At least 45 people in nearly two dozen states have been sickened with salmonella food poisoning tied to a brand of “super greens” diet supplement powder, federal health officials said Wednesday.
Superfoods Inc., which makes Live it Up-brand Super Greens powder, recalled products including its original and wild berry flavors with expiration dates of August 2026 to January 2028. Consumers should not eat, sell or serve the products and should throw them away or return to the place of purchase.
lllnesses tied to the supplement were reported from Aug. 22 to Dec. 30, 2025. At least 12 people were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The products were distributed nationwide. Case have been reported in 21 states: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
An FDA investigation is continuing and additional products could be contaminated, the agency said.
Symptoms of salmonella poisoning usually start within hours or days of eating a contaminated food product. They include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Most people recover without treatment within a week, but infections can be serious in children younger than 5, adults 65 and older and people with weakened immune systems.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Federal regulators on Tuesday told drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to remove label warnings about potential suicidal thoughts and behaviors from their blockbuster weight-loss medications.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said a comprehensive review “found no increased” risk related to suicide among users of the GLP-1 drugs for obesity, including Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Saxenda and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.
A preliminary review in January 2024 showed no link between the drugs and suicidal thought or actions, the FDA said. At that time, however, officials said they could not rule out that “a small risk may exist.” The new analysis puts those concerns to rest.
Labeling for other drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists approved to treat diabetes carried no such warnings, the agency noted.
“Today’s FDA action will ensure consistent messaging across the labeling for all FDA-approved GLP-1 RA medications,” officials said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of New York City nurses were set to return to the picket lines Tuesday as their strike targeting some of the city’s leading hospital systems entered its second day.
The walkout, which comes during a severe flu season, involved roughly 15,000 nurses spread out across multiple private hospitals, including NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai hospital.
The affected hospitals have hired droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap. Both nurses and hospital administrators have urged patients not to avoid getting care during the strike.
The labor action comes three years after a similar strike forced medical facilities to transfer some patients and divert ambulances.
As with the 2023 labor action, nurses have pointed to staffing issues as a major flashpoint, accusing the big-budget medical centers of refusing to commit to provisions for manageable, safe workloads.
The private, nonprofit hospitals involved in the current negotiations say they’ve made strides in staffing in recent years, and have cast the union’s demands as prohibitively expensive.
On Monday, the city’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, stood beside nurses on a picket line outside NewYork-Presbyterian, praising the union’s members for seeking “dignity, respect and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
As longevity shifts to A.I. and predictive health, male-biased data risks repeating old inequities at scale. Unsplash+
Longevity has become one of the defining cultural fixations of our time. Biohackers are tracking every heartbeat, billionaires are sequencing their genomes and wellness influencers are touting the latest “life-extending” protocols as if they’re new commandments. Yet for all its promises, the modern longevity movement remains built on a narrow foundation: men’s health.
The paradox is hiding in plain sight. Women live, on average, five to seven years longer than men, but far fewer of those years are spent in good health. While women make up half the population, the frameworks shaping the future of aging rarely center on their biology or lived reality. Instead, women spend six to eight of their later years in poorer health, often cycling through unanswered symptoms, inadequate treatments and delayed or missed diagnoses.
Women are diagnosed an average of four years later across hundreds of diseases, and nearly three-quarters say they have felt dismissed, disbelieved or “medically gaslit” by the healthcare system. They are also 50 percent more likely than men to experience adverse drug reactions, a reflection of decades of dosing studies based almost exclusively on male physiology. This is not longevity. It’s a prolonged wait for the care women should have received earlier, and equitably, in the first place.
Men built this, women paid the price
The roots of these inequities are not solely theoretical; they’ve been baked into the system. Women were not required to be included in U.S. clinical trials until 1993, decades after many of the physiological baselines that still inform diagnostics, treatment protocols and risk models were established. “Normal” lab ranges, diagnostic checklists and predictive algorithms were built around male bodies and male aging patterns. The consequences are ongoing. Even now, women experiencing a heart attack are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men, in part because symptoms such as nausea, fatigue or jaw pain do not match the male-coded archetype of chest pain. Today’s longevity sector risks repeating this history by designing testing, biomarkers and interventions that default, again, to the male body. The leadership demographics of the field make this imbalance difficult to ignore: roughly 85 percent of decision-makers in healthcare are men.
The effects compound over a lifetime. Nearly two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women, not simply because women live longer, but because hormonal, mitochondrial changes and immune differences unique to women meaningfully affect aging at the cellular level. Autoimmune diseases, which overwhelmingly impact women, remain among the most underfunded and least understood areas of medical research.
Ironically, the very biology that makes women distinct is also deeply relevant to longevity itself. Estrogen, for example, is not just a reproductive hormone; it plays a key role in enhancing mitochondrial energy production, antioxidant defense, bone density, cardiovascular health, cognitive function and immune regulation. When estrogen declines during menopause, biological aging accelerates across multiple systems at once—cardiovascular, neurological, metabolic and immune. Ovarian aging, in particular, is one of the earliest and most predictive indicators of whole-body aging. Yet it remains absent from most mainstream longevity models, which prioritize metrics like muscle mass, VO₂ max, or epigenetic clocks without accounting for sex-specific biological timelines.
We’ve made progress, but not enough
There are signs of momentum. Investment in women’s health technology is growing. Menopause is finally entering public conversation. Researchers are increasingly vocal about sex-specific data gaps. But progress remains fragile and incomplete. As longevity pivots toward A.I.-driven insights and predictive analytics, the risk of embedding historical bias into advanced systems grows. Algorithms trained on male-dominant datasets will inevitably generate male-default recommendations. Without intervention, the future of health will replicate the inequities of the past, only faster and at a greater scale.
Another force still shaping this landscape and distorting priorities is cultural stigma. Entire domains of women’s health—hormones, menopause, vaginal health—are still marginalized or treated as niche or taboo concerns. The clitoris was not fully mapped until 2005. Only a small fraction of biomedical R&D funding is directed toward female-specific conditions.
