What MAHA’s crusade against seed oils reveals about flaws in America’s food system

At a Brooklyn coffeeshop one recent rainy afternoon, the barista explained that lattes came just one of two ways: with whole milk or almond. It didn’t make sense to stock skim or reduced-fat milk when requests for those varieties are few and far between, she said — though a few months ago, she did notice a curious surge of customers asking for raw milk. “Do you know what was up with that?” 

For better or worse — definitely worse, health experts say, in the case of raw milk — Americans seem to be approaching a new chapter in their relationship with dairy. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has suggested the forthcoming U.S. dietary guidelines could start recommending whole milk, against the advice of last year’s advisory committee. Whole milk got a special shout-out in May’s Make America Healthy Again report, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the guidelines’ position on dairy “antiquated” in February while urging Head Start programs to adopt full-fat milk. Meanwhile, a House committee recently advanced the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which for the first time in over a decade would allow public schools to start serving whole milk as well as reduced-fat milk, rather than sticking to nonfat and low-fat.

The dairy industry would certainly be thrilled to get whole milk back in schools — they argue that kids don’t like the lower-fat versions as much and get turned off milk entirely. (Schools buy about 8% of the fluid milk supply in the U.S. each year.) And Americans beyond the confines of coffeeshops seem interested in the full-fat lifestyle: Whole milk sales are up more than 7% compared with last year.

But inside the nutrition world, the question of how whole milk compares to lower-fat and fat-free options is the subject of ongoing debate. Since their inception in 1980, U.S. dietary guidelines have recommended low-fat and fat-free dairy over whole-milk products to reduce intake of saturated fats, which research has linked to higher risk of conditions like obesity and heart disease. Some recent evidence, however, suggests eating full-fat dairy instead of lower-fat options isn’t linked to bad health outcomes and may even be beneficial in a few cases.

Either way, most nutrition experts say that eating any dairy at all isn’t necessary for good health (reassuring for the two-thirds of the global population that has trouble digesting lactose). That point is unlikely to be emphasized by MAHA leaders. The movement’s support for whole milk is part of its larger challenge to longstanding advice to limit the saturated fats found in many animal products — and while some experts say there’s nuance to the subject worth unpacking, they’re generally leery of swinging too far in the opposite direction. 

“A greater emphasis on plant protein sources such as nuts, soy foods, beans, and lentils would provide greater health benefits compared to our current emphasis on meat and dairy foods,” said Walter Willett, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who’s among the world’s most highly cited nutritionists. “The dairy industry has contributed strongly to the myth that high intake of dairy foods is essential for good health.”

The swinging pendulum on full-fat dairy

In the early 20th century, nutrition researchers promoted milk as “nature’s perfect food” because it contained valuable nutrients like vitamin A, explains culinary historian Anne Mendelson, author of the book “Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood.” “Milk was nature’s perfect food because of all this great stuff, including the fat,” she said. 

But whole milk’s reputation dimmed in the latter half of the century, amid research that found links between saturated fat, elevated levels of LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind), and cardiovascular disease. The sugar industry further fueled suspicion of saturated fats by funding research on its hazards. This was to deflect scrutiny of sucrose consumption as another risk factor for heart disease, according to academic analyses of historical documents.

As evidence mounted that diets low in fat and higher in refined grains and added sugars posed their own health risks, the 2015 U.S. dietary guidelines concluded that reducing total fat intake did not reduce risk of heart disease. Instead, those guidelines encouraged Americans to take care of their heart health by replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats like those found in vegetable oils, nuts, and fish. 

The most recent expert recommendations, released at the end of 2024, maintain the advice to limit consumption of saturated fat to less than 10% of daily caloric intake, including from full-fat dairy. They acknowledge research showing a lower risk of obesity in kids ages 2-5 who drank higher-fat milk but say that evidence is limited, and that “substantial concerns” about the larger body of research on full-fat dairy mean that the recommendations should be left unchanged. 

This kind of thinking is a relic of the past, according to Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Tufts Food is Medicine Institute. He is perhaps the most prominent defender of full-fat dairy in mainstream nutrition. 

