White House releases new dietary guidelines encouraging Americans to limit highly processed foods
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on December 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration announced new federal dietary guidelines on Wednesday, encouraging Americans to limit highly processed foods and to reduce refined carbohydrates.
The guidelines also recommend eating whole foods like fruits and vegetables, incorporating healthy fats, prioritizing protein-rich meals and consuming full-fat dairy with no added sugars.
The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years, come as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made nutrition policy a cornerstone of his Make America Healthy Again agenda.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Pink ribbon flag in support of breast cancer awareness. Brent Lewis/The Denver Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — When it comes to early detection, mammograms remain the only screening test proven to reduce deaths from breast cancer in average-risk women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, only about 75% of eligible U.S. women schedule regular screenings, according to a JAMA study published earlier this month.
Experts believe that misunderstandings about who needs screenings and how often may be part of the reason some women skip mammograms. Here are eight evidence-based facts about breast cancer screening to help set the record straight.
CLAIM: Only women with a family history need screening
Although some women with family history of breast cancer may need earlier or more frequent screenings, all women need regular screenings, doctors said.
“Only about five to 10% of breast cancers are hereditary,” Dr. Aparajita Spencer, a breast surgical oncologist at CHI Memorial in Chattanooga, Tennessee, told ABC News. “Most women with breast cancer do not have a family history.”
CLAIM: A lump is the earliest sign of breast cancer
Although a lump is one of the most common symptoms of breast cancer, it is not the only sign and can be missed when performing self-examination.
“The whole point of the mammogram is to pick up the earliest signs of a breast cancer, which are usually calcifications, not really a mass,” Dr. Preeti Subhedar, breast surgery chief at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey, told ABC News.
“When people come in with a mammographically or image-detected breast cancer, usually it’s fairly small and outcomes are really good,” she added.
CLAIM: Breast size affects your cancer risk
Subhedar said that breast size has nothing to do with risk.
“An average-risk woman has a 12% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer,” she said.
Spencer added that breast size and breast density are often confused, but they’re not the same. A mammogram will read dense breasts as having a higher proportion of glandular and fibrous tissue compared to fatty tissue. Mammary glands typically produce milk while fibrous tissue forms the breast.
This can slightly raise cancer risk and make tumors harder to catch, which is why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule in 2024 requiring providers to inform women if their breast tissue is dense and may require additional follow-up screenings.
CLAIM: Younger women don’t need mammograms
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends annual screening mammograms starting at age 40 for average-risk women.
For women with a strong family history of breast cancer or a known genetic mutation, the American Cancer Society recommends beginning annual screenings with both a mammogram and a breast MRI at age 30, or even earlier if a close relative was diagnosed at a young age.
CLAIM: A negative mammogram means you don’t have breast cancer
Experts said a mammogram does not mean a patient doesn’t have breast cancer but rather that breast cancer wasn’t found on that specific mammogram.
“Mammograms occasionally miss early-stage cancers,” noted Spencer. “There is always a chance that you have something that pops up between screenings. We can’t say 100%, which is why it’s really important to get those yearly screenings.”
CLAIM: Mammograms can cause cancer because of radiation
The benefit of early detection far outweighs the tiny risk from the small amount of radiation, experts said.
The total lifetime risk for radiation-induced breast cancer is still very low at one in 5,000 — compared to about one in every eight women who will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, and roughly one in 43 women who will die from it.
CLAIM: There are safe and effective alternatives to mammograms
“There’s no universal replacement for screening mammograms. That is why that is the gold standard,” Spencer said.
Mammograms are safe — even during pregnancy when needed, she added. Other diagnostic tools including, an MRI and an ultrasound, may be used to provide additional information, but they do not replace the mammogram.
CLAIM: A breast biopsy spreads breast cancer
Medical experts agree that breast biopsies are safe, and the benefit of getting an accurate diagnosis far outweighs the minimal risks.
“It is extremely, extremely important that we get a tissue biopsy when someone comes in with an abnormal mammogram because there’s a lot of biological information that we learn about a tumor from that biopsy,” Spencer said.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women after skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death, according to the American Cancer Society.
In 2024, more than 300,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and about 40,000 died from the disease. Today, more than 3 million breast cancer survivors live in the U.S. — a powerful reminder of the importance of early detection, doctors said.
Allyson Heng, MD, is resident physician in neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Stock image of stethoscope. ATU Images/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A fast-rising form of breast cancer that’s harder to detect on mammograms now makes up more than one in ten cases in the United States, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Invasive lobular carcinoma, the second most common breast cancer type, is increasing about 3% each year, more than triple the rate of other breast cancers, the report, published on Tuesday morning, found.
About 80% of breast cancers are the invasive ductal type, which occurs when cancer cells grow in the milk ducts and invade the surrounding breast tissue.
However, incidence of invasive lobular carcinoma, a cancer than develops in the milk-producing glands of the breast — once rare — has doubled since the 1970s.