This imbalance persists despite market realities. Analysts project the global longevity market will exceed $500 billion by 2030, but women-focused solutions currently capture less than one percent of that total investment. Even the vaginal microbiome, which influences fertility, immune function, preterm birth and gynecologic cancers, rarely features in discussions about systemic aging, despite its clear relevance to lifelong health.
A new blueprint for longevity
We now stand at a critical inflection point. With billions flowing into aging research, biotech and consumer health tools, there is an unprecedented opportunity to build longevity systems that include women from the ground up. That requires concrete shifts:
Sex-specific clinical trials that reflect the diversity of female physiology across life stages.
A.I. and wearable technologies trained on menstrual cycles, menopause trajectories and sex-specific biomarker patterns.
Standardized measurement of ovarian aging treated as a core healthspan metric.
Major investment in female-specific research, including autoimmune diseases, ovarian aging and the vaginal microbiome.
Medical education reforms that mandate sex-specific diagnostic criteria and symptom recognition.
Most importantly, it requires reframing the goal itself. Women do not simply need longer lives, but better and healthier ones—lives defined by clarity rather than confusion, care rather than dismissal and dignity rather than decades of uncertainty.
Longevity was never meant to be a mirror of the past. It was meant to be a blueprint for a healthier future. But that future will remain incomplete until women’s biology is treated not as an exception, but as a foundation. It’s time to reclaim longevity, not as a male-coded aspiration, but as a universal right that finally places women at its core.
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts is enacting a series of safety reforms at assisted living facilities including increased inspections and better access to records following a fire last year that killed 10 residents, the governor announced Monday.
The recommendations, detailed in a report from the Assisted Living Residents or ARL commission tasked with reviewing the sector, call for annual inspection signed off by the local fire department, board of health and building inspector. It also calls for annual update and review of emergency plans and quarterly emergency exercises with all staff and annual evacuation drills.
Other recommendations include a task force to study affordability of assisted living facilities, over concerns they are out of reach for many low-income residents. The report also calls for creating a statewide online database to provide families with better access to compliance records, ownership information, and corrective action plans. It also calls for standardizing information on services, costs, staffing, and resident rights so families can easier compare different facilities.
“Every older adult deserves a safe home and peace of mind, and every family deserves transparency and accountability,” Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “The heartbreaking tragedy at Gabriel House showed us that we cannot wait to strengthen protections for assisted living residents. We are taking immediate action on these recommendations so we can better protect residents, support families and ensure our assisted living system continues to serve people well into the future.”
Aging & Independence Secretary and ALR Commission Chair Robin Lipson said the the state has a responsibility to protect residents living at these facilities.
“These changes will strengthen fire safety, clarify standards and practices that impact resident well-being, and make critical information more accessible so families can make informed decisions,” Lipson said. “We have already begun putting stronger protections in place and will work to ensure that residents across the Commonwealth are safer, better supported, and treated with the dignity they deserve.”
Brian Doherty, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association, said his nonprofit association welcome the report, especially the recommendations to develop a standardized resident assessment, integrate Certified Medication Aides into assisted living, and establish an affordability task force.
“Assisted living blends social activity with personal care, and we will continue to champion a model of diverse community options over restrictive, institutionalized settings to ensure residents maintain their independence and dignity,” Doherty said in a statement.
The commission was already studying the sector when a fire broke out last summer at Gabriel House in Fall River. It was the state’s deadliest in more than 40 years and raised questions about a lack of regulations around the sector in Massachusetts.
Investigators said that the Gabriel House fire began unintentionally by either someone smoking or an electrical issue with an oxygen machine. The blaze left some residents of the three-story building hanging out of windows and screaming for help.
Documents from the state Executive Office of Aging & Independence showed Gabriel House had lost its certification nearly a decade ago due to resident mistreatment. The facility in Fall River was barred from accepting new residents until it took corrective action.
The documents add to a list of issues raised with the Gabriel House facility over the years. A resident filed a lawsuit alleging the facility was not properly managed, staffed or maintained and that “emergency response procedures were not put in place.” The son of another resident said an elevator had been out for as long as nine months at one point.
State records include about two dozen complaints about the facility during the last decade, including several related to “abuse, neglect or financial exploitation” but details are redacted. Other complaints involved a resident getting stuck for hours in an elevator that was then out of service for months, and staff members who threatened residents and withheld medication.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore nearly $12 million in funding to the American Academy of Pediatrics, including money for rural health care and the early identification of disabilities in young children.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., awarded the preliminary injunction late Sunday, siding with AAP in saying evidence showed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services likely had a “retaliatory motive” when it terminated grants to the pediatric group in December.
“This is not a case about whether AAP or HHS is right or even has the better position on vaccinations and gender-affirming care for children, or any other public health policy,” Howell wrote in her decision. “This is a case about whether the federal government has exercised power in a manner designed to chill public health policy debate by retaliating against a leading and generally trusted pediatrician member professional organization focused on improving the health of children.”
The seven grants terminated in December supported numerous public health programs, including efforts to prevent sudden unexpected infant death, strengthen pediatric care in rural communities and support teens facing substance use and mental health challenges.
AAP alleged the cuts were made in retaliation for the group speaking out against the Trump administration’s positions and actions. HHS said in letters to AAP that the grants were cut because they no longer aligned with the department’s priorities. The department has denied AAP’s allegations of retaliation.
AAP has been vocal about its support for pediatric vaccines and has publicly opposed HHS positions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years — has made sweeping changes to childhood vaccine recommendations. Last year, the pediatrics group released its own recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines, which substantially diverged from the government’s guidance.
The group also supports access to gender-affirming care and has publicly criticized HHS positions on the topic, saying it opposes what it calls the government’s infringements on the doctor-patient relationship.
Explaining her decision, Howell said that AAP had shown it would likely suffer irreparable harm from the cuts. She also said the group had shown the public interest was in its favor in allowing the programs to continue as the lawsuit plays out.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing AAP in the lawsuit, said the ruling shows that “no administration gets to silence doctors, undermine public health, or put kids at risk, and we will not stop fighting until this unlawful retaliation is fully ended.”
