[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 5 (Thursday, January 8, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S106-S107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Nutritional Guidelines

  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, I am so excited to be here today. I am 
going to talk about one of my favorite--favorite--topics, eating. But 
my mouth is a little dry here, so I want to take a moment and enjoy 
some whole milk.
  You know, I am not the only one that loves eating. America loves 
eating. If I can share a story with my fellow Senators, I always 
thought that I was my grandma's favorite grandchild, and I thought it 
was because I was always the one that was the first to raise my hands 
for seconds. Now, I don't know if I was her favorite, but certainly I 
was one of her favorites.
  The interesting thing was, we couldn't gain weight, though. Despite 
eating seconds and an active lifestyle, nobody gained weight. We were 
all in a good weight area.
  And what did we eat? We ate real food. What did that real food look 
like? Well, we had whole milk for breakfast and for lunch and for 
supper. We had bacon and eggs in the morning. For lunch, we would have 
one of the other proteins: turkey or chicken or ham--but vegetables 
from our garden. That was it. Fresh vegetables, and we had, I think, 
four or five different fruit trees: a pear tree, a peach tree, several 
others. So we would have fresh fruits as well. And then for dinner--we 
called it supper--beef was the main dish always, but still with more 
fresh fruits, maybe some potatoes, some new potatoes. And, yes, we put 
bacon in the new potatoes, but all my grandparents lived a long healthy 
life on those diets as well.
  You know, on a Saturday night--I don't want to forget. Once or twice 
a month, on a Saturday night, we would finish work early, at 7 or 8 
p.m., and we would make homemade ice cream with that cream that we had 
from our own dairy herd.
  And then the other piece that people forget about is we had canned 
food--not in a metal can, but they were in bottles. And what that 
canned food did is it was easier to digest. That fresh taste was locked 
into it.
  And, very simply, real food tastes better. I would hardly recognize 
the taste of some of the fruits and vegetables today. When I was 
growing up on our family farm, the strawberries melted in your mouth. 
The green beans, potatoes all had a very fresh taste. The cantaloupe, 
the watermelon--you would have thought they were adding sugar to it.
  But today's world, unfortunately, we eat from a box. We eat from a 
sack, and that is not real food. We did not have any of these 
ultraprocessed foods in my diet growing up.
  Now, I would like to talk a little bit more about eating, about 
eating real food, and share the new nutritional guidelines released 
yesterday by USDA, HHS, and FDA. Guess what their advice is. Their 
advice is to eat real food, the same food that I was raised on.
  Now, what I am excited about is--look, America was so hungry, so 
hungry for a new food pyramid that we flipped it. We flipped the food 
pyramid, and we made a triangle out of it.
  The big emphasis here is common sense and eating real food. And the 
big winner is going to be American families. It is going to be our 
youth, especially where we are seeing an epidemic.
  And I just want to give a shoutout to President Trump's leadership, 
to Secretary Kennedy, to Secretary Rollins, to FDA Director Dr. Makary, 
Dr. Oz at CMS, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at NIH for providing the real 
science--and all the people that worked so hard to put together these 
nutritional guidelines.
  And for all you naysayers out here, the science is never settled. I 
don't absolutely agree with everything on this pyramid as a physician, 
but these are incredible guidelines and huge steps in the right 
direction. And, again, use a little common sense as you go forward.
  For too long, we overcomplicated nutrition. We buried families in 
confusing charts, changing rules, and special-interest science. And 
while all of this was happening, America got sicker.
  Ninety percent of American dollars--healthcare dollars--are being 
spent on chronic diseases. Seventy percent of Americans have a chronic 
disease. A third of our children are prediabetic or diabetic. We simply 
can't continue to live in that direction.
  We were being told the last 20, 30 years to eat food from factories 
rather than foods from the farm. And these ultraprocessed foods were 
marketed as healthy. Well, people followed the advice in good faith, 
and they got sicker rather than healthier.
  Real food is food you recognize when you see it. Most of the time, it 
is not coming from a box. It is not in a bag. Sometimes, it is in a 
can; sometimes, it is not. You have to be careful. You have to look at 
the can.
  Did they add sugar to it? Did they add salt to it? Then I would 
probably turn away from it.
  It is fresh or frozen. Real food--healthy food--is fresh or frozen.
  I am so glad that the SNAP program is now going to require all the 
grocery stores to double the amount of opportunities of choices that 
you are going to have from this real food selection.
  Real food is protein. It is whole grains, and it is healthy fat. The 
previous pyramid probably required that 50 percent of your calories 
come from carbohydrates. We know that was probably a big mistake. 
Instead, we are going to push more proteins.
  People say: What is the new guideline talking about?
  It is that same diet I was raised on back at our farm. It is the same 
food your grandparents and my parents--my mom--made for us.
  Look, long before we knew what MAHA moms were, my grandmothers were 
MAHA grandmothers, and my mother was a MAHA mom. And my wife was 
cooking MAHA food, as well. They seldom opened a box. If you are 
opening a box to cook, think twice about it.
  Another good option, as we discussed what the new guidelines are, is 
putting water back where it belongs. I would argue water, whole milk--
those are your one-two drink alternatives, and certainly not sugary 
sodas. We all should be drinking more water. If you want to drink 
something besides water, I would suggest whole milk. A big point about 
whole milk to me is it satisfies one's appetite longer. You drink a 
sugary soda, and you are hungry again in 10 minutes. Your sugar is 
bouncing up and down. But milk has protein in it, and it is going to 
satisfy your hunger for longer, not to mention that it is full of 
protein, vitamins, and minerals.
  Let's take a look at this graph, our ``Eat Real Food'' graph, the new 
dietary guidelines. I think it is interesting. The foods down here 
aren't necessarily bad, but you should maybe eat less of them and more 
of these. As you go up the triangle, these are the more healthy foods.
  This is real simple. Down in the bottom of this, it looks like we 
have whole grains. We have oatmeal and whole grain wheat from Kansas to 
make bread. Then I believe this is rice and beans and nuts and 
bananas--more nuts, seafood, butter. Butter is another one of those 
full-fat foods derived from whole milk.
  Then we have a bunch of fruit. We have more seafood and yogurt, 
another milk product, as well.
  And, of course, there are your vegetables grown in the garden. Here 
are some frozen vegetables. Frozen vegetables are cheaper but really 
close to the nutritional value of fresh out of the garden.
  It looks like chicken and turkey. You probably have made those. The 
guidelines here are for a protein source. The cheeses--cheese is a 
great healthy source of food for you. And, of course, there is the 
American hamburger. Americans can't get along without hamburger.
  This is my favorite one. This is absolutely my favorite one. I am 
going to call this a T-bone steak. Most of you know that a T-bone steak 
not only has a bone in it, but on one side, of course, is the KC strip. 
That is a Kansas City strip. Some mistakenly call it a New York strip, 
but this is actually a KC strip, as well. And on this side, there is a 
little bit more of a flavorless type of meat. I like this KC strip 
here.
  So, again, the whole concept is what? It is to eat some of these, but 
more of these and a lot of these--basically, substituting more protein 
for less carbohydrates.
  We spend a lot of time here on the floor talking about healthcare 
reform. But this is the biggest day in healthcare reform we are going 
to see

