Is beef tallow making a comeback?

Summary

Beef tallow, a fat that both cardiologists and the federal government told Americans to avoid for nearly half a century, has become an unexpected breakout star in the new federal dietary guidelines.The rendered beef fat has been quietly growing in popularity over the past few years among cooks who like how it crisps fries and doughnuts, beauty influencers who smooth it on their skin and others who favor it for high-fat diets or believe it’s healthier than oil pressed from seeds.On Thanksgiving in 2024, it was thrust onto the national stage. A barefoot Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled a turkey from a vat of boiling beef tallow and declared, “This is how we cook the MAHA way,” referring to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement he leads.Four months later, Mr. Kennedy, the nation’s health secretary, showed up at a fast-food chain that pledged to cook its fries only in tallow. This relatively obscure cooking medium quickly became a political symbol for the Trump allies pushing for drastic change to the American food system.Now the federal government has enshrined the fat as healthy. “We are ending the war on saturated fats,” Mr. Kennedy said at a news conference on Wednesday where he introduced new dietary guidelines that will steer national nutrition programs for the next five years.The updated food pyramid he released flips the traditional diagram on its head. It downplays whole grains and moves protein and full-fat dairy to the top, as foods to be eaten most often, along with fruits and vegetables. Beef tallow and butter, which is also high in saturated fat, are name-checked along with olive oil in the guidelines as cooking mediums to prioritize. The guidelines add that “more high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.”A collective shudder rose from the nation’s established nutrition and medical communities, which point to studies that show saturated fats can increase the risk of heart disease. The American H...