A spokesperson for HHS declined comment. Attorneys representing HHS in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to emailed inquiries.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A nurse in training found herself responding to a call that likely saved a man’s life.
It happened just before the holidays when the student spotted a man down in the middle of the street fighting for his life.
What You Need To Know
For as long as she could remember, Lesly Arroyo-Pena has wanted to become a nurse
Galen College of Nursing in St. Pete
Just before the holidays, she spotted a man in the middle of the street fighting for his life
In a split second, she said she saw his symptoms and his proximity to a nearby clinic that helps those with drug addiction and quickly realized what she needed to do
That student jumped in to help, and she is sharing her story.
For as long as she could remember, Lesly Arroyo-Pena has wanted to become a nurse.
“Whenever I went to the hospital, mostly to see my siblings when they were born, it was always very good memories,” she said. “The nurses were always nice. Very pleasant, very happy.”
She planned to spread that same happiness once she graduates from Galen College of Nursing in St. Pete. But just before the holidays, she got put to the test on her way back to her clinical assignment.
“When I looked over to my left, there was a man in the middle of the road. He happened to just be laying there really still,” she said. “There was another guy who got out of his vehicle and checked on him first and he also seemed kind of panicked.”
Arroyo-Pena said she knew she couldn’t panic. So, she did what she was trained to do.
“I ran across the street, checked on the man. And the first thing I checked to see if he still had a pulse, if he was still breathing, which he did, but it was like very, he was unconscious, he couldn’t even tell me what his name was,” she said.
In a split second, she said she saw his symptoms and his proximity to a nearby clinic that helps those with drug addiction and quickly realized what she needed to do.
“I ran back to my car, got the Narcan and hoped for the best and it did work,” she said.
After a few minutes, she said the man was taken to the hospital, and thanks to her training and the Narcan, she had just gotten from her clinical that day, she was able to save a life.
It’s the kind of outcome Galen College of Nursing St. Pete Dean, Dr. Kristen Wessel, said they’re preparing students for.
“Compassion is absolutely what Leslie demonstrated that day.” Wessel said. “When others could’ve passed on by and left someone laying in the street. But she knew that even though she isn’t finished with school, she still had the capability to help.”
Arroyo-Pena said she learned a valuable lesson.
“I’ve felt like always kind of been very reserved and shy, but after this incident it’s made me realize, if it comes to saving someone’s life, I’m willing to set that aside and step out of my comfort zone,” she said.
Good news for the community she will serve one day.
CLEVELAND — More than half a million Ohioans lack health insurance, and when they need care, hospitals often shoulder the cost.
What You Need To Know
MetroHealth held three events to help get people coverage and healthcare information
MetroHealth provides more than a million dollars a day in charitable care
This event was held at a Ukrainian church, and MetroHealth had several Ukrainian speakers available
In a year and a half, Cheryl Holodnak will be eligible for Medicare.
“I can’t afford to go without insurance because I have a lot of preexisting conditions, and I take a lot of medications,” said Cheryl Holodnak, a participant of the MetroHealth’s total care connection.
Until then, she must find her own health insurance, and she said it has been very expensive for her. When she first retired from her job, she found a plan on Cobra that she said cost her $800 a month. Her insurance will expire in February, and it increased to $1,100 a month.
On Saturday, she took part in MetroHealth’s Total Care Connection. An event created to sign people up for health insurance, give them access to doctors, information and various types of health care assistance. This is the third event, and their first one was held in November.
“We know lots of folks are very nervous or are afraid they experience high costs, and for some folks that will stop them from seeking health care,” said Romona Brazile, the Executive Director for Government and Community Relations at MetroHealth.
Romona Brazile said they brought these events to the community because they saw a problem. MetroHealth provides more than a million dollars a day in charitable care. That’s care to the uninsured or those who can’t afford to pay their medical bills.
“We have seen an increase in the number of people without health insurance, which adds to a high amount of charity costs that over long term is unsustainable for us,” said Brazile.
Between the last two events, Brazile said they have helped over 200 people. She said these events are not just about helping with health insurance but also about meeting people where they are with what they need.
The event on Saturday was in an area populated by many Ukrainian people. The event was held at a Ukrainian church, and MetroHealth had several Ukrainian speakers available.
Lyudmyla Mudra is a Doctor of Nurse Practice at MetroHealth. She is also from Ukraine. Her biggest concern is Ukrainians’ unfamiliarity with local healthcare.
She said there is also a language barrier. Dr. Mudra speaks Ukrainian, and she often translates for the patients.
Holodnak needed help to find cheaper health insurance, something she says she could not have done without MetroHealth.
“I got a plan for under $500,” said Holodnak. “I was eligible for financial assistance, so they signed me up for that, and I also signed up for insurance through the health markets plan.”
If you missed this event, you can contact MetroHealth at 216mymetro or 216 697-3876 to get help.
The last day to sign up for insurance through the marketplace is January 15th.
Dr. Molly O’Shea has noticed growing skepticism about vaccines at both of her Michigan pediatric offices and says this week’s unprecedented and confusing changes to federal vaccine guidance will only make things worse.
One of her offices is in a Democratic area, where more of the parents she sees are opting for alternative schedules that spread out shots. The other is in a Republican area, where some parents have stopped immunizing their children altogether.
She and other doctors fear the new recommendations and the terminology around them will stoke vaccine hesitancy even more, pose challenges for pediatricians and parents that make it harder for kids to get shots, and ultimately lead to more illness and death.
The biggest change was to stop blanket recommendations for protection against six diseases and recommend those vaccines only for at-risk children or through something called “shared clinical decision-making” with a health care provider.
The phrase, experts say, is confusing and dangerous: “It sends a message to a parent that actually there’s only a rarefied group of people who really need the vaccine,” O’Shea said. “It’s creating an environment that puts a sense of uncertainty about the value and necessity or importance of the vaccines in that category.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years, said in announcing the changes that they better align the U.S. with peer nations “while strengthening transparency and informed consent.”
