Health Benefits of Desi Ghee

About Desi Ghee

Ghee belongs to the class of clarified butter which was originated in the India and currently being used in various countries Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, America, India, Nepal and Pakistan for the various cuisines and rituals purposes.

It is prepared at home in India by boiling the butter, evaporating its water and removing residues. It can be stored for long time at room temperature without refrigerating. It can be easily stored by keeping it in the airtight container to get prevented from oxidation. It is made from milk of cow, buffalo, goat and etc. Ghee prepared by the cow milk is used in India traditionally for some sacred purposes in the Homa, aarti or Puja and other ceremonies like marriage, funerals and etc. The cow grazing more grass, its ghee becomes more yellowish because of more chlorophyll. India is the largest ghee producer and consumer all over the world.

Benefits of Ghee

Ghee is a premium quality food having lots of nutritional health benefits and used for variety of medicinal and eating purposes. It is considered as the essential part of the balanced diet. It contains both Omega 3 and Omega 9 fatty acids including minerals, vitamins A, E, D and K, conjugated linoleic acid and lots of phenolic anti-oxidants. Some of the health benefits of the ghee are mentioned below:

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Skin and Hair

Moisturizes Skin

• It acts as a good moisturizer for the facial skin.

Nourishes Skin

• It nourishes the skin, provides fair complexion and fights with dryness of the skin if massaged on daily basis before bath.

Nourishes Hair Scalp

• It provides nourishment to the hair scalp, moisturizes it and makes the hair silky, black, smooth, strong and lengthy if massaged before the hair wash.

Promotes Wound Healing

• It is very good home remedy for the treatment of burns as it enhances the wound healing process without leaving any mark.

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Heart

Maintains Blood Cholesterol Level

• It lowers the bad blood cholesterol level and enhances the good blood cholesterol level thus helps the heart functioning well without overload.

Prevents Arteries from Calcium Deposition

• Vitamin K2 found in it helps in preventing from calcification of arteries by reducing the calcium deposition to the arteries.

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Weight Loss

Improves Metabolism

• It is the good source of CLA means conjugated linoleic acid which enhances the rate of metabolism thus aids in the weight management strategy and reduces belly fat.

Lowers the Insulin Resistance

• CLA found in it helps in lowering the insulin resistance, manages weight and prevents adults from the onset of diabetes.

Prevents from Unnecessary Fat Deposition

• It has no hydrogenated oils thus does not led the extra and unnecessary fat to deposit.

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Weight Gain

Enhances Body Weight

• Eating desi ghee regularly on daily basis in good amount helps in enhancing body weight as it increases muscle mass and bone density instead of depositing unnecessary fat in the body.

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Digestive System

Improves Absorption of Fat-Soluble Vitamins

• It enhances the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and it contains lower chain fatty acids because of which it gets easily absorbed and metabolized.

Promotes Digestion Process

• It makes digestion process easy and comfort by enhancing the metabolism process.

Stimulates Digestive Acids Secretion

• It aids a lot in the digestion by stimulating the secretion of digestive acids from the stomach.

Treats Digestive Disorders

• It helps in treating ulcers, constipation and other digestive disorders.

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Immune System

Boosts Immune System

• It increases the body resistance for various infections and diseases by boosting the immune system.

Prevents from Infection

• It acts as a strong microbial, anti-cancer and antiviral agent and thus boosts the immunity to get prevented from various problems.

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Bone, Nervous System and Brain

Promotes Bone Growth

• It is the richest source of fat soluble vitamins which are very essential for the healthy growth and development of bone and brain to maintain the normal functioning.

Prevents from Diseases

• It prevents from the disorders like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and neurological disorders.

Promotes Brain Tissue Development

• It helps in utilizing more essential minerals for the development of brain tissue and nervous system and repairing of other body tissues.

Induces Sex Hormones Production

• It strengthens bones, teeth, cartilages and enhances the production of sex hormones.

Prevents from Risk of Chronic Arthritis

• It prevents from the occurrence of chronic arthritis and other bone problems.

