by Innes Hope

Picture, if you will, a happy, sing-along at a party in the 70s. At some stage of the night, I’d be there singing the hooky little song Mellow Yellow with the crowd. “I’m just mad about Saffron. She’s just mad about me … Electrical banana … They call it mellow yellow,” etc. Evidently, the singer-songwriter, Donovan, had written it as “a throwaway sing-along for private parties.”

But I couldn’t throw the song away. Over the years, I’d find myself singing the chorus often, oddly, when I was peeling a ripe, delicious looking banana. We newbie vegetarians were eating lots of bananas in those days.

I’ve always loved the colour yellow, especially saffron, and the whole idea of being mellow, laid back and relaxed. But only now, decades later, did I find out just what kind of ‘laid back’ the song was referring to.

The rumour was that the song was about getting high on smoking dried banana skins. It wasn’t. Donovan revealed all some years later, and the truth was far crazier. He admitted, quite seriously, in an interview, “I was reading a newspaper and on the back there was an ad for a yellow dildo called the mellow yellow. And that’s what the song’s about.”  

OMG

Well, there ya go. A yellow electric vibrator ‘For Ladies’, in the shape of a banana. What a hoot!  Little did I know. And little do I still know. I so easily and innocently misinterpret and romanticise reality – even when it comes to food.

I was in a health shop recently stocking up on B12 tabs, when, on a shelf at the other end of the counter, something ‘mellow yellow-looking’ in a glass jar attracted me. It reminded me of the song, and I wondered if it was one of those beautiful, creamy-gold beeswax candles. They smell so divine. I felt good. I felt relaxed. I was curious. It had a classy look to it. I moved closer to read the label.

My heart sank like a deflated balloon. Innocent, romantic me. It was Beef Tallow! Fatty, waxy, gluggy beef tallow. Big Beef has now triumphantly created a high-profit market for its main byproduct, beef fat.

Co-products and byproducts account for over half a carcass. OK. If people must kill animals, it is good to use every part of the carcass. But in many instances and places in the world, there is no need to kill animals for their meat in the first place.

Tallow is a generic word with a more romantic ring to it than what it actually is: plain old suet, dripping,’ or beef/sheep Fat. It is easy to associate tallow with the mellow light of a candle, and glowing health … which is not surprising because tallow is used to make soap and candles.

A sigh from the grave

Beef fat is old hat. My grandmother used it to make the family’s soap and, sometimes, candles. She lived in tough times. All she had to cook and bake with and to spread on their daily bread was beef fat-come-tallow from the cattle they slaughtered on their farm – which would now be called a ‘regenerative’ farm. She’ll be sighing in her grave, wondering what happened to the well-informed, hard-earned progress built on reliable research that she, and I, her granddaughter, had witnessed over the past century.

It is now known that we don’t need to eat added fats of any kind, including plant-based cooking and salad oils. That all the healthy fats and oils we need are within whole foods themselves.

We know that ‘empty’ high sugar and high fat foods provide so many calories that they crowd out healthier choices, limiting our appetite for the fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains that provide the variety of nutrients we need. We’ve learned that seed oils are not a health food.

But we’ve known for decades that beef tallow isn’t either. It is worse. Yet here it is, re-emerging, beautifully packed in glass bottles as a health food and beauty product.

Beauty? Yes. The golden-look-type tallow evidently comes from the fat that surrounds the animals’ kidneys. It’s the latest thing to rub into your skin.

Misleading claims

The claim that tallow is ‘packed with vitamins A, D, E and K’ is misleading. Its fat-soluble vitamin content per serve is negligible. Another selling point is its high smoke point for frying and deep frying. Frying? Endless studies have shown that fried food is unhealthy stuff.

So why are people falling for all this? Are we going bananas? Or is it because retro products and old traditions, even unhealthy ones, help us feel more secure in such uncertain times?

And why, you might wonder, am I writing about beef tallow for readers who want to know more about plant foods?

Because the trends and influencers luring us away from doing the right thing are so very powerful, manipulative, and successful. I’ve been nearly fooled myself. It doesn’t take much to sow seeds of doubt and to paint a tempting picture for those of us who are wondering if ‘this or that’ food will grant us better health, especially when everyone’s talking so convincingly about it.

The right thing is that humans urgently need to do all we can to slow the rate of climate change. Instead, we’re being side-tracked and dis-empowered. For the sake of our survival and that of myriad species, we need to cut down, big time, on eating animal foods, especially meat. I keep hoping that reminding ourselves will help encourage us in this direction. Healthy eating is not always the easiest choice. I think we need to hold each other up, inspire each other, help each other stay on track.

Beef & dairy expanding

Across the world, big beef and dairy are expanding and spending millions on promotion to ensure they keep expanding. Their carbon and methane footprint keeps growing, along with their excessive use of water and precious land. Plus, they continue to steer us away from thinking about the diseases associated with their products (e.g. cancer, heart disease, strokes, etc).

Over the years, their propaganda has lured many vegetarians back to eating animal foods. The demonisation of seed oils and margarine opened the door for the ‘butter is back’ campaign, and big dairy continues to ensure it stays open. The door opened for coconut oil, also loaded with saturated fat. This served their cause too, as people’s newly found belief in saturated fat has finally opened the door for beef tallow.

How much money do you want to waste? Depends on how trendy you want to be. Or how duped you are. That jar of mellow yellow beef tallow I saw in the shop, billed as a ‘heart healthy alternative to seed oils,’ cost $24 for 450 grams. Online, another brand was a whopping $76.44 for 275 grams. I still love eating bananas. I still sing at parties. I love singing with friends and family. But I don’t know that I’ll be singing Mellow Yellow again. The once innocent song has suddenly lost its magic.