But doctors say they are sowing doubt — the vaccines have been extensively studied and proven to be safe and effective at shielding kids from nasty diseases — at a time when childhood vaccination rates are already falling and some of those infectious diseases are spreading.
On Friday, the American Academy of Pediatrics and more than 200 medical, public health and patient advocacy groups sent a letter to Congress about the new childhood immunization schedule.
“We urge you to investigate why the schedule was changed, why credible scientific evidence was ignored, and why the committee charged with advising the HHS Secretary on immunizations did not discuss the schedule changes as a part of their public meeting process,” they wrote.
O’Shea said she and other pediatricians discuss vaccines with parents at every visit where they are given. But that’s not necessarily “shared clinical decision-making,” which has a particular definition.
On its website, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices says: “Unlike routine, catch-up, and risk-based recommendations, shared clinical decision-making vaccinations are not recommended for everyone in a particular age group or everyone in an identifiable risk group. Rather, shared clinical decision-making recommendations are individually based and informed by a decision process between the health care provider and the patient or parent/guardian.”
In this context, health care providers include primary care physicians, specialists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and pharmacists.
A pair of surveys conducted last year by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania suggested that many people don’t fully understand the concept, which came up last year when the federal government changed recommendations around COVID-19 vaccinations.
Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults knew that one meaning behind shared decision-making is that “taking the vaccine may not be a good idea for everyone but would benefit some.” And only about one-third realized pharmacists count as health care providers to talk with during the process, even though they frequently administer vaccines.
As of this week, vaccines that protect against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, RSV, flu and meningococcal disease are no longer universally recommended for kids. RSV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal vaccines are recommended for certain high-risk populations; flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal vaccines are recommended through shared decision-making — as is the COVID-19 vaccine, although that change was made last year.
Shortly after the federal announcement Monday, Dr. Steven Abelowitz heard from half a dozen parents. “It’s causing concern for us, but more importantly, concern for parents with kids, especially young kids, and confusion,” said Abelowitz, founder of Ocean Pediatrics in Orange County, California.
Though federal recommendations are not mandates — states have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren — they can affect how easy it is for kids to get shots if doctors choose to follow them.
Under the new guidelines, O’Shea said, parents seeking shots in the shared decision-making category might no longer bring their kids in for a quick, vaccine-only appointment with staff. They’d sit down with a health care provider and discuss the vaccine. And it could be tougher to have a flu clinic, where parents drive up and kids get shots without seeing a doctor.
Still, doctors say they won’t let the changes stop them from helping children get the vaccines they need. Leading medical groups are sticking with prior vaccine recommendations. Many parents are, too.
Megan Landry, whose 4-year-old son Zackary is one of O’Shea’s patients, is among them.
“It’s my responsibility as a parent to protect my child’s health and well-being,” she said. “Vaccines are a really effective and well-studied way to do that.”
She plans to keep having the same conversations she’s always had with O’Shea before getting vaccines for Zackary.
“Relying on evidence and trusted medical guidance really helps me to make those decisions,” she said. “And for me, it’s not just a personal choice for my own son but a way to contribute to the health of everybody.”
But for other families, confidence about vaccines is waning as trust in science erodes. O’Shea lamented that parents are getting the message that they can’t trust medical experts.
“If I take my car to the mechanic, I don’t go do my own research ahead of time,” she said. “I go to a person I trust and I trust them to tell me what’s going on.”
Abelowitz, the California doctor, likened the latest federal move to pouring gasoline on a fire of mistrust that was already burning.
“We’re worried the fire’s out of control,” he said. “Already we’ve seen that with measles and pertussis, there are increased hospitalizations and even increasing deaths. So the way that I look at it — and my colleagues look at it — we’re basically regressing decades.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
NEW YORK — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.
What You Need To Know
U.S. flu infections are showing signs of a slight decline, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked
New government data posted Friday covered flu activity through last week
It showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity, but flu deaths and hospitalizations rose
x–– was one of the harshest in recent history –– and experts believe there is more suffering ahead
New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.
However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.
“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.
One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.
The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.
So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.
Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.
Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.
Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.
For years, federal health officials joined doctors’ groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.
But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.
“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.
“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable,” she said in a statement.
Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.
OHIO — One in eight Americans now use weight loss injections, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and those numbers are rising.
What You Need To Know
A pill form of a weight-loss injection has been released
The weight-loss medication may be accessible to more people due to lower cost
The pill eliminates the need to keep medication cold when traveling
It’s expensive and not always covered by insurance, but the Food and Drug Administration has recently approved the drug in pill form, which may make it more accessible.
The company that makes Wegovy injections released the pill this week.
“I think it’s actually going to be the first time that people are going to look at different options to make things more affordable for patients,” said Dr. Peminda Cabandugama, endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist at Cleveland Clinic.
“When you take in a protein or a peptide through the mouth, it gets broken down by saliva and proteins. So, they figured out this molecule that actually binds the semaglutide molecule to get down into, all the way down to the stomach,” Cabandugama said.
Nikki Raichart has been on the injection version for two years. Prior to that, despite taking care of a dog, running a real estate business and raising six kids, Raichart said she never had a problem taking weight off.
“Even when I had my kids, I didn’t have any problems with weight loss until I hit midlife,” she said.
She said she’s been able to keep off the last 20 pounds she couldn’t lose no matter what she tried.
But the injection has its drawbacks, like having to keep it cold when you travel. The pill will eliminate that concern.
“If you’re gone for two or three weeks, you just go without it but your cravings come back a little bit,” she said.
Cabandugama said the pill is for more than just those with a needle phobia.
A lower cost may make it more accessible to more people “when companies no longer (have) to worry about the plastic and spring loading to make an injection,” he said.
Cabandugama said the pill is recommended for anyone with a body mass index over 30 or with BMI over 27 and with comorbidities like type two diabetes and high blood pressure. He said it’s unclear whether it will be covered by insurance.
