The government wants you to eat more butter. Here's how we got here.

• Full-fat dairy, including butter and milk, is a key part of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Dairy has had a glow-up in recent years after being outshone by plant-based alternatives like oat milk.
• Guidance to eat three servings of full-day dairy daily contradicts established health advice.

Dairy started to roar back into fashion in 2025 — and if the Trump administration's new dietary guidelines are anything to go by, it could be about to reach new heights.

The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines, which provide Americans with a framework for what the government considers a healthy diet, advise people to aim for three servings of full-fat dairy per day. The document, released on Wednesday, name-checks butter, whole milk, and "real" cheese.

In the past two years, dairy has had a glow-up as innovative products, blending health and food trends with dairy staples, hit the market. Think indie brands selling cinnamon bun butter and mint chocolate-chip probiotic ice cream, and Fairlife Ultra-filtered milk becoming more popular than ever. Dairy is typically minimally processed, high in protein, and fermented versions are good for gut health.

But the new guidance contradicts a strong body of evidence linking a diet high in full-fat dairy products and red or processed meat, which are high in saturated fats, to cardiovascular disease.

Recommending full-fat dairy like butter is a big pivot from the 2020 to 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which encouraged us to "move to low-fat or fat-free dairy milk or yogurt or lactose-free dairy or fortified make half soy versions."

This was partly why plant-based diets and alt-milks became hot commodities in the 2010s. Then, some shoppers started to wonder if some of types of products were high enough in protein and more processed than they'd realized.

In 2024, the organic dairy sector grew by 9.8% up from 5.6% the previous year, according to data shared with Business Insider last year by New Hope Network, an organic-focused consultancy firm. This is far higher than the one or two percent a year increase seen since around 2015.

During this time, whole dairy products like raw milk and home-churned butter have become synonymous with the Make America Healthy Again movement helmed by the health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an architect of the new guidelines. It's all part of the conservative vibe shift of the past year.

RFK Jr. said Wednesday these new guidelines are "how we Make America Healthy Again," but public health experts have been quick to point out their contradictions.

Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said that the guidelines recommend limiting cholesterol-raising "bad" or saturated fat, while simultaneously promoting red meat and full-fat dairy products.

Proceed with caution.