Ghee: A Much “Butter” Choice

If you’ve been trying to eat healthier or have hopped on the keto train to a skinnier waistline and better health, chances are that you’ve heard of ghee. But what makes ghee so special and is it really a better choice than butter? Here’s what you need to know.

What the heck is ghee?

The first time I heard of ghee was when I did the Whole 30, which if you are unfamiliar, is a diet plan designed to help you determine what foods might be triggering unwanted responses in your body. It eliminates dairy, sugar, grains, legumes, and alcohol. However, strangely enough, ghee was allowed on this diet plan despite it technically being a dairy product.

Ghee is special in that it doesn’t contain lactose or certain proteins that other dairy products do. It lacks the same components as regular butter.

Butter is made up of butterfat, milk solids, and water. In order to get ghee, the butter must be melted down. The water will evaporate, and the milk solids will sink the bottom. Once strained of the milk solids, all that will be left is pure butterfat, also known as clarified butter. Ghee is a form of highly-clarified butter. In other words, the milk solids will be left to brown a little before being separated from the butterfat.

Why Choose Ghee?

Highly-clarified butter…so what? The magic of ghee is that it’s filled with healthy fats and flavor, but more importantly, you can enjoy it if you’re lactose intolerant! Because those milk solids are removed, ghee is free from lactose, whey and casein. There are other perks to choosing ghee over butter even if you aren’t lactose intolerant. It’s incredibly useful for cooking over high heat because it has a higher smoke point than butter. It’s smoke point is higher than many oils too including coconut and canola.

Also, ghee has a higher content of butyric acid than butter. This acid has been known for its positive effects on the immune system and it’s for its anti-inflammatory activity. There has even been early evidence that suggests butyric acid might help with irritable bowl syndrome.

In addition, grass-fed ghee is comprised of full spectrum short, medium, and long chain fatty acids, both unsaturated and saturated. It contains vitamins A, D, E, K2 and is a great source of the antioxidant CLA.

Using Ghee

While regular clarified butter won’t have too much of a taste, ghee has a mild, nutty flavor to it. It’s great for sprucing up veggies! The first time I smelled it, I thought of butterscotch. Substituting it for butter in my bulletproof coffee made the drink more like something you’d find at a fancy coffee shop, absolutely delicious. If you are ready to start using ghee, try out these ideas:

• Use it for any type of sautéing
• Toss it with veggies, salt, and pepper
• Drizzle over veggies before roasting for a caramelized texture and taste
• Swap it for any baked goods that call for coconut or palm oil
• Spread it on gluten-free crackers or toast

The options are endless! Ghee is not like a regular dairy product, its much, much better! This is why MariGold chooses to use organic grass-fed ghee in their new Keto Fat Bombs. The ghee is just one of the key ingredients that creates the macros you need to stay in ketosis. Ghee is also used their Macarooned bars to add a delicious, savory flavor packed with healthy fat.