The pill requires a prescription and is taken daily versus a weekly injection.
TAMPA, Fla — A free health care event in Tampa on Saturday helped hundreds of people in need.
Pioneer Medical Foundation, a nonprofit, hosted its sixth annual community health fair.
What You Need To Know
Pioneer Medical Foundation hosted its sixth annual community health fair
The event aimed to help people who were uninsured and under insured get access to medical services
The fair also helped provide social services
There were about 40 booths and 400 people in attendance
There were about 40 booths and about 400 people in attendance, according to organizers.
“They’re going out of their way to help the homeless and they help people in need,” said David Poole, who attended.
The goal of the fair was to help people who are uninsured or under insured get access to health care.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2023 over 13% of Florida residents were uninsured.
“Access is not there. A lot of people can’t access health care, so this is why we’re bringing the health care to the people and bridging that gap,” said Ano Kashuma, Executive Director, Pioneer Medical Foundation.
At least 50 nurse practitioners, physicians and dentists volunteered their time and expertise to help hundreds of people.
Vision and mammogram screenings and teeth extractions were some of the medical services offered.
“A lot of the times we’re seeing that when people are coming to the E.R., they have chronic conditions that could have been prevented by a visit to your primary care doctor,” Kashuma said.
Along with medical services there were social services. There was access to showers, free clothing and bus passes. There were also giveaways.
Poole was there to try and win a free bike
“I hope they keep up the gratitude, the love, they’re showing for the homeless and keep doing what they’re doing,” Poole said.
Organizers said the health fair continues to grow year after year.
The foundation is also serving several counties on weekdays with a mobile medical unit van.
FLORIDA — If you’ve vowed to exercise more in 2026, it’s normally a great goal to take charge and get healthy. But health experts have issued a workout warning they hope many individuals heed.
What You Need To Know
“Exercising more” is the most common New Year’s resolution this year, according to a recent YouGov survey
Dr. Andrew Carbone, a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon at Orlando Health said that social media often drives the rise in exercise injuries
Avoid following social media trends and instead start with the basics like bodyweight exercises and core work
Consider getting a trainer to help keep you on track, and he says to remember: start with higher reps and lower weights
“Exercising more” is the most common New Year’s resolution this year, according to a recent YouGov survey.
After the holidays, motivation tends to spike as we’re fresh off the new year, while conditioning is at all-time low.
A doctor with Orlando Health said social media often drives the rise in injuries.
“There’s one social media trend now with the kettlebell swing — 100, 30-day, 100 kettlebell swings a day for 30 days. You know, that kind of stuff will cause overuse injuries,” said Dr. Andrew Carbone, a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon at Orlando Health.
That can include tendonitis, especially in the biceps and rotator cuff in the shoulder.
Carbone said he also sees knee injuries this time of year, especially if a person suddenly takes up running.
To help avoid injuries, Carbone said to start slow — no more than three days a week — and incorporate rest into your regimen. He said that’s when your body starts to build muscle.
Avoid following social media trends and instead start with the basics like bodyweight exercises and core work.
Consider getting a trainer to help keep you on track, and he says to remember: start with higher reps and lower weights.
A federal judge in New York has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to freeze $10 billion in child-care funds in five Democrat-led states including California.
The ruling Friday afternoon capped a tumultuous stretch that began earlier this week when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told California officials and those in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York that it would freeze federal funding over fraud concerns.
On Thursday the states sued the administration in federal court in Manhattan. The states sought a temporary restraining order, asking the court to block the funding freeze and the administration’s demands for large volumes of administrative data.
An attorney for the states argued Friday morning that there was an immediate need for funding — and that withholding it would cause chaos by depriving families of their ability to pay for child care, and would harm child-care providers who would lose income.
In a brief ruling, Judge Arun Subramanian said that “good cause has been shown for the issuance of a temporary restraining order.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal government’s effort has been viewed as a broad attack on social services in California, and jolted tens of thousands of working families and the state’s child-care industry. Providers told The Times that the funding freeze could imperil child-care centers, many of which operate on slim margins.
“The underscoring issue is that child care and these other federally funded social services programs are major family supports,” said Nina Buthee, executive director of EveryChild California. “They are essential infrastructure that our communities need and depend on, and should not be political tools. So the fact that this judge went in and blocked this very dramatic freeze, I think is only a good thing.”
In a trio of Jan. 6 letters addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was concerned there had been “potential for extensive and systemic fraud” in child care and other social services programs that rely on federal funding, and had “reason to believe” that the state was “illicitly providing illegal aliens” with benefits.
The letters did not provide evidence to support the claims. State officials have said the suggestions of fraud are unsubstantiated.
Newsom has said he welcomes any fraud investigations the federal government might conduct, but said cutting off funding hurts families who rely on the aid. According to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, about $1.4 billion in federal child-care funding was frozen per the letters from Health and Human Services.
“You want to support families? You believe in families? Then you believe in supporting child care and child-care workers in the workforce,” Newsom told MS NOW.
After Subramanian issued the ruling, Newsom’s press office said on X that “the feds went ghost-hunting for widespread ‘fraud’ (with no evidence) — and ended up trying to rip child care and food from kids.”
“It took a federal judge less than 24 hours to shut down Trump’s politically motivated child care cuts in California,” the account posted.
In instituting the freeze, Health and Human Services had said it would review how the federal money had been used by the state, and was restricting access to additional money amid its inquiries. The federal government asked for various data, including attendance documentation for child care. It also demanded beefed-up fiscal accountability requirements.
“Again and again, President Trump has shown a willingness to throw vulnerable children, seniors, and families under the bus if he thinks it will advance his vendetta against Democratic-led states,” Bonta said in a statement following the ruling. “Cutting funding for childcare and other family assistance is cruel, reckless, and most importantly, illegal.”
For Laura Pryor, research director at the California Budget & Policy Center, it is “a sigh of relief.”
