在过去的几个月里，餐馆、快餐连锁店和大公司已经表示，他们正在从种子油过渡到在产品中添加牛油。
今年2月，Utz宣布计划推出一系列新的牛油煮的锅贴在其博尔德峡谷品牌下，利用“消费者对不含种子油的零食日益增长的需求。”其他的Utz产品是用混合的植物油烹制的。
去年，连锁牛排餐厅宣布它是消除种子油来自所有油炸产品和小圆面包，烹饪它的薯条，tots，洋葱圈和鸡块100%牛油.
“我们的薯条将采用正宗的方式烹饪，100%牛油，以达到最高的质量和最好的味道，”牛排和奶昔的首席供应链官克里斯·沃德告诉记者餐厅生意在一份声明中。
牛油是一种来自牛的动物脂肪，可用于烹饪，也可用于制造肥皂和蜡烛等工业用途，卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪一直在推广这种动物脂肪，他声称植物油是美国高肥胖率的原因之一，并与慢性疾病有关。
肯尼迪有说美国人正被种子油“不知不觉地毒害”，快餐店的煎锅从牛油换成了种子油，因为“饱和动物脂肪被认为是不健康的”。
“我并不反对快餐;我反对含有植物油的食物，”他在一次“狐狸&朋友的采访2024年末。
然而，医生表示，关于种子油风险的言论可能会误导公众对健康饮食的认识。
在美国心脏协会(American Heart Association)帮助撰写饮食指南的阿米特·赫拉(Amit Khera)博士表示，他担心消费者会改变他们的行为，比如“在以前不吃牛油的时候主动食用牛油，或者用健康的油代替不健康的饱和脂肪。”
他补充道，“如果你不想做一般的油画，那是一回事。“如果你积极接触富含饱和脂肪的产品，情况就不同了，我们知道饱和脂肪会增加你的胆固醇，并对心血管产生不利影响。”
种子油更有益吗?
种子油是从植物种子中提取的多不饱和脂肪，一些最常见的来源是大豆、油菜、向日葵、玉米、葡萄籽、芝麻、棉籽和红花。
心脏病专家和营养专家告诉ABC新闻，摄入多不饱和脂肪是有好处的，这可能会延伸到种子油。
“在所有这些不同类型的研究中...塔夫茨大学食品药物研究所主任、心脏病专家Darius Mozaffarian博士告诉美国广播公司新闻说:“这种好处是非常显著的，非常积极的，非常稳定的。
Mozaffarian说，种子油可以帮助降低葡萄糖水平，提高胰岛素敏感性，降低坏(低密度脂蛋白)胆固醇，降低甘油三酯，提高阳性(高密度脂蛋白)胆固醇水平。
“它们一直与心血管疾病的低风险、低糖尿病、低各种原因的死亡风险有关，然后，在主要用大豆油进行的随机对照试验中，它们也显著减少了心脏病发作，”Mozaffarian说。"所以，这是我们在营养学上最简单明了的案例."
反对种子油的人声称，用于榨油的少量化学物质可能会在加工后出现。Mozaffarian说微量化学物质带来的好处“远远超过任何伤害”。
一个例子是己烷，它是从农作物中分离油的主要溶剂。通常只有微量残留在食物中。
此外，种子油富含ω-6脂肪酸，有人说这种脂肪酸会导致炎症。Mozaffarian认为种子油不是促炎的。
“这些脂肪不会激活炎症，事实上，它们似乎可以缓解炎症，”他说。
肯尼迪认为种子油会导致慢性炎症。但是Mozaffarian认为，将美国人健康状况下降归咎于种子油忽略了美国饮食变化的大背景。
“在过去的30年里，美国人已经变得如此厌恶超加工食品，从精制谷物和淀粉，糖，盐，所有的添加剂，人们已经厌倦了高度加工的食品。这是种子油名声不好的另一个原因——人们认为它们是高度加工的，因为它们的提取方式。
牛油是健康的选择吗?
一些人在社交媒体上表达了对用什么烹饪更健康的担忧——牛油还是植物油。
一些从植物油转向牛油的餐馆也报告说在烹饪中使用了更多的黄油和橄榄油。
牛油确实提供了一些必需的脂溶性维生素，包括A、D、E和k。但是红肉含有饱和脂肪，这“可能是最有害的”，Mozaffarian说。“[牛油]含有一种被称为棕榈酸的饱和脂肪，这种脂肪与健康危害密切相关。”
根据研究，饱和脂肪与高胆固醇和相关疾病有关，如心脏病疾病控制和预防中心.
摄入过量的饱和脂肪也被连接的的研究表明，血液中“有害”低密度脂蛋白胆固醇的水平上升，增加了心脏病和中风的风险这美国心脏协会.
根据，饱和脂肪还会导致体重增加，影响新陈代谢健康，增加患糖尿病、心脏病和其他健康问题的风险国家医学图书馆.
