Ghee: 7 Benefits and Why It Is Healthier Than Butter

Ghee, a clarified butter with roots in ancient India, has received increasing attention due to claims of various health benefits.

Not least, thanks to the ketogenic diet, awareness of high-quality fats such as ghee and their effects on health and weight loss is growing.

Nevertheless, only a few people know what ghee butter is and which variety of benefits ghee butter offers.

In this article, you will learn precisely what ghee is, how it is made, how it differs from regular butter, and what health benefits it can offer.

Table of Contents:

• What Is Ghee?
• Is Ghee Actually Healthier than Butter?
  • What Is the Difference Between Ghee and Butter?
  • Clarified Butter vs. Ghee
  • How to Make Ghee?
  • Which Ghee Butter Should I Buy?
  • Shelf Life
  • How to Use Ghee
  • Cooking with Ghee Butter
  • Bulletproof Coffee with Ghee
• Health Benefits of Ghee Butter
  • 1. Conjugated Linoleic Acid
  • 2. Weight Loss Effects
  • 3. Intolerances, Allergies, and Inflammation
  • 4. Smoke Point of Ghee
  • 5. Acrylamide
  • 6. Nutrients
  • 7. Exercise
• The Bottom Line
  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
  • References

What Is Ghee?

Ghee has been used for centuries as a kind of clarified butter. Therefore, it’s a staple in Indian cuisine. Moreover, you can find ghee butter in Southeast Asian and Mediterranean cuisine.

Historically, it has been used in Ayurvedic healing rituals and religious ceremonies. The history of the “elixir of the gods” goes back 4000 years. Not least because of its easy storage, ghee has not lost popularity over this period.

With coconut oil, ghee was once the traditional fat for frying and deep-frying in India. Since ghee fat contains almost no unsaturated fatty acids that are vulnerable to damage by heat, it is suitable for frying.

Ghee is made of butter and 100% pure fat. It is the ultra-clarified butter of Ayurveda.

Is Ghee Actually Healthier than Butter?

Ghee is healthier than butter because it is easier to digest, has more anti-inflammatory properties, and has a higher nutrient density and smoke point.

Therefore, ghee is more suitable for frying, a better choice for people with allergies, and gives a quicker energy boost.

What Is the Difference Between Ghee and Butter?

In contrast to regular butter, ghee is pure butterfat, free of lactose and milk proteins.

Due to the absence of milk protein, ghee can be the better option against allergies. Because of its high level of clarification, ghee has anti-inflammatory properties.

Furthermore, ghee can be heated up higher than butter.

While butter burns at less than 175°C (350°F), the smoke point of ghee is about 250°C (485°F). Moreover, a higher smoke point means the body can absorb nutrients better.

While regular butter or olive oil may be what you are used to, their lower smoke point can oxidize fatty acids. Consequently, they can produce free radicals that cause oxidative stress and damage the body.

However, this danger is much less severe with butter than with refined vegetable oils, such as canola, soy, or sunflower oil, which you should not heat or eat.

Clarified Butter vs. Ghee

Although often referred to as clarified butter, ghee goes one step further and undergoes a longer heating process, resulting in a richer, deeper, nutty taste.

Therefore, ghee is ultra-clarified butter. Hence, ghee differs from clarified butter by having a higher smoke point and providing further health benefits.

How to Make Ghee?

The ghee traditionally starts as grass-fed butter, which is essential for health benefits.

This butter is slowly brought to a boil, evaporating the excess moisture and removing all remaining milk solids by straining.

Clarified butter undergoes a similar heating process, but you stop it earlier, resulting in a lighter taste and lower smoke point.

During this process, you must skim the top layer of whey protein and pour off the butterfat, leaving the casein proteins in the vessel.

Which Ghee Butter Should I Buy?

The best advice is to buy organic, grass-fed ghee butter. There are no studies on the tolerance and safety of ghee derived from cows fed with hormones and antibiotics.

In grass-fed ghee butter, the nutrient density is much higher. You get the best butter when cattle nourish themselves on herbs and grasses in a way appropriate for their species.