[[Page S107]]

in America. We are spending $5 trillion a year--my friends across the 
aisle are quick to point out that America is getting sicker and that we 
are spending more and more money on healthcare. Yes, we have all sorts 
of new toys and new treatments available and new drugs out there, but 
if you want me to impact the true cost of healthcare--whether you are 
getting your insurance through your workplace, whether you are on 
ObamaCare, or if you are on Medicaid or Medicare--if you want me to 
save the Federal Government's budget, we need to fix the cost of 
healthcare. Getting back on a truly healthy, ``eating real food'' type 
of diet will impact more than any type of legislation that will ever be 
done up here.
  This nutrition needs to go back to the center of our healthcare. 
Eating healthy food should be at the center of our healthcare reforms, 
not necessarily all these policies that we are arguing about.
  Yes, we can keep throwing money at it. Yes, we can start giving our 
youth the latest GLP-1 drug. And rather than giving them a healthy 
diet, we can start treating them with a drug and give them all some 
type of drug addiction.
  This new nutritional guideline is a win for our youth. I am 
especially excited to see what we are going to do in the SNAP programs 
as well. When we get food at our senior centers, I think there are more 
healthy choices out there.
  We have to think of ways to make it more affordable and things the 
Federal Government can do to help make these nutrients more affordable 
as well. I just can't emphasize enough that the best medicine in the 
world is a healthy diet. This is what making America healthy again 
looks like. It is all going to start with nutrition.
  I can't help but add that Americans probably need to do a little bit 
more walking and get outside a little bit more as well.
  Again, I will finish up and say I am ecstatic that the Trump 
administration has taken this bold, decisive action and is breaking 
with decades of failed thinking. We are finally putting America on a 
realistic path to a healthier living that puts eating real food at the 
center. This is a huge win for the American families and the farmers 
who grow the best medicine in the world.
  Look, eating real food delivers real results. Let's make America 
healthy again.
  I have to do just one more thing. Even ice cream is healthy when 
eaten in small amounts. I want to add my favorite sweet out here and 
say it is OK to have a little ice cream. We need to have a lot more 
protein.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.