Two nearly identical frozen french-fry batches tasted very different after cooking; fries fried in beef tallow were richer and more satisfying than those cooked in avocado oil. The richer fries came from a brand that had already introduced clean-label products aimed at wellness-minded consumers who avoid artificial ingredients and added sugar. Companies are now adopting elements of the MAHA dietary stance, promoting seed-oil-free and beef-tallow items despite most nutrition experts refuting the health claims about tallow. Marketing groceries with MAHA-style claims is unlikely to improve public health and may even harm diets.
Those bronzed fries were exceptionally tasty. My toddler devoured a small mountain of them. They left a meatiness on my tongue, as if I'd eaten them alongside a steak. After my husband unblinded the taste test, I realized that, in a way, I had. The paler fries had been cooked in avocado oil, and their more delicious counterparts in beef tallow.
They weren't, of course, actually produced by the Make America Healthy Again campaign; both bags were from Jesse and Ben's, a frozen-french-fry brand whose tallow fries predate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s tenure as secretary of Health and Human Services. Jesse and Ben's, like many food companies, had already released so-called clean-label products, which cater to long-standing wellness trends such as avoiding artificial ingredients and added sugar-trends that overlap considerably with the MAHA approach to food.
Many product labels and ad campaigns decry ingredients on Kennedy's hit list-besides seed oils, it also includes high-fructose corn syrup and artificial food dyes and flavors-and showcase those he deems healthy. Now companies are capitalizing on some of Kennedy's favored dietary principles-including his assertion, which is refuted by most nutrition experts, that beef tallow is a healthy substitute for seed oils-by further overhauling the branding and recipes of their products.
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