Click above to watch my VLOG – What is Ghee and is it the Best Healthy Fat for Anti-Aging and Gut Health. Or, feel free to read the transcript below instead!
Transcript:
Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
Hi Beauties,
Our vlog topic today is on ghee. I want to give you my thoughts and opinion on this popular trending food. Maybe you’ve heard of ghee, maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t, in just a moment, I’m going to cover all the basic facts about ghee.
There are a lot of trending, high-fat diets, and ghee has become a popular food. It’s basically clarified butter. I do not believe that we should eat super low-fat or a non-fat diet. This is because we need fat to maintain healthy tissues in our body.
We need fat for supple, healthy skin, brain health, our nervous system, and many different functions in the body. What we source as our fat choices is extremely important.
What is ghee?
Ghee is something you may have heard about. It’s basically clarified butter. It’s been around for thousands of years and started in India around 2000 BC. Originally, it was used because of the lack of refrigeration. Ghee is actually more shelf stable, so it wasn’t spoiling as easily.
It’s been linked to a lot of sacred spiritual concepts in Hinduism. Ghee is something that I learned about in my studies from Dr. Jay. As you may or may not know the cow is sacred in India, in Hinduism, so there’s a spiritual quality to ghee for sure.
What are the benefits of ghee?
Fat is also important in us absorbing fat soluble vitamins. When we look at ghee, it is maybe a better alternative to butter for cooking because it doesn’t contain any lactose. Whereas regular butter is clarified, so the milk solids are removed.
Another benefit of ghee butter is that it contains vitamins A and E, as well as conjugated linoleic acid, CLA, which has some antiviral properties.
Kimberly Snyder’s Opinion on Using Ghee
However, I do not believe that ghee is something that we necessarily need to consume in our diet. I personally do not consume ghee at all. First of all, I think it smells very cowish and think it’s pretty flavor dominant.
There’s also some research here I want to point out a scientific study linked with increased triglyceride levels in rats. And in 2019, a study found that oxidized cholesterol is linked to increased heart disease. The way that ghee is produced at a high heat, there’s a risk of that it’s cholesterol may also become oxidized.
Some people use ghee on their hair and on their skin. I think that’s actually quite nasty, to be honest and quite frankly, because it may potentially clog your pores. There’s that cow smell. I just think there are better oils we can use on our skin like argan oil, sesame oil, and coconut oil that are better suited to skin health.
Alternatives to Ghee
When it comes to cooking, I am a big advocate for using coconut oil. It is about 65% medium chain triglycerides, which is a fat that’s absorbed by your bloodstream and burned as fuel in our bodies. Coconut oil is very energizing and is a healthy fat that can help us absorb fat soluble vitamins and MCTs, which are not in ghee.
This has been shown to help reduce body fat, body weight, and triglyceride levels, as opposed to ghee, which has been linked to increasing triglyceride levels. Coconut oil also contains lauric acid, which is a component of breast milk and contains antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, as well. It also has linoleic acid and vitamin E, which is similar to Ghee.
Coconut oil also comes from plants, so it doesn’t have the concern of sourcing something and consuming something from an animal product. This is not just from an ethical perspective, but also from a toxicities perspective. We know that animals are higher up on the food chain and concentrate a lot of environmental toxins.
In Closing
There you have it, Beauties. I think that ghee is popular. It’s trending. I do not recommend it personally, nor use it because I don’t think it’s necessary. I think you could easily use coconut oil for the uses that you would use ghee for.
Eating our Solluna Beauty Detox Diet, you’re going to get a wide variety of other fats as well, including avocados, hemp seeds, and omega-3 fats from things like chia seeds. Coconut oil can be part of the diet. Ghee is not something I recommend.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas, as well. Sending you so much love, Beauties. Thank you for tuning in and I will see you next week.
As a vegetarian, I am worried about not getting the vitamins dentist Weston Price was talking about, if I wouldn’t use dairy/egg products. Reading Holistic Dental Care by Nadine Artemis and The Mouth-Body Connection by Gerry Curatola, they emphasize the importance of the ADEK vitamins. That is why I use butter from grass-fed cows (hardly any casein/lactose) ghee (no casein/lactose), and eggs of free range chicken for A and D3, and kefir (hardly any lactose and less casein) for vitamin K2. So what are your insights on this? How do we get healthy teeth and gums (you have :))? I would love to see an article or podcast of you in future going in-depth in the way we could care for our oral care, since it is pivotal for our health.
Thanks in advance Kimberly!
Hi Johan! Thank you for your question. On a plant-based diet, you are still able to get vitamins A, D, E & K through foods and supplementation (such as a vitamin D or K2 supplement). Of course, if you choose to consume dairy and egg products, that’s totally a personal choice! I also have several resources about oral health and my oral care routine on my blog, which you might find interesting. Here are a few links:
https://mysolluna.com/blog/2016/02/17/my-ayurvedic-oral-care-routine/
https://mysolluna.com/blog/2016/06/13/oral-health-with-dr-maddahi-is-all-salt-bad-bio-podcast-ep-67/
https://mysolluna.com/blog/2017/10/16/changeyour-smile-and-your-life-with-dr-alex-rubinov-are-you-getting-enough-b12-bio-podcast-ep-207/
Thank you! I looked up your Ayurvedic oral care routine (posted it on Twitter and you gave me a like :))and listened to the 2 podcasts and took notes. The salt water and aloe vera keeps coming up, drinking water, and a good supplement with D3/K2 as you said, sounds like good advice. The Dead Sea salt, cayenne pepper and coconut oil for increasing saliva, the lauric acid in coconut oil to break up the plaque, the thick and thin straw, great info! I am gonna buy the Celtic sea salt for the rinse and the sesame seeds to chew on. So really thanks!