When Kassidy Hooter learned in December how much her health insurance costs were going to rise this year, she went into panic mode.
The Shreveport, Louisiana, resident and mother of three knew she urgently needed care — Hooter is in the final trimester of a high-risk pregnancy. But the family could no longer afford their Affordable Care Act plan coverage now that a federal tax subsidy was lapsing on Dec. 31, 2025, meaning they would face thousands of dollars in additional out-of-pocket costs.
“We heavily considered that it might just be cheaper to give birth at home,” Hooter, 24, told CBS News. “Just because that’s an insane amount of debt to take on.”
In the end, Hooter decided to forgo insurance altogether.
Kassidy Hooter, seen here with her husband Morgan and their three children, faces sharply higher health costs after an Affordable Care Act tax credit expired in December of 2025.
Courtesy of Kassidy Hooter
A local medical center offered three months of financial aid that will carry her through her due date in February andinto late March. After that, she will have to bear any medical expenses on her own. Her plan now is to get her newborn on Medicaid, a government health plan for low-income Americans, as quickly as possible.
“I’m just hoping for the best,” she told CBS News.
Health insurance as “luxury”
Since its introduction in 2010, the ACA has been instrumental in cutting the share of uninsured Americans from approximately 15% to 8%, according to Nima Sheth, vice president of health justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonprofit advocacy group.
However, the number of people without health insurance is likely to surge if Congress fails to come up with a solution for the 22 million Americans who received an ACA tax credit, experts warn. The number of uninsured will rise by an average of 3.8 million each year from 2026 to 2034 without an extension of the credits, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2024.
Americans in most states have until Jan. 15 to enroll in an ACA marketplace plan, according to healthinsurance.org.
Without the tax credits, premiums for ACA enrollees who previously relied on the subsidies will increase by an average of 114%, estimates KFF, a nonprofit provider of health policy news and research.
“What we’re seeing here is a policy choice — is, in effect, turning insurance into a luxury item and medical debt into the default,” Michelle Sternthal, interim senior director of policy and strategy at health care advocacy group Community Catalyst, told CBS News.
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a three-year extension of the expired ACA tax credits. The legislation faces an uphill climb in the Republican-led Senate, although lawmakers think it could provide a starting point for a compromise that would keep the credits alive in some form.
“It’s weighing extraordinarily heavily on me”
Plantation, Florida, resident Stacy Kanas, whose family also received an ACA tax credit, is now considering going without health insurance after realizing that her monthly premium to cover her and her husband would rise to $2,500 — more than double what she was paying last year to cover both of them plus her 20-year-old daughter.
“It’s weighing extraordinarily heavily on me,” Kanas, 59, told CBS News. “My husband had a major surgery about five years ago, and we don’t want to be uninsured.”
Although in decent health, the small business owner worries about what could happen if someone in her family falls seriously ill. “You’re one catastrophic event away from perhaps having a financial disaster,” she said.
Even people who keep their ACA coverage could end up skipping out on care to avoid out-of-pocket expenses, experts said.
“If you’re underinsured and you have high deductibles, the coverage that you’re getting is designed to dissuade getting care, including preventative care, so you’re going to delay your care until there are emergencies,” Sternthal said.
Robert Myers, a consultant based outside of St. Louis, Missouri, was on a silver ACA plan last year, but switched to a bronze plan after learning his premiums would rise to $400 a month, up from $17 in 2025.
Under his new plan, the 31-year-old does not have a monthly premium. However, Myers could owe much more in out-of-pocket costs due to $80 co-pays and an $8,000 deductible. As a result, he’s planning on scaling back on doctor’s visits, a trend experts say ends up driving more people to the emergency room for care.
“They’ll kind of go to the ER and get what they need fixed with a band aid, and then not get long-term care,” Sheth said.
This can have wider ripple effects because an increase in uncompensated hospital care can drive up costs for other patients, as facilities seek to recoup the costs, according to Sternthal, who supports an extension of the ACA tax credits.
“Every delay locks families into decisions that harm their health and their financial stability, but then also reverberates out into the business community, the local community,” she said.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture updated dietary guidelines for Americans this week.
What You Need To Know
According to a 2025 Gallup Poll alcohol use is at its lowest record ever at 54%
Previous alcohol suggested limiting intake to two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less in a day for women, while the update reads to “consume less alcohol for better overall health”
Dr. Beth Mayer-Davis, a former member of USDA Scientific Advisory Committee for dietary guidelines, said the language could send a confusing message
One of the most notable changes involved removing language defining moderate alcohol consumption.
“Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together in the best-case scenario. I don’t think you should drink alcohol, but it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize,” said Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz.
“Moderation” was defined as limiting intake to two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less in a day for women.
The new guidelines simply reads “consume less alcohol for better overall health.”
UNC Chapel Hill Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Nutrition Medicine Dr. Beth Mayer-Davis served on the USDA’S Scientific Advisory Committee for the dietary guidelines in the past.
She said the updated language is too vague.
“I think that it was a serious omission to not provide more information about what limiting alcohol intake looks like and why that’s important, especially with regard to risk for common cancers that people care about, like breast cancer and colon cancer. People care about those diseases. People worry about what might be contributing to risk for cancer,” the professor explained.
Mayers-Davis said the World Health Organization has long classified alcohol as a carcinogen, linking it to seven types of cancer.
“People need to have the information so that they can make informed decisions. And alcohol is not less of a worry. It’s more of a worry because the more we learn about alcohol, the more we learn that it is contributing to risk for cancer and other outcomes,” Mayers Davis said.
The latest state Alcohol and Related Harms Data also shows North Carolina experienced more than 5,800 deaths, 66,000 emergency department visits, and a loss of $15 billion due to alcohol use in 2023.
According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human services it was one of the highest on record.
But since then the number of people drinking nationwide has been declining.
According to a recent Gallup poll, young people’s perception of alcohol being bad for health rose to a record high of 66% in 2025.
And they are not the only ones calling it quits.
The same poll showed that the overall number of people reporting to drink fell from 62% in 2023 to its lowest record ever at 54%.