Benefits of Desi Ghee for Kids

Promotes Better Health

• It provides better nourishment to the kids for their healthy growth and development of the bones, teeth, muscles, brain and etc.

Boosts Body Energy

• It provides instant energy to them to fulfill their body requirements of the energy as they need more energy than other age group people.

Strengthens Body

• It enhances their eye sight, immunity level, memory power, strong muscle and bones.
• It prevents them from the malnutrition and fat soluble vitamins deficiency syndromes.

Improves Memory Power

• It promotes the learning and increase memory power among kids.

Benefits of Desi Ghee during Pregnancy

Provides Proper Nourishment to Mother and Baby

• It provides better nourishment to the women during pregnancy as she needs more vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and etc for the normal growth and development of her infant.

Prevents Baby from Disorders

• It prevents the infant from birth defects like spinal and bone disorders and malnutrition.

Other Health Benefits of Desi Ghee

• It helps in treating alcoholism, fever, epilepsy, vaginal pain and etc.
• It helps in the proper digestion of the fat-soluble vitamins, maintains eye vision and prevents from bone loss.
• It provides nourishment to the nerves and brain and strengthens the immune system.

Reduces Inflammation

• It reduces inflammations by reducing the leukotriene secretion as well as prostaglandin (both of which cause inflammation) and thus prevents from redness, swelling, itching and etc.

Delays Ageing

• It slows down the early aging process.

Do not have Negative Reaction

• People sensitive to the lactose or casein can enjoy ghee as it has no negative reactions to the health.

Fights with Free Radicals

• Use ghee to boost your daily dose of antioxidants: Ghee contains carotenoids and vitamins A and E. These antioxidants fight free radicals and promote skin cell growth, good vision and immune system health, as well as reduce the risk of certain cancers and heart disease.

Source of Essential Micro-nutrients

• It is the excellent source of micro-nutrients like vitamin K2 and CLA which are not easily found in other foods.

Promotes Metabolism

• CLA found in it acts as a special type of fat and has anti-oxidant property which promotes the healthy metabolism.

Reduces Risk of Brain and Liver Disorders

• It acts as an anticonvulsant and hepatoprotective agent which protects from the disorders of brain and liver.

Delays Early Ageing

• It does not generate free radicals after getting heat like other vegetable oils thus prevents from early ageing.

Regulates Bowel Movements

• It makes the bowel movements easy if taken one or two tsf with hot water in the early morning.
• It has soothing effects on the nerves as well as lubricates the intestine and stimulates the bowel movement if taken 2 tsf of ghee with warm milk during bedtime.

Promotes Skin Health

• It is used as bath oil and applied before bath which makes the skin healthy, glowing and smooth.

Treats Nosebleed

• It helps in checking nosebleed if two drops of it is inserted to the nostril.

Improves Physical and Mental Health

• It enhances the physical and mental strength if consumed on regular basis.

Controls Blood Pressure

• It is lactose-free and has no salt thus beneficial for heart as helps in controlling blood pressure.
• It helps in reducing the cholesterol level from both serum and intestine.

Beneficial for Eye Problems

• It is very beneficial for the glaucoma patients and helps in controlling the eye pressure.

Promotes Vitamins and Minerals Absorption

• It is rich in antioxidants and enhances the vitamins and minerals absorption in the body from other foods.

Slows Down Growth of Cancerous Cells

• It contains a fatty acid called butyric acid which is anti-viral in property and helps in fighting with the growth of cancerous cells.

Benefits of Desi Cow Ghee

Prevents from Cancer

• Cow ghee protects from variety of cancers as it activates the enzymes responsible for detoxifying cancer causing substances means carcinogens.

Regulates Thyroid Hormone Functioning

• Cow ghee is very beneficial in treating the thyroid dysfunction as it is the good source of iodine.

Promotes Quality Sperms Formation

• It increases the quality and quantity of the semen among men.

