Jody Serrano
Editor in chiefEditor in Chief at Xataka On. Before joining Webedia, I was a tech reporter at Gizmodo and The Messenger. While I've covered all sorts of things related to technology, I'm specialized in writing about social media, Internet culture, Twitch, and streamers.
Picking out a cooking oil at the grocery can be daunting task. Not only do you have a sea of brands to choose from, but there are also the varieties to contend with. From olive oil to coconut oil, there’s no shortage of options.
However, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services Secretary, doesn’t want you to choose any of the above. He’s recommending another option: beef tallow.
Make Frying Oil Tallow Again. Kennedy has been making waves recently with his crusade against cooking oils, or more specifically, seed oils, include corn, canola, and sunflower oils. The Health and Human Services Secretary lambasts seed oils as being an ingredient in ultra-processed foods, which he says are “poisoning” Americans.
“Seed oil is one of the components of processed foods, and all the science indicates that ultraprocessed foods are the principal culprit in this extraordinary explosion, the epidemic we have of chronic disease,” Kennedy said in a recent interview on Fox News.
This isn’t a new position from Kennedy. During his presidential campaign, he sold t-shirts with the phrase, “Making Frying Oil Tallow Again.” Last Thanksgiving, he deep-fried an entire turkey in beef tallow and posted the video on social media.
Image: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Presidential Campaign
Just what is beef tallow, anyway? Beef tallow is a form of solidified fat that’s made by slowly simmering the fat around the cow’s internal organs. While it may not be mainstream now, beef tallow and other animal fats, like pig lard and butter, were used as traditional cooking ingredients until the early 1900s.
Seed oils, meanwhile, are made from the extracts of seeds from different plants. They’re also commonly known as vegetable oils. The most common seed oils are canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil, and race brain oils.
Many fast-food chains, including McDonald’s, used beef tallow to cook their french fries until the 1990s, when they switched over to vegetable oil.
The argument for beef tallow. Recently, Kennedy and other health influencers on social media have criticized seed oils and claimed they’re the reason behind a variety of conditions, from brain fog and chronic inflammation to obesity. In particular, they focus on the fact that seed oils have more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids. As reported by CNN, a balanced ratio of these oils is best for people’s health.
Other critics also claim that the omega-6 fatty acids in seed oils break down into toxins when used for cooking.
“The switch to alternative cooking methods, like beef tallow, is a step closer to ending the chronic disease epidemic and to Make America Healthy Again,” a federal official told CNN via email.
In comparison, Kennedy and others present beef tallow as a “natural” cooking alternative. Beauty influencers also say beef tallow helps moisturize the skin and give it a glowing appearance. Notably, experts say that beef tallow does indeed retain more nutrients than seed oils.
What the science says. Overall, experts say that the concerns over seed oils are unfounded. In fact, the American Heart Association recommends that the public use seed oils, pointing out that claims that the omega-6 fatty acids in seed oils turn into toxins are not true.
The association says that while the omega-3 fatty acids found in beef tallow are better for your health, omega-6 fatty acids aren’t bad. They’re actually a polyunsaturated fat that the body needs and can’t produce on its own. This fat helps the body regulate bad LDL cholesterol.
Does that mean you shouldn’t use beef tallow to cook? Eric Decker, a professor of food science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says no. Decker told CNN that when people do eat fat, they should eat it from a variety of sources. This way, if there are ““toxicity issues from any of those fats, you decrease your risk of toxicity because you don’t eat a lot of any one thing.”
Images | Susan Wilkinson | Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Presidential Campaign
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