Robert F. Kennedy Jr. followed up former President Donald Trump's campaign stunt at a McDonald's restaurant by calling on the fast food giant to return to a decade-old method of cooking its french fries with beef fat.
The outspoken Trump supporter claimed on social media that the decision by McDonald's and other chain restaurants to remove beef tallow from their frying oils nearly 35 years ago
"Americans should have every right to eat out at a restaurant without being unknowingly poisoned by heavily subsidized seed oils. It's time to Make Frying Oil Tallow Again," he wrote on X Monday night.
Fast Food is a part of American culture. But that doesn’t mean it has to be unhealthy, and that we can’t make better choices. Did you know that McDonald’s used to use beef tallow to make their fries from 1940 until phasing it out in favor of seed oils in 1990? This switch was… pic.twitter.com/ygijMtsSQt
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 21, 2024
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has been widely criticized for his anti-vaccine activism and last year was labeled a "purveyor of health misinformation" by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.
In 1990, McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's announced that they were switching from beef tallow and vegetable oil blends to 100% vegetable oils to remove cholesterol and reduce the amount of saturated fat in their fries, the Washington Post reported at the time.
Spokespeople for McDonald's and the other companies didn't immediately return requests for comment Tuesday.
Eating saturated fats can increase LDL cholesterol levels in the blood and increase the risk of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association, which recommends that people get less than 6% of their daily total calories from saturated fats.
Seed oils — including canola, cottonseed, safflower and soybean oils — contain high levels of omega-6 fats that are beneficial in small amounts but can lead to chronic inflammation and dangerous health conditions if consumed in large quantities, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Kennedy's post came a day after Trump visited a McDonald's in battleground Pennsylvania where he cooked two batches of fries and gave away drive-thru orders to counter Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign references to her summer job at a California McDonald's when she was a college student.
It also followed videos Kennedy posted on YouTube last week in which he said he was "partnering" with Trump to "clean up" the nation's public health agencies and suggested he would wield power over the Department of Agriculture.
The failed Democratic-turned-independent presidential candidate also urged viewers to visit his rebranded campaign website and donate money or purchase merchandise labeled "Make America Healthy Again."
In August, Trump added Kennedy to his potential transition team and he said during a recent campaign rally in Pennsylvania, "We will make America healthy again. You know who's going to do that? RFK Jr. He's got some good ideas."
Trump's campaign has said that formal discussions of who would serve in a second Trump administration were "premature."