Nutritional Benefits of Desi Ghee per 100 g

(Source: USDA Nutrient database)

Energy: 884 Cal

Protein: 0.01 g

Fat: 99.9 g

Saturated Fat: 65.7 g

Polyunsaturated fat: 6.3 g

Monounsaturated fat: 27.5 g

Cholesterol: 232 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 0.01 g

Sugars: 0.01 g

Vitamins

Vitamin A: 28 %

Vitamin D: 70 µg

Electrolytes

Potassium: 1 mg

Sodium: 2 mg

How to Select and Store Ghee

If you are buying ghee from the market, take care of the clarity, pureness, good odor and transparency. Avoid buying ghee of bad smell, unclear or changing color. However, ghee can be made at home in some simple and easy steps.

It can be stored in the jar, which is closed tightly. Do not close the jar when ghee is warm otherwise it will get moisturized and spoiled after some days. Keep the jar in the cool and dry place to store it safely for years. Do not store the ghee jar in the refrigerator as it makes fog inside the jar which spoils your ghee.

How to Make Ghee at Home

Ghee can be made of the unsalted butter or milk malai. Collect malai from the milk daily and store it in the fridge. If it becomes around 500 g then use it to make ghee. Some of the steps are mentioned below:

• Pour all the stored malai in the non stick pan and let it heat at normal temperature and stir in between.
• When it starts boiling, let it boil for at least 45 mins without stirring in between.
• All the milk residues start sticking at the bottom and some of them on the top as well.
• After some time it starts smelling very nice just like desi ghee.
• Switch off the heat and let it cool till warm.
• Strain all the ghee using a fine strainer in the storing container or jar and let it cool.
• After complete cooling of the container, close the lid and store it safely to the cool, clean and dry place.
• You can use the residues of the ghee in pan or use it to make laddoo which look very nice and tasty. Separate all the residues with knife, mix it well with required amount of sugar and make small balls. It is very much liked by the kids and elders as well. It is very nutritious and healthy looks like milk cake.

How to Enjoy Ghee

It is a big myth in the society that it is fatty and makes people so fat by adding extra weight. Yes, it adds lots of weight to the body if taken irregularly or more than the required amount of it by the body. If it is taken within limit or only the amount required by the body, it provides lots of health benefits as I have already mentioned above in my article.

It can be enjoyed in many ways in many Indian cuisines. It can be eaten by applying it on the chapatti in the breakfast, making parantha, chawal-dal, chawal fry, variety of laddoos and other ways. It is much better to use ghee instead of refined, oil or butter, as it contains small chain fatty acids which can be easily digested by the stomach and nourishes the health.

However, refined, oil and butter contains long chain and medium chain fatty acids which is heavy to digest and can add belly fat as well as all over body fat. Ghee also has higher smoke point than refined, oil and butter means high heat does not destroy the ghee components whereas high heat destroys the refined, oil or butter components which have harmful health effects on the body.

Disadvantages, Side Effects and Precautions of Desi Ghee

Ghee is very beneficial to the normal person who required it however; it is harmful to the people who are obese, overweight, suffering from heart, kidney, liver or stomach problems. One or two days a week for one time can be taken by anyone however, if you want to add it to your daily diet, it is very necessary to know all the pros and cons of the ghee. Some of the disadvantages, side effects and precautions of the ghee are mentioned below:

• It should be avoided by the people who are obese and overweight as it may add some more weight to the body and overload the functioning of the heart, liver and kidney.
• It should be avoided by the people already suffering from the heart disease as it greatly affects the heart and coronary artery and increases the risk of heart attack.
• It should also be avoided by the people suffering from the liver or digestive disorders like jaundice, indigestion or abdominal discomfort as it may lead to the major problems of the organs.
• It contains trans fatty acids which increases the cholesterol level and caused obesity, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, stroke and heart failure among the heart diseased people.

How Much Ghee to Eat per Day

Healthy people may have desi ghee around 10 to 15 g a day to get necessary nutrients like vitamins A, D, E, and K, minerals, fatty acids, protein and etc. One tablespoon of ghee provides around 135 calories. Try to eat homemade ghee as it becomes free from the chemicals like preservative and vegetable fats. Be sure about your health conditions before adding it to your diet or you must involve in daily physical exercises. Consult your doctor to get accurate dose of the desi ghee taken by you on daily basis according to your health status.