Robert Lustig on Eating Real Food: recommends

Dr. Robert Lustig’s central, oft-repeated dietary prescription is simply to “eat real food” — minimally processed food rather than manufactured products. He says the phrase is one he has used for roughly 17 years, and he has endorsed it as the watchword of the new six-page 2026 USDA Dietary Guidelines.

His stated reasoning goes beyond personal choice: Lustig argues that dietary guidelines matter because they change industry behavior, not consumer behavior — they force reformulation of products used in federal food programs. He faults the new edition for lacking nuance, citing as an example its failure to distinguish plain yogurt from strawberry yogurt, which he describes as ultra-processed by virtue of its added sugar.

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