A growing push for beef tallow

Beef tallow is animal fat that comes from cows and is used not only for cooking but also for industrial purposes like soap and candle-making. Kennedy has promoted beef tallow as an alternative to seed oils, claiming seed oils are one of the causes of high obesity rates in the United States and linked to chronic disease.

Previously, Kennedy has said Americans are being "unknowingly poisoned" by seed oils and that fast food restaurants switched from beef tallow to seed oils in their fryers because "saturated animal fats were thought to be unhealthy."

In an interview on "Fox & Friends" in 2024, Kennedy said, "I don't have anything against fast food; I'm against food that has seed oils."

Several health experts and influencers involved in Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" movement have also raised concerns about seed oils, known as the "hateful eight," referring to corn, canola, cottonseed, grapeseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, and rice bran oils.

Recently, some restaurants and food manufacturers have announced they're transitioning away from seed oils and adding beef tallow to their products. In February, Utz announced it would launch a new line of kettle chips cooked in beef tallow under its Boulder Canyon brand. Last year, the fast-food chain Steak 'n Shake announced it was removing seed oils from all of its fried products and buns, instead cooking its fries, tots, onion rings, and chicken tenders in 100% beef tallow.

According to Mozaffarian, seed oils can help lower glucose levels, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce LDL cholesterol, reduce triglycerides, and increase levels of HDL cholesterol.

"They're consistently linked to low risk of cardiovascular disease, lower diabetes, lower risk of dying from all causes and then, in the randomized control trials that have been done mostly with soybean oil, they also significantly reduced heart attacks," he said. "So, this is about as open and shut a case in nutrition as we have."

Opponents of seed oils argue that small amounts of the chemicals used to press the oils could be present after processing, and that seed oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids, which could cause inflammation.

Christopher Gardner, director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, said that levels of certain types of unsaturated fats, such as the omega-6 fatty acids present in seed oils, are trivial when it comes to evaluating how healthy a food is.

"This is not an important issue. This is not killing anyone. The French fries might be. The fast food might be," Gardner said. "But the oil that you fry the French fries in is not the top concern in the country right now."

Similarly, Lisa Young, a nutritionist and adjunct professor at New York University, said the oil itself isn't necessarily the problem.

"People are blaming the seed oils when that's not what's toxic," she said. "It's the sugar and salt in the junk food that they're using."

Amit Khera, who helps write dietary guidelines at the American Heart Association, has also voiced concerns about consumers changing their behavior, such as "actively consuming beef tallow when they weren't doing it before or replacing healthy oils for unhealthy sources of saturated fat."

"It's one thing if you don't want to do oils in general," Khera said. "It's different if you are actively reaching out for products that are high in saturated fats that we know can increase your cholesterol and adverse effects for cardiovascular effects.