Accordingly, organic, grass-fed ghee is a premium variety of grass-fed butter. So, if you can get ghee from grass-fed cows, go for it!

Shelf Life

Because of the intense clarification process, ghee butter it is stable at room temperature and for a very long time. The exact time depends on the product and method of preparation.

Extracting proteins and lactose from the butter allows you to store ghee for about a year.

However, you can keep it in the cupboard or on the counter, and you do not have to worry about it turning rancid.

As a result, ghee butter combines easy storage and long shelf life with a rich nutty taste that also brings healthy fats and nutrients into your diet.

So, ghee gives vegetables a taste boost and helps you stay full longer.

How to Use Ghee

Since the smoke point is much higher in ghee than in butter, ghee is ideal for cooking at high heat and offers an excellent option for the kitchen in addition to coconut oil and lard.

Like coconut oil and organic lard, ghee is excellent for low-carb and keto diets. Moreover, ghee butter can provide unique health benefits.

Cooking with Ghee Butter

While some people think that ghee butter brings a nutty caramel flavor to recipes, others say that ghee has a butterier taste than butter itself.

However, it’s also possible that you may find the taste a bit hard to get used to at first. The best way to find out for yourself is to use ghee for your favorite dishes.

Especially pan-fried dishes are delicious with ghee—for example, stir-fry broccoli, cauliflower, or kale in ghee butter.

Since ghee is traditional in India, it is unsurprising that it makes garlic tastier or emphasizes spices. So you can add more kick to your low-carb or keto recipes using ghee butter.

Bulletproof Coffee with Ghee

Ghee gives coffee, tea, and other beverages a rich, sweet, and caramel-like taste.

Bulletproof Coffee is a keto-friendly coffee drink, often used as an aid when starting intermittent fasting.

Also, many athletes swear by the quick energy boost that Bulletproof Coffee can provide.

Besides ghee or grass-fed butter, the satiating power drink also contains quickly metabolizable MCT or coconut oil.

For this reason, Bulletproof Coffee is a trendy drink for weight loss.

Health Benefits of Ghee Butter

Ghee has enormous health benefits, often called the golden elixir or the better butter. These range from a higher vitamin supply, better digestion, and bone density to firmer skin.

1. Conjugated Linoleic Acid

What makes traditional grass-fed ghee so special is the high concentration of a unique natural fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

For this reason, the CLA in ghee helps to replace body fat with muscle mass. And that even without the help of exercise (McCrorie et al. 2011¹).

In addition to this help in losing weight, conjugated linoleic acid improves a wide range of health conditions and processes, such as (Pariza et al. 2000²; Moon 2014³):

• Blood lipid levels
• Insulin sensitivity
• Bone Mineralization
• Blood Clot
• Arteriosclerosis
• Cancer diseases

After CLA is produced by fermentation in the digestive tract of cows, it is essential to feed the cows appropriately with natural grasses.

For example, dairy products from grass-fed cows contain about six times as much CLA than those from grain-fed cattle (Dhiman et al. 1999⁴).

According to a recent animal study, CLA injected into joints did not just stop cartilage breakdown, but also stimulate cartilage regeneration (Bradbery et al. 2018⁵).

For this reason, scientists also derive that CLA reduces inflammation.

2. Weight Loss Effects

Although ghee butter helps you stay full longer, the effects of ghee on weight loss go far beyond that.

Accordingly, the conjugated linoleic acid in ghee counteracts the development of type 2 diabetes and fat accumulation in general (Daley et al. 2010⁶).

Besides, it is precisely CLA from natural foods such as ghee that helps obese people reduce body fat and significantly reduces the risk of other diseases (Gaullier et al. 2007⁷; Lehnen et al. 2015⁸).

But there is a third way that ghee helps with weight loss. Ghee contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), as found in coconut oil.

For example, studies have shown that MCT oils can reduce body fat and the dangerous visceral fat in and around organs – especially the liver (Mumme et al. 2015⁹).

According to these studies, ghee provides triple the benefits for healthy weight loss. Additionally, it merely makes other healthy foods more palatable.

