Is Beef Tallow Good for You? A Farmer's Honest Answer
Beef tallow has gone from something your grandmother kept in a coffee can by the stove to a headline ingredient. Restaurants advertise fries cooked in it. Influencers call it a health food. Doctors push back. If you are standing in the kitchen trying to decide whether to cook with it, the noise is not helpful. I'm Brian Bowen, and Jenn and I raise grass-fed and grass-finished cattle in Troutville. We sell beef fat for rendering, so we have a stake in this, and that is exactly why we want to give you a straight answer instead of a sales pitch.
The short answer
Tallow is a traditional cooking fat with real strengths: it is stable at high heat, it tastes great on potatoes and it lets you use the whole animal. It is also high in saturated fat, and the major nutrition and heart health experts still advise limiting saturated fat. It can fit in a healthy diet the same way butter can: as a fat you use on purpose, in reasonable amounts, not as a health supplement.
What is actually in tallow
USDA's FoodData Central lists rendered beef tallow, per 100 grams, at about 902 calories, 49.8 grams of saturated fat, 41.8 grams of monounsaturated fat, 4.0 grams of polyunsaturated fat and 109 milligrams of cholesterol. [USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 171400] So roughly half of it is saturated fat, and a large share of the rest is the same kind of monounsaturated fat that olive oil is known for.
Two things are often missing from the online conversation. First, it is pure fat, so a tablespoon carries a lot of calories. Second, USDA lists no measurable vitamin A in rendered tallow, which contradicts many claims that tallow is a vitamin source. [USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 171400]
What the experts say
Harvard Health (July 2026). Harvard's Heart Letter, reviewed by Dr. Walter Willett, notes that the latest federal dietary guidelines refer to beef tallow and butter as healthy, which is part of why people are confused. Willett agrees with a 2026 review that tallow, at more than 50% saturated fat, has adverse effects on LDL cholesterol compared with liquid plant oils. [Harvard Health Publishing]
Tufts (April 2025). Tufts nutrition scientist Alice Lichtenstein says claims that tallow causes less inflammation than seed oils are not based on human data, and that the most important factor is whether a fat is mostly saturated or unsaturated. [Tufts University School of Medicine]
Cleveland Clinic. Cardiovascular dietitian Michelle Dodd says using tallow here and there for special dishes is fine, but it should not be part of your daily cooking routine, and anything beneficial in it comes in trace amounts. A tablespoon carries about 6.4 grams of saturated fat. [Cleveland Clinic]
The Dietary Guidelines. The federal guidelines remain the reference point most doctors use, and they continue to advise keeping saturated fat in check within an overall healthy pattern. [Dietary Guidelines for Americans]
Where tallow does make sense
- High-heat cooking. Tallow handles searing and frying well, which is why fry shops used it for decades.
- Flavor. Potatoes roasted in tallow taste different, and nobody argues about that.
- Whole-animal eating. On our farm, fat is part of every animal. Rendering it into tallow means nothing goes to waste.
- Replacing processed fats. If tallow is replacing shortening or a deep-fried fast food habit, that is a different conversation than replacing olive oil.
Where we would be careful
If you have high LDL cholesterol or heart disease, talk with your doctor before making tallow your main fat. If you are trying to lose weight, remember that a tablespoon of tallow is close to 115 calories. And if someone tells you tallow is a superfood, ask for the study.
Does grass-fed tallow matter?
Research on grass-fed beef shows a modestly better fat profile than grain-finished beef, including more omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid. [Daley et al., Nutrition Journal] Those differences are real but small in absolute amounts. We raise grass-finished cattle because we think it is the right way to farm and the beef tastes better, not because grass-fed tallow turns a saturated fat into a health food. We would rather you hear that from us.
A simple plan if you want to use tallow
- Use it where it shines. Roast potatoes and root vegetables, sear steaks, or shallow-fry.
- Keep olive oil for everything else. Salads, drizzling and gentle cooking.
- Measure. A tablespoon is plenty for a sheet pan of vegetables.
- Render your own. It costs less and you know exactly what is in it.
What is at stake
Getting this wrong cuts both ways. Treat tallow as a health supplement and you may end up eating a lot more saturated fat than you meant to. Fear it entirely and you miss out on a traditional, flavorful fat that uses the whole animal. The balanced view is the useful one.
What success looks like
A jar of tallow in the fridge that you made from our beef fat, used for Sunday potatoes and a good sear, with olive oil still doing the everyday work. Good food, honest expectations and nothing wasted.
How to get beef fat for rendering
Order online and pick up free at the farm store, 457 Country Club Rd, Troutville, about fifteen minutes north of Roanoke up I-81. We deliver to homes in Roanoke, Salem, Vinton, Troutville, Cloverdale, Daleville, Fincastle and Blue Ridge; put your ZIP code in at checkout and local delivery appears if you are in the area. Deliveries go out on Thursdays: $15, free on orders of $100 or more, with a $50 minimum. Order by Tuesday at 11:59 PM Eastern Time for that Thursday's delivery. We do not ship. If you want to check what is in the freezer before you drive out, call us at (540) 240-9955.
Our Beef Fat comes in packs of about 10 pounds for $9.95. If it is sold out when you read this, call the store and we will tell you when the next batch is ready. In the meantime, our grass-fed steaks render plenty of flavor in the pan on their own.
Frequently asked questions
Is beef tallow healthier than seed oils? Not according to the main heart health research. Harvard and Tufts experts point to trials showing tallow raises LDL cholesterol compared with liquid plant oils. Tallow is a fine occasional cooking fat, but the evidence does not support calling it healthier.
How much saturated fat is in a tablespoon of tallow? USDA lists tallow at about 49.8 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams. A tablespoon is about 12.8 grams, which works out to roughly 6.4 grams of saturated fat.
Is tallow keto or carnivore friendly? Tallow is pure fat with no carbohydrate, so it fits low-carb eating patterns. That is a statement about carbs, not about heart health, so the saturated fat guidance still applies.
Does grass-fed tallow have more nutrients? Grass-fed beef fat has somewhat more omega-3 and CLA than grain-finished beef, but the amounts are small. It is still mostly saturated and monounsaturated fat.
Sources
- USDA FoodData Central, "Fat, beef tallow," SR Legacy FDC ID 171400, https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171400/nutrients
- Harvard Health Publishing, "Beef tallow, seed oils, and full-fat dairy: Are any of them heart-healthy?" (July 1, 2026), https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-nutrition/beef-tallow-seed-oils-and-full-fat-dairy-are-any-of-them-heart-healthy
- Tufts University School of Medicine, "What's the Deal With Beef Tallow?" (Apr 22, 2025), https://medicine.tufts.edu/news-events/news/whats-deal-beef-tallow
- Cleveland Clinic, "Beef Tallow for Cooking", https://health.clevelandclinic.org/beef-tallow-for-cooking
- U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/
- Daley et al., "A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef," Nutrition Journal (2010), https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-9-10
- Pure Grass Farm, Beef Fat product page (puregrassfarm.com, accessed Oct 16, 2026)
- Reddit r/StopEatingSeedOils thread, https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/comments/1db6ncv/