If you follow health and beauty trends on social media, you may have noticed a certain ingredient popping up in cooking and skin care posts: beef tallow. 

Beef tallow is fat rendered from beef trimmings. While some people make it at home, it’s also readily available to buy online or at grocery stores.

Beef tallow is sometimes promoted as a replacement for other cooking oils, especially seed oils, along with claims that seed oils lead to inflammation and contribute to chronic disease. Skin care fans also tout beef tallow’s benefits as a moisturizer and treatment for wrinkles.

But what exactly is beef tallow, and when does it make sense—or not—to use it?

Alice H. Lichtenstein, senior scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) and the Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Farah Moustafa, assistant professor of dermatology at Tufts University School of Medicine and a dermatologist at Tufts Medical Center, recently offered their input to help consumers decide if beef tallow is right for their skin or their stomachs.

Cooking Quandaries

First, claims that beef tallow causes less inflammation in humans than seed oils aren’t based on scientific data, Lichtenstein said, adding that there’s “no data” that she’s aware of to indicate that the amounts of seed oils that a typical person consumes lead to adverse health outcomes such as inflammation. Claims that seed oils cause inflammation likely come from animal studies or cell cultures in which the animals or cells are exposed to extreme amounts of the oil, she said.

The most important factor in determining which cooking oil is best for one’s health is whether that oil contains mostly saturated or unsaturated fatty acids (which include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids). A “wealth of data” has shown that diets high in unsaturated fatty acids and low in saturated fatty acids result in better health outcomes and are associated with lower risks of disorders such as heart disease, Lichtenstein said. Beef tallow and other animal-based oils are high in saturated fatty acids. Plant-based oils, except for coconut and palm oils, are high in unsaturated fatty acids.

“The best advice we can give people is to prepare food with oils that are high in unsaturated fatty acids and low in saturated fatty acids,” Lichtenstein said. “I don’t see any health benefit of using tallow.”

Lichtenstein cautions people to be wary of nutrition information that they gather from social media. She recommends taking note of whether an influencer online can support their claims using data from peer-reviewed publications or information from trusted groups of experts such as the American Heart Association or the American Cancer Society.

Sounding Out Skin Salves

Beef tallow is not the healthier choice as a cooking oil. But what about using it as a moisturizer? 

Beef tallow will absolutely moisturize skin, Moustafa said. It contains fatty acids such as linoleic acid and oleic acid that are found in other common moisturizers. But other claims—like beef tallow will reduce wrinkles and treat acne—have less truth to them.

Vitamin A is a nutrient that has been shown to stimulate the skin’s production of collagen, helping to reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Retinol serums, a popular anti-wrinkle product, contain vitamin A—as does beef tallow. But there’s no evidence that beef tallow has the same effect on wrinkles that retinol does, Moustafa said.

Beef tallow is also highly comedogenic, meaning it clogs the skin’s pores more than other moisturizers. That can create other problems, like acne. Moustafa recommends using over-the-counter retinols rather than beef tallow to reduce wrinkles. And for people looking for a more natural option, she recommends a product called bakuchiol, a plant-based extract that mimics the effects of vitamin A on skin.

The comedogenic properties of beef tallow also make it a poor choice for acne-prone skin, as it will just clog pores more, she said. “There are definitely better treatments,” she said.

Beef tallow on its own has an off-putting smell, Moustafa added, meaning that manufacturers will typically add essential oils to mask the scent. Many people have skin sensitivities to these oils and may want to avoid beef tallow for that reason, she said. 

Like Lichtenstein, Moustafa recommends that people looking for an appropriate skin treatment take into account the credentials of the sources they’re listening to. Some trusted professional societies, such as the American Academy of Dermatology, may have their own social media accounts that provide evidence-based information.

“Does the person seem credible? Are they board-certified dermatologists? Just because something works for one person doesn’t mean there’s clinical evidence to suggest it is a credible treatment for the population at large,” Moustafa said.