3. Intolerances, Allergies, and Inflammation

Ghee contains only tiny amounts of lactose and casein after removing the dry milk mass.

Therefore, it does not cause inflammation or trigger allergies like other dairy products.

Consequently, ghee butter is a better choice for lactose intolerant people and intestinal health in general.

4. Smoke Point of Ghee

The smoke point of ghee is higher than the one of butter. A smoke point is the highest temperature that fat can reach before its fatty acids oxidize, producing harmful free radicals and a burnt flavor.

Since many delicious dishes are prepared at high temperatures, for example, to be crispy, ghee is the better choice. Unlike butter (175°C / 350°F) and many vegetable oils, ghee has a much higher smoke point (250°C / 485°F).

Unfortunately, over decades, standard nutritional advice suggested avoiding animal fats and other saturated fats, such as coconut oil, which are suitable for high temperatures, in favor of vegetable oils such as corn, canola, or soy (Ramsden et al. 2013¹⁰).

Since the polyunsaturated fatty acids in these industrial vegetable oils are sensitive to heat and pressure, they are often damaged during production.

Moreover, vegetable oils are mainly produced from genetically modified crops. For example, over 90% of the world’s corn, canola, and soy harvests come from GMO plants.

Also, refined vegetable oils are over-processed and filled into transparent containers, causing even more damage – long before they reach your shopping cart.

Additionally, when added to a food product, these oils are often partially hydrogenated, resulting in unhealthy trans fats.

By replacing vegetable oils with ghee – whether cooking, frying, or baking –, you avoid severe damage that vegetable oils can do to your health (Moran 2001¹¹).

5. Acrylamide

Ghee butter produces significantly less acrylamide than other fats and oils with equally high smoke points.

Acrylamide is a toxic compound in some starchy foods when one prepares them at high temperatures (baking, frying, roasting).

According to a recent study, when heated, ghee releases ten times less acrylamide than soybean oil (Daniali et al. 2016¹²).

6. Nutrients

Although butter already has a good vitamin value, ghee brings more short and medium-chain fatty acids, vitamins A, D, E, K, and CLA, into your diet.

Also, ghee contains more butyrates. These short-chain fatty acids are consumed by gut bacteria, thus contributing to improved gut health.

Because butyrates do not require digestive enzymes or bile activity to work, they can provide a quick and easily digestible energy boost.

Moreover, butyrates can reduce the risk of heart disease (Chambers et al. 2018¹³).

7. Exercise

The golden clarified butter is also an outstanding energy booster for athletes.

Since ghee has a balanced spectrum of short-, medium- and long-chain fatty acids, it provides lasting energy.

Additionally, it promotes muscle gain and athletic performance through testosterone modulation. According to studies, endurance athletes, in particular, can benefit from the energy boost induced by ghee butter.

Furthermore, athletes who have consumed CLA from ghee will experience fatigue later (Terasawa et al. 2017¹⁴).

Because of CLA’s anti-inflammatory properties due to the clarification process, ghee is the healthy fat par excellence.

The Bottom Line

Ghee contains 10% more medium-chain fatty acids than butter, slightly more vitamins, and conjugated linoleic acid. Because ghee has almost no lactose and proteins, it has a higher nutrient density than butter.

Since this procedure increases the smoke point, ghee is ideal for frying – no matter whether you add meat or vegetables to your pan.

Although in my experience, grass-fed butter is not a problem for lactose-intolerant people, ghee is the better choice for intestinal health.

However, this does not have to mean “either-or,” as ghee and grass-fed butter offer significant health benefits. On the one hand, I love the natural butter taste. On the other hand, the nutty flavor of ghee is often a better variety.

If you experiment with your favorite dishes, you will quickly find out which dishes taste better with ghee and which with butter.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

References

#1-7

¹McCrorie TA, Keaveney EM, Wallace JM, Binns N, Livingstone MB. Human health effects of conjugated linoleic acid from milk and supplements. Nutr Res Rev. 2011 Dec;24(2):206-27. doi: 10.1017/S0954422411000114. Review. PubMed PMID: 22296934.

