Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s latest spin on MAGA, “making oil fat again,” is surprisingly simple for a man who has spent decades downplaying his most controversial views. Last month, Kennedy claimed In an Instagram post, Americans said that restaurants like McDonald’s cook their fries with tallow, or cow fat, instead of seed oil, a generic term that refers to common plant-based oils such as corn, canola, and sunflower. He posted that he is now healthier. Americans are “unknowingly being poisoned” by seed oils, he wrote. In his opinion, we’re all better off cooking with solid fats like tallow, butter, and lard. In a video taken by Kennedy, Posted on Thanksgivinghe fried a whole turkey in beef fat and said, “This is the MAHA way of cooking.”
The cardiologist shuddered at the thought. Conventional medical guidance has long recommended the opposite: less solid fats and more vegetable oils. But in recent years, fringe theories have emerged claiming that seed oils are poisonous and have been mixed into food by nefarious elites such as Big Pharma, the FDA, and food manufacturers to keep Americans unhealthy and dependent. has become famous. Most nutrition scientists dismiss this idea outright as a conspiracy theory. But the movement is investigating some fundamental unanswered questions about nutrition. Are the saturated fats found in animal fats actually dangerous? And are the polyunsaturated fats found in plant-based oils really good for your heart? The fact that these debates remain unresolved does not justify Kennedy’s views on fat, which represents a complete reversal of traditional health beliefs. However, there is still plenty of room for his philosophy to spread.
When McDonald’s started using beef tallow in the 1950srelatively little was known about the relationship between fat and heart health. I used beef tallow because it was cheap and delicious. Previous animal studies have already suggested link Between fat intake and heart disease. Subsequent studies in humans revealed a correlation with saturated fats, which come from animal sources and are usually solid at room temperature. In contrast, polyunsaturated fats, which are plant-based and typically liquid at room temperature, have been found to lower levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, which is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. By the 1970s, numerous studies had demonstrated that the typical American diet, rich in saturated fat and cholesterol, was associated with a higher risk of heart disease. America’s first dietary guidelines, Released in 1980recommends reducing total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. (They also advocated eating more carbohydrates. It backfired) In 1988, a Nebraska-based businessman ordered McDonald’s to stop using tallow andamerican poisoning” (This rhetoric, like Kennedy, was an exaggeration, but at least it was grounded in reality.) In 1990, McDonald’s made the switch. 100 percent vegetable oiland chains like Wendy’s and Burger King.
The shift from saturated fats to polyunsaturated fats in restaurants as well as home kitchens coincided with significant improvements in health in the United States. 1962Americans began consuming more vegetable fats, primarily in the form of margarine. Four years later, deaths from cardiovascular disease began their decades-long decline. Deaths from heart disease from 1940 to 1996 decreased by 56%and continued to decline until 2013, albeit at a lower rate. While this decline may be partially attributable to factors such as improved blood pressure control and lower smoking rates, “increased polyunsaturated fats are likely to be a contributing factor, if not the primary one,” “It’s one of the major factors that dramatically reduces death from disease,” said Walter Willett, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard University. , he told me.
In the research, continued to endure The dangers of saturated fats and, importantly, the benefits of replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats. The latest version of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines limits saturated fat intake to about 20 grams per day. Federal guidance says, “The best way to protect your health is to not only limit saturated fats, but also replace them with healthier unsaturated fats.” That is, no one should replace seed oil with beef tallow.
The arguments in favor of saturated fat can be divided into three main categories. The first questions the validity of studies that have established the harms of saturated fat. Two commonly cited meta-analyses (studies of existing research) 2010 and 2014 They concluded that the evidence for eating less saturated fat and more polyunsaturated fat is inconclusive. Both sparked intense debate and intense scrutiny. 2014 Study Revision effectively invalidated the findings. Neither study described what people ate in place of saturated fat. What’s more, although the authors of these studies question the existing consensus on dietary fats, they do not call for the complete elimination of seed oils from Americans’ diets.
The second category claims harm from seed oils. Some researchers believe that consuming too much omega-6, a polyunsaturated fatty acid commonly found in seed oils, can compete with the healthier omega-3 found in nuts and fish. Some argue. But the body’s regulatory mechanisms prevent such imbalances, Willett says, and viewing individual fatty acids as competitors “overstates what’s actually going on in our metabolic system.” It’s an oversimplification.” Doctor Katherine Shanahan’s books dark caloriesthoroughly explains the arguments against seed oils, arguing that polyunsaturated seed oils promote oxidative stress, which causes all sorts of diseases. When I asked Shanahan, widely known as Dr. Cato, why this wasn’t reflected in the existing scientific literature, she questioned its reliability. “They’re not looking at all the data,” she told me. “They only see what we’re given.” Another popular wellness influencer known as Carnivore Aurelius also advocates an all-meat diet. claimed There is no evidence that seed oil is a “toxic sludge” that inhibits mitochondrial function.
The third category, perhaps the most puzzling, consists of sincere enthusiasm for tallow. To be fair, tallow makes delicious french fries. According to some on the internet, tallow can promote weight loss, boost the immune system, and improve cognitive function. (No substantial evidence exists to support these claims.) Americans don’t just eat beef tallow; smear it on your face Despite the lack of scientific evidence, it is considered a natural alternative to traditional moisturizers. faint cow smell.
At the heart of the anti-seed oil, pro-tallow position is the belief that the medical consensus on dietary fats is being undermined by the economic interests of the seed oil and medical industries, universities, and governments. Suspicion of corporate interests is central to Kennedy’s views on health in general. His campaign to “Make America Healthy Again” is rooted in rooting out corruption in government health agencies. As I’ve written previously, this anti-establishment stance resonates across the wellness field. This is true among seed oil truthers, of course, but also among supporters of raw milk, carnivorism, and alternative nutrition in general. These arguments against dietary choices have been endlessly debunked by mainstream scientists and journalists. But such amendments would have little impact on people who fundamentally do not trust the data on which they are based.
For Kennedy and his supporters, what really matters is not the science, but the defiance of convention. Rejecting the consensus on saturated fat is a political statement. (In addition, Make the frying oil fat again Crop tops, trucker caps and dog bandanas. ) But as far as scientists know, it’s not going to make anyone healthy. Willett says that between fried potatoes in tallow and fried in seed oil, the latter is “definitely tastier.” Still, regardless of your political stance, French fries are never healthy.
