Travel & Lifestyle: Is Beef Tallow Actually Healthy?

Every few years, a different so-called “cure-all” ingredient gains popularity on social media and beyond, resulting in people using it for cooking, skincare and more.

Beef tallow is the latest ingredient to join the ranks.

Beef tallow is the fat that surrounds a cow’s organs, primarily the kidneys and loins, said Grace A. Derocha, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

It’s “cooked down and separated from the connective tissue and then clarified, and then you end up with something that looks almost like coconut oil and shortening,” said Amanda Beaver, a wellness dietitian at Houston Methodist Wellness Services in Texas. “It has a little bit of a yellowish color, and it’s typically solid at room temperature.”

Beef tallow gained more traction this past fall after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, shared his affinity for the product online. Beef tallow was commonly used at fast-food chains for deep-frying decades ago but has since been replaced with seed oils (like soybean, grapeseed and canola oil), which Kennedy claims is one reason for the country’s obesity epidemic.

Midwest-based chain Steak ’N Shake announced that it’s now frying its fries in beef tallow, and people all over social media are making the swap from seed oils to beef tallow, too.

But is it really better for you than seed oils? And is it safe for everyone to eat? Here’s what dietitians want you to know:

Beef tallow is “made up of about 50% saturated fat, give or take, and then about 50% monounsaturated fat, give or take, and then a really small amount of polyunsaturated fats,” Beaver explained. “Almost all of our oils have some combination of those three.”

One reason that seed oils are falling out of grace is because of their chemical makeup; seed oils tend to have high amounts of polyunsaturated fat, Derocha said.

“Whenever we cook [seed oils], there’s a lot of double bonds in those polyunsaturated fats, and those can oxidize when we heat them and cook them, and that can produce inflammatory compounds that aren’t very good for our health,” said Beaver. Inflammation can lead to arthritis and heart disease, for example.

It’s worth noting that it’s hard to distinguish the potentially inflammatory impact of seed oils because seed oils are often used in highly processed foods, which also aren’t good for our health. So it’s not totally clear if the seed oils are the problem more so than the food seed oil is in.

That said, many people like beef tallow because of its less-inflammatory properties. “Because it is more of a high-smoke-point fat, stable fat, there is decreased likelihood for inflammation in the body, but there is still impact potentially on heart health,” Derocha said.

“If somebody wants to try it for the flavor or for the novelty value, that’s probably fine. Dietitians aren’t around to be the food police,” said Amy Reisenberg, a clinical dietician with Stanford Health Care in California.

But, as a dietitian who focuses on cardiology, Reisenberg is cautious of saturated fats. “I’m all for people experimenting and exploring, but also just being really informed about the health risks of all the saturated fats,” Reisenberg said. As mentioned above, beef tallow is made up of roughly 50% saturated fat.

Reisenberg said her patients typically have a family history of heart disease or elevated cholesterol, and foods that are high in saturated fats can raise cholesterol levels. It also carries increased risk of plaque formation in our arteries.

It may not be all bad news: “From a cardiovascular standpoint, it does have a specific type of saturated fat called stearic acid, which appears not to raise cholesterol in the same way that other saturated fats do,” noted Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Human Nutrition in Ohio.

Zumpano stressed that more research is needed to see exactly how beef tallow impacts the body.

“If you have existing heart disease or you’re having trouble lowering your cholesterol, this is certainly not going to help get you to the goal of lowering your cholesterol if you’re consuming it in large amounts,” Zumpano continued. “I would just use that with more caution.”

Derocha recommends that you know your numbers, which include factors like cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood sugar, before incorporating beef tallow into your diet.

Beef tallow is popular for deep-frying foods like french fries. It’s also sometimes used as cooking oil when roasting foods or pan-frying. While you won’t be using olive oil or avocado oil for deep-frying, Derocha does recommend both for other uses over beef tallow.

“Olive oil and avocado oil are high in those monounsaturated fats, so those omega-3s, which our body does not make, that we need more of to help decrease inflammation,” Derocha said.

“Olive oil has a lower smoke point, so it’s not as good for baking or deep-frying, but avocado oil gives you an alternative because it does have a higher smoke point,” she continued. “And we know that research has shown that both of those oils are higher in the monounsaturated fats and have polyphenols, which are the antioxidants that come in fruits and vegetables that are beneficial for heart health in general. If I’m being biased, they’re probably my favorite.”

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“Beef tallow is a source of your fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K. It’s a source of B12,” Zumpano said. “We know that those fat-soluble vitamins support a healthy immune system, bone health, skin health, cellular function. … So, there are some benefits, as I mentioned, but I don’t know if we need to go fully replace any vegetable oil with beef tallow.”

Beaver noted that while beef tallow does have certain vitamins necessary for good health, you are probably using beef tallow in pretty small quantities as a cooking oil, so “we’re not really going to be getting significant amounts of those nutrients.” Instead of relying on beef tallow for those nutrients, Beaver said, eating whole foods like salmon or sweet potatoes is a better idea.

All in all, beef tallow can be part of your kitchen toolkit but shouldn’t be something you reach for all the time. Plus, beef tallow is often used for deep-frying, which isn’t something that should be done regularly anyway, according to Zumpano.

“If you’re going to try it, do it in moderation. And remember that there’s not a lot of clinical studies that support its use,” Zumpano said. “Just really take a very minimalistic approach if you’re going to consider adding it or using it in replacement to a seed oil, but definitely don’t replace olive oil with it.”