²Pariza MW, Park Y, Cook ME. Mechanisms of action of conjugated linoleic acid: evidence and speculation. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 2000 Jan;223(1):8-13. doi: 10.1046/j.1525-1373.2000.22302.x. Review. PubMed PMID: 10632956.

³Moon HS. Biological effects of conjugated linoleic acid on obesity-related cancers. Chem Biol Interact. 2014 Dec 5;224:189-95. doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2014.11.006. Epub 2014 Nov 18. Review. PubMed PMID: 25446861.

⁴Dhiman TR, Anand GR, Satter LD, Pariza MW. Conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from cows fed different diets. J Dairy Sci. 1999 Oct;82(10):2146-56. doi: 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(99)75458-5. PubMed PMID: 10531600.

⁵Bradbery AN, Coverdale JA, Vernon KL, Leatherwood JL, Arnold CE, Dabareiner RA, Kahn MK, Millican AA, Welsh TH Jr. Evaluation of conjugated linoleic acid supplementation on markers of joint inflammation and cartilage metabolism in young horses challenged with lipopolysaccharide. J Anim Sci. 2018 Mar 6;96(2):579-590. doi: 10.1093/jas/skx076. PubMed PMID: 29385470; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6140902.

⁶Daley CA, Abbott A, Doyle PS, Nader GA, Larson S. A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef. Nutr J. 2010 Mar 10;9:10. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-9-10. Review. PubMed PMID: 20219103; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2846864.

⁷Gaullier JM, Halse J, Høivik HO, Høye K, Syvertsen C, Nurminiemi M, Hassfeld C, Einerhand A, O’Shea M, Gudmundsen O. Six months supplementation with conjugated linoleic acid induces regional-specific fat mass decreases in overweight and obese. Br J Nutr. 2007 Mar;97(3):550-60. doi: 10.1017/S0007114507381324. PubMed PMID: 17313718.

#8-14

⁸Lehnen TE, da Silva MR, Camacho A, Marcadenti A, Lehnen AM. A review on effects of conjugated linoleic fatty acid (CLA) upon body composition and energetic metabolism. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:36. doi: 10.1186/s12970-015-0097-4. eCollection 2015. Review. PubMed PMID: 26388708; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4574006.

⁹Mumme K, Stonehouse W. Effects of medium-chain triglycerides on weight loss and body composition: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2015 Feb;115(2):249-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2014.10.022. Review. PubMed PMID: 25636220.

¹⁰Ramsden CE, Zamora D, Leelarthaepin B, Majchrzak-Hong SF, Faurot KR, Suchindran CM, Ringel A, Davis JM, Hibbeln JR. Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death: evaluation of recovered data from the Sydney Diet Heart Study and updated meta-analysis. BMJ. 2013 Feb 4;346:e8707. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e8707. PubMed PMID: 23386268; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4688426.

¹¹Moran JH, Mon T, Hendrickson TL, Mitchell LA, Grant DF. Defining mechanisms of toxicity for linoleic acid monoepoxides and diols in Sf-21 cells. Chem Res Toxicol. 2001 Apr;14(4):431-7. doi: 10.1021/tx000200o. PubMed PMID: 11304132.

¹²Daniali G, Jinap S, Hajeb P, Sanny M, Tan CP. Acrylamide formation in vegetable oils and animal fats during heat treatment. Food Chem. 2016 Dec 1;212:244-9. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.05.174. Epub 2016 May 28. PubMed PMID: 27374529.

¹³Chambers ES, Preston T, Frost G, Morrison DJ. Role of Gut Microbiota-Generated Short-Chain Fatty Acids in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health. Curr Nutr Rep. 2018 Dec;7(4):198-206. doi: 10.1007/s13668-018-0248-8. Review. PubMed PMID: 30264354; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6244749.

¹⁴Terasawa N, Okamoto K, Nakada K, Masuda K. Effect of Conjugated Linoleic Acid Intake on Endurance Exercise Performance and Anti-fatigue in Student Athletes. J Oleo Sci. 2017 Jul 1;66(7):723-733. doi: 10.5650/jos.ess17053. Epub 2017 Jun 13. PubMed PMID: 28626143.