and animal foods—including fruits and berries, meats, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and seafood—that are naturally nutrient-dense.”

Seven references support that sentence. Four are the work of two scientists you meet in The Perfect Human Diet, Dr. S. Boyd Eaton and Dr. Loren Cordain:

32. Cordain L, Eaton SB, et al. The paradoxical nature of hunter-gatherer diets: Meat-based, yet non-atherogenic. Eur J Clin Nutr, 2002.

33. Eaton SB, Eaton SB 3rd. Paleolithic vs. modern diets – selected pathophysiological implications. Eur J Nutr, 2000.

34. Eaton SB, et al., Cordain L. Dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during the paleolithic. World Rev Nutr Diet, 1998.

36. O’Keefe JH Jr, Cordain L. Cardiovascular disease resulting from a diet and lifestyle at odds with our Paleolithic genome. Mayo Clin Proc, 2004.

Source: The Scientific Foundation for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030, Chapter 1, “Modern U.S. Diets”

I ended the first film with a hope: that what we found on that search would one day be part of the conversation when the government writes its nutrition guidelines. Hope is back. It is the beginning of the other side of the story.

The Perfect Human Diet 2 continues the search.

Join the Producers Circle.

Watch the first film on Apple TV.

Charles “CJ” Hunt