But, to suggest these rates have anything to do with the dietary guidelines is odd.

Less than 10 per cent of Americans follow their guidelines and, in Australia, less than 7 per cent follow ours.

Then there’s this statement from RFK’s press release: “For decades, the Dietary Guidelines favoured corporate interests over common sense, science-driven advice to improve the health of Americans. That ends today.”

Except it doesn’t really end today. They have just swapped the influence of the processed foods industry for the influence of the meat and dairy industries.

Two-thirds of the reviewers had financial or other ties to the beef, dairy or pork industries. Surprise, surprise, the New Pyramid (as they’ve called it) prioritises meat, dairy and “healthy” fats such as beef tallow and butter.

And in “a win for big alcohol”, the guidelines remove the limits on drinking alcohol and the warning that it increases the risk of cancer.

But credit where credit is due.

Encouraging whole foods is always positive, as is the advice to avoid “highly processed packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat, or other foods that are salty or sweet” and “avoid sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soda, fruit drinks, and energy drinks.”

Another positive is the “excellent” and easy to understand information on infants and early childhood, says Stanton.

That includes spelling out the need to cut added sugar – and explaining that doesn’t include the naturally occurring sugar in fruit and milk. It also emphasises the need to introduce allergens such as peanuts, wheat, eggs and shellfish early in children’s diets to reduce the risk of developing allergies.

Suggesting that children up to the age of 10 avoid all added sugar, however, is a bit of a reality stretch.

But the real controversy lies in the New Pyramid.

In a news briefing last week, RFK said the food pyramid (which hasn’t been used in the US since 2011 or in Australia since 2013) “was upside down before, and we just righted it”.

The New Pyramid puts protein, in the form of meat and full-fat dairy, at the top alongside fruit, vegetables and “healthy” fats including butter and beef tallow. At the bottom are fibre-rich whole grains, which are a critical component of a healthy microbiome.

Pollan pointed out in an interview with The San Francisco Standard: “One of the most important developments in nutrition science has been the recognition of the microbiome … and it needs fibre.”

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He added that the New Pyramid was a throwback to the way people ate in the ’50s and ’60s: “We ate a lot of meat and drank a lot of full-fat milk and had a lot of heart disease.”

This is without even considering the vast impacts on the environment of consuming more meat.

As for eating more protein, our body uses protein to repair itself from the micro tears caused during resistance training, but less than 30 per cent of Americans and Australians do the recommended resistance training twice a week. And most Australians and Americans already eat enough protein.

We don’t need more.

“The body can’t store protein, so once actual needs are met, any extra protein is used for energy or stored as fat,” Stanton said.

“The new food pyramid is simply bananas,” Michael Greger, a physician and founder of NutritionFacts.org, told The New York Times. “If nutrition guidelines were medicine, this would be malpractice.”

Malpractice, maybe. At the very least, all RFK’s back-patting over the new guidelines is all sizzle and no steak.

Sarah Berry is a lifestyle and health writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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