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Comment by bowmessage | Hacker News Reader

Remove whatever politics you might believe from the equation.

Is beef tallow a better option for a cooking fat? I think it is.

It's probably still better to avoid eating french fries regardless of what they're fried in. That would probably lead to better health outcomes regardless.

Unless you're claiming that it tastes better, then sure, beef tallow is pretty tasty.

If you are eating french fries once or twice a year they probably are not bad for you (by enough to matter, and perhaps even good if they give some micro nutriant you are not getting elsewhere). And then by all means eat them friend in beef tallow because that tastes better.

If you are eating french fries twice a week - which seems to be common - they are bad for you. Clean up your diet, eat a larger variety of food.

Avocado, canola, olive oil would all be way better. Beef tallow is really high in saturated fat

The omega6:3 ratio and PUFA content of tallow is favorable.

Canola and other seed oils are made using toxic solvents which are not full removed from the final product.

Go look up the studies of actual outcome data when replacing saturated fats with seed oils. Seed oils do much better

Are you sure?

Sydney heart diet study: Seed oil group had something like 62% higher death rate.

Minnesota coronary experiment: replaced saturated fats with seed oil, cholesterol dropped, but for every 30 mg/dL drop risk of death went up something like 20%.

Several recent meta analyses also indicate no real benefit migrating from saturated fats to seed oils. The only silver lining I have seen is there is some evidence replacing them for people who have had a coronary event already. So, no, I don't think the evidence supports "seed oils do much better" in a general sense.

I don't have time to look into the sydney heart study but I know for the minnesota experiment they, not knowing how bad it was at the time, used margarine with high trans fats as the replacements. Also had a huge 95% drop out rate

Actually on a quick check the sydney study looks to be the exact same

What are all the grifters going to do when AI can reliably tell people if a study is shit?

Look at a meta review. There are a ton of these studies and the overwhelming evidence is that saturated fat is associated with CVD and ACM, PUFAs are not.

> Canola and other seed oils are made using toxic solvents which are not full removed from the final product.

This is simply untrue. Independent bodies all over the world regularly test commercially available oils for toxic solvents. While the solvent Hexane is indeed commonly used in the extraction of refined vegetable oils, it is later removed in the refining process.

For example Stiftung Warentest, an independent consumer advocacy organization tested 23 rapeseed oils available in German supermarkets and they all came out clean [1].

A few years earlier, they tested 25 "specialty oils" and found traces of Hexane in only one of them - but still way below the EU threshold of 1 mg/kg. [2]

Here is a study from Japan that tested a bunch of vegetable oils and came to the conclusion that none of the products contained dangerous levels of Hexane. The maximum amount the researchers found was 42.6 µg/kg (again way below the EU threshold) - but in most samples the amount they found was so low they couldn't even get a reading or they didn't find any Hexane at all.

Besides, for cold-pressed oils, no solvents are used at all.

[1] https://www.test.de/Rapsoel-im-Test-1816151-0/

[2] https://www.test.de/Gourmet-Oele-Fast-jedes-zweite-ist-mange...

[3] https://openaccesspub.org/experimental-and-clinical-toxicolo...

These studies are done to rebuff claims by people whose cohort largely overlaps with those who believe that homeopathic medicine is legit. It's not gonna change squat in their minds.

have you seen the amount of antibiotics, hormones and ammonia used in meat production?

In some meat production, not all meat production, yes.

> Is beef tallow a better option for a cooking fat? I think it is.

Better compared to what? Better than refined canola? Probably. Better than good quality, cold-pressed vegetable oils? Probably not. It's not great for heart health.

How is “I think it is” a more valuable contribution than what the parent said?

Discussing the subject without reactionary political takes is more valuable.

Compared to what and for what purpose?

Olive oil? Peanut oil? No and (mostly) no.

Compared to hydrogenated margarine that was pushed a couple of decades ago before we learned about trans-fats? Of course.

If you use it when cooking for guests, you should disclose that you're using it (especially for non-meat dishes) because it may add extra fat that they're not OK with or consider inappropriate for personal dietary consumption (they're vegetarian, don't eat beef products, whatever).

I have a friend for whom we can't use anything that has sunflower oil in it, which is _really hard to avoid_ in surprising ways (there are spice blends that I use which have a bit of sunflower oil in the mixes).

Politics aside, the omega6:3 ratio and PUFA content of tallow is favorable.

Omega ratio matters most taking total intake of 3 and 6 into account. Since tallow is overwhelmingly saturated fat, it's a moot point what the ratio is. The remedy to low omega-3 is just to consume more dominant EPA/DHA and even ALA sources. Omega 6 won't fly off the charts except through consuming lots of packaged boxed foods and ultraprocessed foods, which overwhelming use vegetable oils like soybean or sunflower (North American fat consumption has skyrocketed over a century mostly owing to these foods). Even if you consume some nuts or seed oil now and then, just consume fish or a supplement.

Arguably the "healthiest" cooking oil is olive oil. If we're looking at just the fatty acids though, replacing SFA with PUFAs is a stronger predictor of lower CVD and all-cause mortality.

Tallow is still higher in long chain SFAs than vegetable saturated fats, which are less healthy than short and medium chain SFAs (but neither is as good as PUFAs).

That sort of overwhelms the omega ratios. As I understand it, both fish oil and (fresh) flax seed oil are still better than tallow.

With RFK's dismantling of good science, politics can't be put aside, as his reasons are essentially "because I said so".

Our own health department has completely removed objectivity from their process. It doesn't matter if they say something right or wrong now, they've completely lost our trust.

I don’t particularly trust any claims from previous administrations’ health departments, let alone this one.

Politics aside, the omega6:3 ratio and PUFA content of tallow is favorable.

You've made this comment three times so far.

That changes my perception from "maybe that's a good point" to "spammers should die painfully."

I’m with you, repeating it is like low effort copy pasta when they should’ve put effort into backing up that claim.

Hey! You forgot to mention about its favorable omega 6 to omega 3 ratio. /s

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