What is Ghee??

Friends ask me what ghee is all the time. As my first official blog post, I’m excited to share about this wonderful food that is essential to any healthy diet. Ghee is also known as clarified butter which originated from India and is referred to as ‘Liquid Gold’. Ghee comes from butter but it’s healthier and many say tastes better. The taste is more buttery, if that makes any sense. It’s the main ingredient for many Ayurvedic medicines. Ghee is one of the best healthy fats to ingest. I was inspired to write this because of my recent trip to Costa Rica a few weeks ago. One of the reasons why I loved my stay in Nosara was that Ghee was readily available and made me fall more in love with ghee.  It’s amazing on vegetables, gluten free bread, blended in coffee, bone broth, soup or smoothies.

Besides it being healthier, why ghee when you can just have butter? Well, butter comes from milk and the reason why I avoid dairy is because I’m allergic to milk. Then how can I consume butter or ghee? Isn’t it considered dairy if it comes from milk? Butter and ghee are ok because there is minimal to no protein. When one has an allergy or is intolerant, it’s from the protein in the food. That protein in milk is called casein.

When I was sick from Rocky Mt Spotted Fever, my naturopath tested me for a few allergies and milk was one of them. It really was no surprise to me when I found out. For a long time when I drank milk or ate cheese, I would bloat and have digestive issues which when I think about it, was every day because I had drank milk daily growing up and often had cheese. I lived life thinking this is just the way I was built until I found out I was allergic to milk. Then it explained everything.

Butter is mainly the milk fat. There’s only 1% of milk solids (protein) in butter so it’s usually tolerable to most people that are intolerant. However, for some people, even that 1% can cause inflammation and digestive problems. And if it does affect you, what’s the next best thing? Ghee! Ghee is stripped of all the proteins and water and is pure fat that heals and aids your body. It has healing benefits both inside and out because it promotes mental and physical purification. The vitamin content is higher in fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K2 which are beneficial for bone loss, heart, brain and immune system. There’s more medium and short chain fatty acids than butter, which means it’s used immediately as energy (keeping you more satiated) and not easily stored as fat. This is a healthy fat that will helps you burn fat. Like coconut oil, it aids in weight loss. Ghee also has a very high smoke point so it’s heathy to cook with like sautéing meats and veggies. Ghee has butyrate that aids digestion and reduces inflammation in the gut. It can reduce tumors, lower cholesterol and body fat. Unlike butter, you can travel with ghee because it doesn’t need to be refrigerated. It has a shelf life for a couple of months!

Home made ghee recipe!

Ghee seems too good to be true. Besides all the health benefits, it tastes so darn good. I basically have ghee daily and add it to many things. When you have ghee, there’s no excuse for not eating your veggies. I like to pour it all over my steamed veggies, sprinkled with some sea salt and it’s simply delicious. The only issue is that buying pre-made grass-fed ghee is costly. Something to note here is that Ghee will not be as beneficial if you don’t use grass-fed butter. Regular butter is less nutritious and comes from cows injected with hormones, antibiotics and fed genetically modified corn. Plus, ghee from grass-fed cows have conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) which aids in weight loss and is an anti-carcinogenic.

Homemade ghee is very easy to make and costs half of what you’d spend at a grocery store. Plus, it tastes much better. Here is a simple recipe for ghee that anyone can make. It only takes 30 minutes of prep and cooking time plus another day to let it sit.

If you haven’t tried ghee yet, go out to your nearest health food store or you can get it on line. Make sure it’s organic grass-fed ghee. (I recommend these 2 but there are other good grass-fed options. ) Or even better, make some homemade ghee. It tastes better home made and it will surely feed your soul.