一些研究发现，脂肪的来源和一个人的整体饮食比简单地避免动物脂肪重要得多。A2018年研究哈佛大学公共卫生学院的陈发现，摄入更多的植物性脂肪会降低任何原因导致死亡的风险，而摄入更多的动物性脂肪会增加死亡的风险。
“牛油并不是你为了增进健康而积极食用的东西。这只是一个问题，‘当你准备的时候，你用两个选择中的哪一个?’”赫拉说种子油本身真的对你有害吗?似乎不是那样的。"
RFK Jr. has promoted using beef tallow over seed oils but the animal fat may not be healthier, some cardiologists say
Over the past several months, restaurants, fast food chains and major companies have said they are transitioning away from seed oils and adding beef tallow to their products instead.
In February, Utz announced it was planning to launch a new line ofkettle chips cooked in beef tallowunder its Boulder Canyon brand, tapping "into growing consumer demand for snacks made without seed oils." Other Utz products are cooked in a blend of seed oils.
Last year, the chain Steak 'n Shake announced it wasremovingseed oils from all fried products and buns, cooking its French fries, tots, onion rings and chicken tenders in100% beef tallow.
"Our fries will now be cooked in an authentic way, 100% beef tallow, in order to achieve the highest quality and best taste," Chris Ward, chief supply chain officer for Steak 'n Shake, toldRestaurant Businessin a statement.
Beef tallow, which is animal fat from cows that is used in cooking but also for industrial purposes like soap and candle-making, has been promoted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who claims seed oils are one of the causes of high obesity rates in the U.S. and are linked to chronic disease.
Kennedy hassaidAmericans 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."
"I don't have anything against fast food; I'm against food that has seed oils," he said during a"Fox&Friends" interviewin late 2024.
Doctors, however, say rhetoric about seed oil risks may be misleading the public about healthy eating.
Dr. Amit Khera, who helps write dietary guidance at the American Heart Association, said he's concerned about consumers changing their behaviors, such as "actively consuming beef tallow when they weren't doing it before or replacing healthy oils for unhealthy sources of saturated fat."
He added, "It's one thing if you don't want to do oils in general. 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."
Are seed oils more beneficial?
Seed oils are polyunsaturated fats extracted from plant seeds with some of the most common sources being soybean, canola, sunflower, corn, grapeseed, sesame, cottonseed and safflower.
Cardiologists and nutrition specialists told ABC News there are benefits in consuming polyunsaturated fats, which may extend to seed oils.
"Across all of these different types of studies ... the benefits are pretty dramatic, pretty positive, pretty consistent," Dr. Darius Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, told ABC News.
Mozaffarian said seed oils can help lower glucose levels, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce bad (LDL) cholesterol, reduce triglycerides and increase levels of positive (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," Mozaffarian said. "So, this is about as open and shut a case in nutrition as we have."
Opponents of seed oils claim that small amounts of the chemicals used to press the oils may be present after processing. Mozaffarian said the benefits "far, far, far outweigh any harms" from the trace amounts of chemicals.
One example is hexane, which is the primary solvent that separates oil from crops. Generally only trace amounts are left over in food.
Additionally, seed oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids, which some have said cause inflammation. Mozaffarian argued seed oils are not pro-inflammatory.
"These fats do not activate inflammation and, in fact, they seem to temper inflammation," he said.
Kennedy has argued that seed oils cause chronic inflammation. But blaming seed oils for the declining health of Americans ignores the broader context of America's dietary shift, according to Mozaffarian.
"Americans have become so sick in the last 30 years from ultra-processed foods, from the refined grains and starches, the sugar, the salt, all the additives that people are very are fed up with highly processed foods. This is another reason why seed oils get a bad rap -- people consider them highly processed because of the way they're extracted," Mozaffarian said.
Is beef tallow a healthy option?
Some have expressed concern on social media about what is healthier to cook with -- beef tallow or seed oils.
Some restaurants that are transitioning from seed oil to beef tallow have also reported using more butter and olive oil in their cooking.
Beef tallow does provide someessential fat-soluble vitamins,including A, D, E, and K. Red meat has saturated fat though, which is "probably the most harmful," Mozaffarian said. "[Beef tallow] has a certain type of saturated fat called palmitic acid, which is most strongly linked to harms."
Saturated fat is linked to high cholesterol and and related conditions, such as heart disease, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.
Excessive consumption of saturated fat intake has also beenlinkedto rising levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol in your blood and increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke, according totheAmerican Heart Association.
Saturated fats can also cause weight gain, affect metabolic health and increase the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and other health issues, according tothe National Library of Medicine.
Some studies have found that the source of the fat and one's overall diet matter much more than simply avoiding animal fats. A2018 studyfrom the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that a higher intake of plant-based fats was linked to a lower risk of dying from any cause while a higher intake of animal-based fats was linked to a higher risk of dying.
"Beef tallow isn't something you actively consume to improve your health. It's just a question of, 'When you're preparing, which of two choices do you use?'" Khera said. "Are seed oils actually bad for you by themselves? It does not seem to be that way."