Bars on Spring Garden Street like Bites and Pints have long been a hub for college students, including longtime customer and new general manager Allan Leondro.
“Throughout college I would go over to, you know, different places around, Spring Garden to grab drinks, grab food,” Leandro said.
He and his Operating Manager Ronny Real said they have seen the shift in the alcohol industry in real time.
“I noticed throughout the years the Gen Z, or younger, crowd definitely has decreased. During this time, it’s became more about health awareness. Basically, you know, just trying to balance out your lifestyle,” Real explained.
The managers said they have new promotions and deals to help draw out more people.
In the meantime they believe their customers will continue to drink responsibly no matter the guidelines.
“People have to be have to have a good balance. And I think that’s something that we’re seeing nowadays. Gen Z and younger people are considering that a little bit more drink, drink socially every now and then. Make memories with it. Use that as a space for you to have minimal, meaningful conversations,” Leandro said.
The new guidelines also advise people with a family history of alcoholism to be mindful of alcohol consumption and associated addictive behavior.
It advises people who should completely avoid alcohol include: pregnant women, people recovering from alcohol use disorder, anyone unable to control the amount they drink, people taking medications and people with medical conditions that can interact with alcohol.
California is suing the Trump administration over its “baseless and cruel” decision to freeze $10 billion in federal funding for child care and family assistance allocated to California and four other Democratic-led states, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Thursday.
The lawsuit was filed jointly by the five states targeted by the freeze — California, New York, Minnesota, Illinois and Colorado — over the Trump administration’s allegations of widespread fraud within their welfare systems. California alone is facing a loss of about $5 billion in funding, including $1.4 billion for child-care programs.
The lawsuit alleges that the freeze is based on unfounded claims of fraud and infringes on Congress’ spending power as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This is just the latest example of Trump’s willingness to throw vulnerable children, vulnerable families and seniors under the bus if he thinks it will advance his vendetta against California and Democratic-led states,” Bonta said at a Thursday evening news conference.
The $10-billion funding freeze follows the administration’s decision to freeze $185 million in child-care funds to Minnesota, where federal officials allege that as much as half of the roughly $18 billion paid to 14 state-run programs since 2018 may have been fraudulent. Amid the fallout, Gov. Tim Walz has ordered a third-party audit and announced that he will not seek a third term.
Bonta said that letters sent by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announcing the freeze Tuesday provided no evidence to back up claims of widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in California. The freeze applies to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Social Services Block Grant program and the Child Care and Development Fund.
“This is funding that California parents count on to get the safe and reliable child care they need so that they can go to work and provide for their families,” he said. “It’s funding that helps families on the brink of homelessness keep roofs over their heads.”
Bonta also raised concerns regarding Health and Human Services’ request that California turn over all documents associated with the state’s implementation of the three programs. This requires the state to share personally identifiable information about program participants, a move Bonta called “deeply concerning and also deeply questionable.”
“The administration doesn’t have the authority to override the established, lawful process our states have already gone through to submit plans and receive approval for these funds,” Bonta said. “It doesn’t have the authority to override the U.S. Constitution and trample Congress’ power of the purse.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan and marked the 53rd suit California had filed against the Trump administration since the president’s inauguration last January. It asks the court to block the funding freeze and the administration’s sweeping demands for documents and data.
BOSTON — The Healey administration is pumping an additional $250 million into the state-subsidized health care system to help offset the impact of now expired federal tax credits, which have driven up premiums for many people insured through the federal health care exchange.
On Thursday, Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials said they are moving ahead with plans to increase spending on the ConnectorCare program by $250 million, for a total of $600 million this fiscal year.
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A new approach to supporting the neurodivergent community focuses on helping people thrive on their own terms.
Neurodivergent is used to describe people whose brains process information, learn, and behave differently from other people, while it also encompasses conditions like autism, ADHD and dyslexia, among others.
What You Need To Know
St. Petersburg doctor creates program to help neurodivergent thrive on their own terms
Empowerment-focused support provided by a multidisciplinary and holistic team
“Most of the community has to get pieces of their treatment from a multitude of different places, and you don’t have to go to a multitude of different places,” said Fisher.
A multidisciplinary team made up of psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists specializing in music and art, and occupational therapies and a holistic team provides support both in-person and virtually.
Fisher says the foundation of the program is based on three pillars: validation, acceptance and nurture.
“We’re looking at validating, yes, you might be unique in some way. That’s OK, it’s not broken,” said Fisher. “Accepting that you might be unique in some way. The nurture aspect is actually learning to be happy with and to nurture ourselves instead of pushing ourselves to be different from what we are.”
Diagnosed with autism and ADHD, 8-year-old Goldie Lenerz has been receiving support at NEI for about a year.
Part of Goldie’s support at NEI includes participating in music and art therapy.
“I like that I kind of get to draw whatever I want,” Goldie said while drawing a cartoon character.
“We really treat it on an individual basis where we are seeing the child, the adult, whoever it is, their strengths, their unique gifts, what makes them them, and really enhancing that and really starting to empower them to explore their uniqueness,” said recreation therapist Alli Williams.
“We’ve been working on emotional expression,” said music therapist Abby Hagan.
Goldie’s parents say they are seeing a difference in their daughter.
“They’re trying to help her build skills with her unique brain, so she can navigate the world in her own way,” said Rachel Lenerz, Goldie’s mother.
“To see like a huge turnaround, you know, since treatment started. With her attitude to school or her being able to do homework and get it done in a timely manner and feel confident,” said Goldie’s father, Chris Lenerz.
That kind of turnaround is the mission of the new institute.
“I’ve seen people come out of burnout,” said Fisher. “I’ve seen people be able to work where they weren’t able to work before. I’ve seen a lot of children excel in school where they were getting kicked out or having to be homeschooled.”
An official grand opening for the Neurodivergent Empowerment Institute was held in December.