“We’ve still left full-fat dairy wrongfully convicted and locked away from enjoyment,” Mozaffarian said. “I think it’s time to overturn that wrongful conviction and restore full-fat dairy to a choice that people can make.”

Mozaffarian points to research, including studies he’s co-authored, that suggests there’s no difference between full-fat and low-fat dairy when it comes to health outcomes like obesity and cardiovascular disease. (Several of these studies include conflict of interest disclosures — the dairy industry, like the sugar industry, funds a lot of research on the health effects of its own products and regularly pays scientists to serve as consultants or speakers. Mozaffarian’s research is not funded by the dairy industry.)

There are several possible explanations for these findings, Mozaffarian said. Some research suggests that when people switch from full-fat to low-fat dairy, they eat more carbohydrates elsewhere in their diet, consuming more calories in the process. There’s also evidence that the saturated fat in dairy may not be exactly the same as saturated fat in red meat — for example, it contains higher levels of medium chain triglycerides, or MCTs, which may have metabolic benefits. Dairy fat in fermented foods like yogurt also contains some beneficial compounds, like vitamin K2, that nonfat dairy does not. 

“The bottom line is we’ve learned that dairy foods are quite complex,” Mozaffarian said, and nutrition guidelines have oversimplified them as a category.

Willett offers a more moderate take, citing a review on milk and health he co-authored with Harvard Medical School pediatrician David Ludwig and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

“We don’t have good evidence that low-fat milk is better than full-fat milk for controlling body weight or obesity risk,” Willett said via email. “However, compared to plant sources of fat, high intake of dairy fat increases risk of cardiovascular disease, and atherosclerosis does start to develop in childhood.” His takeaway on whole milk: One or two servings a day of full-fat milk for kids is “not likely to be a major issue,” but “higher intake is not likely to be desirable.”

Why whole milk matters to MAHA

While nutritionists have yet to arrive at a consensus on whole milk, there are several factors that may help explain why the MAHA movement is taking sides. 

Kennedy tends to favor food in what he believes to be its most natural form. “The Make America Healthy Again movement, it’s about whole foods,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan) said in a hearing on his legislation to reintroduce whole milk in schools this spring. “And I think we could characterize whole milk as part of that MAHA movement, as well.” That said, Mendelson notes that whole milk isn’t actually whole — cream is typically separated from skim milk in centrifuges, then recombined to meet the standardized percentage of 3.25% fat in the U.S.

Many influential figures in the MAHA movement, including Nina Teicholz, head of the advocacy group the Nutrition Coalition, and paleo-friendly entrepreneur Mark Sisson, also have a horse in this race. They argue that animal products provide important nutrients and have been unfairly demonized because of misplaced concerns about saturated fats. 

That line of thinking is evident in the MAHA report, which identifies saturated fats as problematic specifically when they’re contained in ultra-processed foods. Many in MAHA also advocate for eating animal products high in saturated fats, like butter and beef tallow, instead of the polyunsaturated fats in so-called seed oils, contrary to the recommendations of most nutrition experts. (Mozaffarian suggests the ratio of unsaturated fat to saturated fat should be around 2 to 1 or more.)

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, opposes the reintroduction of whole milk into schools, saying that schools should abide by the dietary guidelines’ recommendations. The center also notes that the House bill to reintroduce whole milk says the drinks won’t count toward the limits on saturated fat in weekly school meals. “That feels like magic math,” said Erin Ogden, a policy associate at the center. “We’re really worried this is going to set a precedent for congressional meddling in the nutrition standards that school meals must follow.”

If the U.S. does shift guidance on whole milk in schools and in dietary guidelines, that would bring it closer to European norms, where low-fat dairy is considered passé, said Heinz Freisling, a nutritional epidemiologist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization. 

Get rid of fat, he said, and you often wind up with dairy that has added sweeteners or additional sodium. Better to make like the French and limit saturated fats by way of moderation, savoring just a small piece of creamy Brie after a meal. “You need something to give it flavor,” he said. “Otherwise, why would you eat it?”

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