Americans Don’t Need ‘Dramatically’ More Protein, Despite Officials’ Claims

In promoting the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released last month, federal health officials have claimed that Americans need to eat "dramatically" more protein or that prior guidance created a "generation of kids low in protein."

The website promoting the guidelines proclaims, “We are ending the war on protein.”

But when Staff Writer Kate Yandell looked into these claims — made by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary — she found that Americans mostly exceed the minimal requirement to prevent protein deficiency. In many cases, Americans meet the higher goal set in the new guidelines, which recommend that people get 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

“When you look at most intake surveys, most Americans were getting in the range of intakes that is being recommended, close to 1.2” grams per kilogram of body weight per day, Stuart Phillips, a professor who studies the effects of nutrition and exercise on skeletal muscle at McMaster University in Canada, told Kate.

“The consensus has not been that there is a dramatic shortage of protein in this country,” Wendi Gosliner, who leads research projects at the University of California’s Nutrition Policy Institute, said.

Nutrition experts told Kate that there's some uncertainty about how much protein people should eat for optimal health, and that protein needs may be higher for certain groups. These include older adults, people building muscle through exercise and those actively losing weight.

But they pointed out that for those already eating a relatively high amount of protein, the message to eat more will not have a benefit. Some said it could have risks. 

Consuming too much protein — and particularly animal protein — is associated with increased risk of chronic disease, Dr. Frank B. Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Kate. “It depends on what comes together with the protein.” For example, he said, people who consume more animal protein also consume more saturated fat, cholesterol and “other unhealthy components.”

The new food pyramid accompanying the guidelines prominently features a large steak.

For more, see: “Americans Don’t Need ‘Dramatically’ More Protein, Despite Officials’ Claims.”

Reader: Is it true that ICE agents are financially rewarded for the number of people taken into custody?

FactCheck.org Director Lori Robertson: As Sanjana Juvvadi, one of our undergraduate fellows, wrote this week, we received several questions like this from our readers. Here's what we know.

We asked the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement multiple times about these claims, but we didn't get a response. However, a DHS spokesperson told Snopes, which wrote about these claims of per-arrest payments, that “this policy has never and never was in effect.”

We reached out to immigration experts as well. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, told us it didn't think the claims were accurate. "ICE and its parent agency, DHS, have never indicated that they would set up a bonus payment structure rewarding personnel per arrest.”

Some social media posts cite a Jan. 17 Wall Street Journal article. The article about immigration enforcement in Minneapolis said that “officers here and elsewhere are under pressure from daily arrest quotas that leadership has set at 3,000 a day across the country—the number it would take to reach one million arrests in a year, according to ICE officials familiar with the matter. Though ICE has never come close to meeting that daily goal, officers are rewarded for making arrests, even if the immigrants they take in are later released.”

It’s unclear from the Wall Street Journal article how officers are “rewarded." It doesn't offer any more explanation, and the reporters didn't respond when we asked about the article. But some have interpreted this language to mean a “bonus.” 

We didn't find any other evidence regarding claims about per-arrest bonuses.

Last year, ICE quickly scrapped a proposed program to pay bonuses to speed up deportations -- ending it before it even took effect. DHS has publicly advertised a signing bonus of up to $50,000 for new ICE hires, but that’s a recruitment and retention incentive. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided $858 million for the signing bonuses and said it would be for new agents, officers or attorneys who commit to five years of work or those already employed by ICE who agree to stay in their jobs for two more years.

See our full story for more: "ICE Officers and Bonuses."

Wrapping Up

Y lo que publicamos en español (English versions are accessible in each story):

• Las especulaciones inmediatas de Trump sobre los tiroteos contradicen las normas presidenciales
  El presidente Donald Trump no perdió tiempo en responder a la muerte de dos ciudadanos estadounidenses el mes pasado durante las protestas contra las fuertes medidas migratorias en Minneapolis. A las pocas horas de los incidentes, Trump y otros altos funcionarios de la administración emitieron declaraciones inexactas o sin fundamento; un cambio con respecto a cómo reaccionaron presidentes anteriores en situaciones similares, según nos dijeron los expertos.
   
• El uso de aspirina por parte de Trump y lo que recomiendan los médicos
  En los últimos meses, el presidente Donald Trump ha dicho en repetidas ocasiones que toma una dosis “grande” de aspirina para prevenir enfermedades cardiovasculares. Sus comentarios podrían reforzar una confusión común, por lo que quisimos precisar la evidencia científica actual y las recomendaciones médicas.