The Trump administration has unveiled a new food pyramid and dietary guidelines for Americans that call for “prioritizing high-quality protein, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables and whole grains” while avoiding highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates.
“As secretary of Health and Human Services, my message is clear: Eat real food,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a White House briefing announcing the changes alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and other health officials. Kennedy called it “the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history.”
A White House official told CBS News the new guidelines are “science-driven.” In a fact sheet, the administration said the new guidelines would restore “science and common sense” and put “real food back at the center of health.”
Here’s what to know about the new dietary guidelines.
First recommended limits on highly processed foods
For the first time, the recommendations are calling for Americans to avoid eating highly processed foods.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 55% of the U.S. population receives more than half of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods. The previous 2020-2025 dietary guidelines did not mention highly processed or ultra-processed foods.
The new guidelines call for avoiding “highly processed packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat, or other foods that are salty or sweet,” as well as avoiding sweetened beverages including soda, fruit drinks and energy drinks.
Research has shown diets high in ultra-processed food are associated with an increased risk of 32 damaging health outcomes, according to a review published in The BMJ medical journal in 2024.
Limits on sugars, artificial flavors and dyes
The guidelines also say that “no amount of added sugars” are recommended for Americans, especially children.
At most, a meal should contain no more than 10 grams of added sugars, according to the new guidance. The former guidance said children under 2 should not consume added sugars and that Americans should aim to have less than 10% of their daily calories come from added sugars.
People should also limit foods and beverages that include artificial flavors, dyes, low-calorie non-nutritive sweeteners and artificial preservatives, the new guidelines said.
Naturally occurring sugars are not considered added sugars and can be part of a recommended diet under the new guidelines.
Fighting chronic disease and supporting gut health
Dietary guidelines are used as the baseline for federal food programs, including SNAP and school meal programs. The fact sheet for the new guidelines says public adherence to the new guidelines “will dramatically lower chronic disease — and healthcare costs — for Americans.”
The fact sheet said the U.S.’s high level of health-related spending and a life expectancy that is five years less than other developed countries is “predominantly due to chronic conditions tied to food.” It also said that lowering rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease would cut about $600 billion in annual healthcare costs. Previous studies have also shown a possible link between diet and Alzheimer’s.
“The most expensive thing we can do as a country is continue government incentives for food that sickens Americans and drives up healthcare costs,” the fact sheet said.
The new guidelines point out the importance of gut health and the microbiome inside a person’s intestines. The gut microbiome includes trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi whose balance is important for good health. The new guidelines call for the consumption of vegetables, fruits, fermented foods and high-fiber foods to support a diverse gut microbiome.
“Ending the war on healthy fats”
The fact sheet for the new guidance calls for “ending the war on healthy fats” and getting the bulk of dietary fats from whole food sources. That includes meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, nuts, full-fat dairy and avocados, the guidelines say.
People should aim for three servings of dairy a day, in line with the 2020-2025 guidelines. The new guidelines say people should prioritize full-fat options, while the previous guidelines recommended fat-free or low-fat products.
The new guidelines also recommend olive oil, butter or beef tallow for preparing meals. Kennedy has previously criticized seed oils and extolled tallow, at odds with long-standing recommendations.
“We are ending the war on saturated fats,” Kennedy said.
In total, saturated fat consumption should not exceed more than 10% of a person’s daily calories, according to the new guidelines. The 2020-2025 guidelines also had similar recommended limits on saturated fats, though they noted a “healthy dietary pattern” could include vegetable oils.
A focus on protein and “real” foods
The new guidelines recommend “high-quality, nutrient dense protein foods” including eggs, poultry, seafood, red meat, and plant-based proteins like beans, nuts and seeds in every meal.
Under the guidelines, Americans should aim to eat 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day. Proteins should be served with no or limited added sugars, chemical additives, refined carbohydrates or starches, the guidelines say.
“What we’re stressing is that people should be eating protein,” Kennedy said in an interview with CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary noted at the briefing that the new guidelines increase the recommended amount of protein for children.
“Kids need protein,” Makary said. “The old protein guidelines were to prevent starvation and withering away. These new protein guidelines are designed for American kids to thrive.”
Fruits, vegetables and whole grains
The new guidelines also recommend people eat at least three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit per day, in line with the previous 2020-2025 dietary guidance.
People should eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, preferably in their original form. Frozen, dried or canned products with no or very limited added sugars “can also be good options,” according to the fact sheet. People should limit consumption of 100% fruit or vegetable juices.
Americans should also prioritize fiber-rich whole grains and reduce the consumption of highly processed, refined carbs, the guidelines say. People should aim for between two and four servings of whole grains per day.
A new food pyramid
Officials released a new version of the food pyramid, with protein, dairy, healthy fats making up one of the top corners, fruits and vegetables in the other, and whole grains at the bottom.
A new version of the food pyramid was released by the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 7, 2026.
USDA/Department of Health and Human Services
Consume less alcohol
The guidelines recommend that Americans should “consume less alcohol for better overall health.”
People in certain categories are urged to completely avoid alcohol, including pregnant women, people who are recovering from alcohol use disorder or are unable to control the amount they drink, and people taking medications or with medical conditions that can interact with alcohol.
Previous guidelines said that Americans should not drink or drink in moderation. The recommended limits were 2 drinks or less per day for men and 1 drink or less per day for women on days when alcohol is consumed.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the new guidelines are meant to encourage moderation but acknowledge the social benefits that some may experience.
“There is alcohol on these guidelines, but the implication is don’t have it for breakfast,” Oz said.
Reactions to new dietary guidance
The American Medical Association said in a statement that it “applauds” the Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines.
“The guidelines affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health,” Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, the president of the AMA, said in the statement. Kennedy thanked Mukkamala in his briefing.
The AMA said it will launch a collection of educational resources and hold a series of roundtable discussions with doctors and experts to “strengthen nutrition education and clinical competency.” It also pledged to work with Congress to incentivize the consumption of nutrient-dense foods, expand food labeling efforts, define ultra-processed foods and increase investment in nutrition research.