Lobular breast cancer hasn’t drawn much attention partly because many people view the five-year survival rate, which is over 90%, as a “cure rate,” but survival often drops after that point, Rebecca Siegel, an author of the report and senior scientific director of surveillance research at the ACS, told ABC News.
“And so, if you look at five-year survival, actually women with lobular breast cancer do better than ductal breast cancer,” she said. “I think that’s probably why it hasn’t gotten a lot of attention.”
However, Siegel added that the long-term outlook is poorer than for other breast cancer subtypes.
“For metastatic disease, women with lobular breast cancer are about half as likely to be alive at 10 years,” she said.
Lobular cancers are rising even faster for women under 50, at more than twice the rate of other breast cancers, the report found.
The cancer is most common in white women, with about 14 cases per 100,000 — 33% to 55% higher than in other racial and ethnic groups — but the fastest rise, at nearly 4.5% a year, has been seen among Asian American and Pacific Islander women.
Diagnosing and treating lobular breast cancer differs from other types in several ways, Dr. Anita Mamtani, a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, told ABC News.
Mamtani explained that instead of forming a lump, “lobular cancers tend to grow in a straight line or sheet-like patterns.”
This growth pattern can make lobular tumors harder to spot on mammograms, Mamtani said. Patients tend to notice subtle changes such as breast fullness, firmness, swelling, skin redness, nipple changes or discharge.
Compared with other types of breast cancer, lobular cancers are also less responsive to some treatments and more likely to occur in both breasts, which may contribute to poorer long-term outcomes, according to the report.
However, lobular breast cancer still has a strong outlook when found early. The five-year survival rate for early-stage disease is about 99%, and overall survival across all stages is roughly 91%. Outcomes are even better for women who keep up with regular breast cancer screening.
“We will use a variety of diagnostic tools for most patients but, for lobular cancer, that arsenal will include not only mammograms but also ultrasound, contrast-enhanced mammograms, and MRIs,” Mamtani said.
With proper screening, lobular cancer can often be caught in its early stages, she added.
Overall, breast cancer deaths have dropped 44% since 1989, but the disease still affects one in eight women and remains a leading cause of cancer death, according to the ACS.
For all types of breast cancer, regular mammograms remain the best way to catch disease early. For women at average risk, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening every two years from ages 40 to 74.
Women who are at higher risk with a family history of breast cancer or other risk factors should discuss timing of screening with their health care provider.
Nearly half of uninsured women skip breast cancer screening because of cost concerns, the report noted. Free or low-cost options are available through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the American Breast Cancer Foundation and local programs.
Experts also recommend maintaining a healthy weight, staying active, limiting alcohol and speaking with your doctor about personal risk factors.
Jamie Parkerson, MD, MS, is a fourth-year psychiatry resident and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
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(NEW YORK) — The first U.S. case of a more severe strain of mpox without any recent travel history has been identified in California.
Health officials said this week that the case was confirmed in a Long Beach resident. The patient required hospitalization and is now isolating and recovering at home.
No other identifying details were provided about the patient, including name, age or sex.
While this is the seventh case of the more severe strain confirmed in the U.S this year, it is the first without known travel, according to local officials.
Officials say the risk to the general public is low and the health department is conducting an investigation, including working to identify the patient’s potential sources of exposure.
“We are taking this very seriously and ensuring our community and health care partners remain vigilant so we can prevent any more cases,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said in a press release. “This underscores the importance of continued surveillance, early response and vaccination.”
There are two types of the virus that cause mpox: clade I and clade II, with clade roughly meaning they are descended from a common ancestor organism. Clade I has historically been associated with severe illness and death, and is endemic to parts of central and western Africa, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Clade II was responsible for a large outbreak that peaked in summer 2022, leading to more than 100,000 cases in 122 countries, including more than 30,000 cases in the U.S.
The less severe strain in the U.S. has continued circulating at low levels and has remained relatively stable.
Parts of Africa have been dealing with sustained person-to-person spread of the more severe strain of mpox. All six previously confirmed cases of the more severe strain in the U.S. have been among people who had recently traveled to areas associated with the outbreak in central and eastern Africa, according to the CDC.
In November 2024, California reported the first domestic case of the more severe strain in a traveler from Africa who experienced mild illness.
People with mpox, which was formerly known as monkeypox, often get a rash that can be located on hands, feet, chest, face, mouth or near the genitals, the CDC said.
Most people with mpox typically recover within two to four weeks without specific treatments.
Currently, the JYNNEOS vaccine, a two-dose vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent smallpox and mpox, is the only vaccine being used in the U.S.
The JYNNEOS vaccine is recommended for adults at high risk for mpox, which includes people who are gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men and have recent or upcoming risk factors like multiple sexual partners, intimate contact with someone who may have mpox, or sex at commercial venues.
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
