343 // 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines Explained: What’s Evidence-Based and What’s Not

Written By Nicole Hagen

In this Health, Wellth & Wisdom Podcast episode, host and Nutrition Coach Nicole Hagen explains the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

From headlines and social media takes to client confusion and criticism, this episode breaks down what the Dietary Guidelines actually are, what they’re designed to do, and where their strengths and limitations lie. Nicole walks through what has changed, what has stayed the same, and why population-level guidance often feels disconnected from individual outcomes.

Throughout this episode, you’ll learn:

  • What’s new and what’s changed in the 2025–2030 guidelines versus previous versions

  • Where the guidelines are strongly evidence-based (and where they’re not)

  • How to use the guidelines as a reference without letting them override your own data and lived experience

If you’ve been feeling frustrated or confused by the conflicting “hot takes” you’ve seen on social media surrounding the updated Dietary Guidelines and “new and improved” food pyramid, this episode will help you interpret the guidelines critically, remove the pressure to treat them as rules, and decide how (or if) they fit into your own approach to health.

Nicole Hagen

A Nutrition Coach, adoptive mom, dog mom, and mint chocolate chip ice cream lover.

I didn’t always have this business: the Masters degree in Nutrition Science and Public Health, the passion, the clients... in fact, years ago you could have found me endlessly counting calories and trying to find my worth on the scale and at spin class, exhausted in my pursuit of (what I thought was) health and happiness.

In my early twenties, I struggled with crash dieting and disordered eating. Little did I know, those circumstances would be my one-way ticket out of my restrictive relationship with food & fitness. Those experiences led me here: to the life-giving, sustainable, habit-based nutrition philosophy I embody today. Today you can find me living life without a calorie counting app and spending time with my husband, one year old son, and our two crazy golden retriever pups.

I enjoy spending my free time reading, sipping on matcha lattes, and dreaming of ways I can help other women create healthy, confident relationships with food without selling their souls to food rules and calorie counting apps.

Because nothing lights me up more than helping women live full and vibrant lives without food fear, rules, or restriction. I want to be that permission granter in your life that whispers: “you really can do this” while the rest of the world continues to settle for short-term satisfaction.

https://nutritioncoachingwithnicole.com/
Previous

344 // How to Make Behavior Change Easier When You’re Depressed + Motivation is MIA
Next

342 // Is Food Noise A Real Thing?