The seed oil panic is hurting my cardiac patients

[bucolic_frolic]

https://www.statnews.com/2026/05/22/seed-oils-healthy-fats-tallow-fact-check-cardiac-health/

There’s something else worth knowing about beef tallow that isn’t making it into the wellness content: It contains ruminant trans fats. They’re naturally occurring, present in all beef fat, and according to cardiologists, present in tallow at levels far above what’s considered safe. A full Steak ’n Shake meal — their 7×7 Steakburger and a large order of their celebrated “RFK’d” tallow fries — clocks in at more than 90 grams of saturated fat and nearly 10 grams of trans fats combined. The administration that declared it is “ending the war on saturated fat” has found a cooking fat that delivers more of the exact compounds most associated with cardiovascular mortality. MAHA is road paved with artery-clogging cholesterol, and they’re calling it a health revolution.

There’s a second irony buried in the dietary guidelines themselves. The document urges Americans to “prioritize oils with essential fatty acids.” In nutrition, “essential” has a precise meaning: fatty acids the body cannot synthesize and must obtain from diet — linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, the omega-6 and omega-3s. The oils richest in these essential fatty acids are canola, soybean, sunflower — the very oils the guidelines are steering people away from. Olive oil, butter, and tallow, the fats offered as examples, are not primary sources of essential fatty acids. The guidelines used the right scientific language and then pointed it at the wrong foods.

MAHA styles itself as a populist revolt against corporate food. A movement that threw out 421 pages of scientific recommendations and handed the beef industry its best marketing cycle in decades isn’t a revolt. It’s a rebrand with a body count it’ll take years to measure.

The boring answer — eat more vegetables and legumes, less ultra-processed food, default to olive oil, and yes, the source of fat matters less than the overall dietary pattern — is boring because it has been substantially right for a long time and doesn’t sell anything. Nutrition science will always lose the attention war to something that offers community and tells you who to blame.

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MAHA Make American Heart Attacks