Continuation from earlier article-Myth of cholesterol and heart disease
Most of us love ghee. But we have a problem. We’re told that ghee isn’t healthful. We’re told that ghee causes heart disease. And more importantly, we’re told that ghee makes us fat!
Most of us love ghee. But we have a problem. We’re told that ghee isn’t healthful. We’re told that ghee causes heart disease. And more importantly, we’re told that ghee makes us fat!
The primary reason behind such recommendations is that ghee is rich in saturated fat and saturated fat is supposedly harmful.
But what if saturated fat isn’t harmful but, in fact, healthful? Shocking, I know. But consider the following.
Saturated fat is found abundantly in real foods such as dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese, cream, butter, ghee), coconuts, macadamia nuts and meat.
Ghee, also known as clarified butter or anhydrous milk fat, is prepared by heating butter or cream to just over 100°C, then filtering out the precipitated milk solids. Ghee is known as ghrta[1] (commonly spelled ghrita) in Sanskrit. According to Ayurveda, ghee promotes longevity and protects the body from various diseases.[2] It increases the digestive fire (agni) and improves absorption and assimilation. It nourishes ojas, the subtle essence of all the body's tissues (dhatus). It improves memory and strengthens the brain and nervous system. It lubricates the connective tissues, thereby rendering the body more flexible. With regard to the three doshas (organizing principles that govern the physiology), ghee pacifies Vata and Pitta and is acceptable for Kapha in moderation.[3]
Ghee is heavily utilized in Ayurveda for numerous medical applications, including the treatment of allergy, skin, and respiratory diseases. Many Ayurvedic preparations are made by cooking herbs into ghee because of its anupana (vehicle) for transporting herbs to the deeper tissue layers of the body.[3] ; the lipophilic action of ghee facilitates transportation to a target organ and final delivery inside the cell since the cell membrane also contains lipid.[4]
Ghee is considered sacred and used in religious rituals as well as in the diet in India.[6] In ancient India, ghee was the preferred cooking oil. It was considered pure and was felt to confer purity to foods cooked with it.[1] Ghee and other similar products such as samn (variant of the Arabic term samn) are used in many parts of the world.[7]
Free radicals, as well as the aging process.[10–12] Lipid peroxidation, a free radical-mediated reaction,IS CAUSITIVE FACTOR FOR HEART DISEASE, HEART ATTACK,[13] inflammation,[14] head injury,[15] stroke,[16] carcinogenesis,[17] cardiovascular disease,[18] and aging.[19] According to study in PubMed,the effects of 10% dietary ghee on microsomal lipid peroxidation, as well as serum lipids, reduces risk of cardiovascular and other free radical-induced diseases.Not only it decrease in total cholesterol, LDL, very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), and triglycerides. Liver cholesterol and triglycerides were also decreased, and when ghee was the sole source of fat at a 10% level, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the serum and liver lipids were significantly reduced.
What most of modern Doctors, Pharmacy companies tell lie to people that saturated fat is not good, they are advocating for pharma companies and multimillionaries who introduced vegetable oil in market to make them rich.Infact saturated fat is good for body. Only PUFA and transfat is bad part of fat you do not want like Vegetable oil(vanaspati ghee) etc. If you want to use OIL-Use coconut oil, mustard oil. NEVER EVER USE CORN OIL,SOYABEEN OIL,HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL AND Canola oil,(which is basically purified machine oil).
Ghee contains conjugated linoleic acid which has been shown to decrease serum LDL and atherogenesis. Serum oleic acid levels that increased when the animals were fed ghee-supplemented diets may enable LDL to resist oxidation, which in turn may prevent plaque formation.
'Feeding cow ghee decreased the expression of genes responsible for cell proliferation and raised regulated genes responsible for cell apoptosis', explained Dr Vinod Kansal, who led the research team.
One probable factor in cow ghee is the presence of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is known to possess beneficial properties.
Cow ghee is a rich natural source of CLA, whereas, vegetable oils lack this particular fatty acid.
Most vegetable oils contain high amount of unsaturated fatty acid as well as linoleic acid - which is considered pro-carcinogenic as it forms free radicals known to damage DNA.
Study [27] shows that if 60 ml medicated ghee used for 7-day period, it decreases 8.3% in serum total cholesterol, a 26.6% decrease in serum triglycerides, a 17.8% decrease in serum phospholipids, and a 15.8% decrease in serum cholesterol esters. The patients experienced a significant reduction in scaling, erythema, pruritis, and itching, and a marked improvement in the overall appearance of the skin, which works for Psoriasis due in part to ghee's ability to lower prostaglandin levels and decrease secretion of leukotrienes, which are inflammatory mediators derived from the arachidonic acid cascade.
That is reason Ghee also helps for asthma by significant decrease in the secretion of leukotrienes B4 (LTB4), C4 (LTC4), and D4 (LTD 4) by peritoneal macrophages.
These studies provide evidence that dietary ghee up to 10% does not have any adverse effect on serum lipids and may in fact be protective
Spiteller points out that saturated fatty acids do not undergo lipid peroxidation processes and therefore atherosclerosis is not induced by the consumption of fats containing saturated fatty acids. PUFAs are readily oxidized however and Spiteller implicates cholesterol-PUFA esters in the process of atherogenesis. Due to the PUFA content, the cholesterol esters become oxidized and are then incorporated into LDL and transferred to endothelial cells where they cause damage that induces structural changes, ultimately resulting in the lipid peroxidation processes described above.[19] Ghee contains antioxidants, including vitamin E, vitamin A, and carotenoids,[7] which may be helpful in preventing lipid peroxidation.
There is direct link of increased risk of cardiovascular disease and trans fatty acids, which are unsaturated fatty acids with at least one double bond in the trans configuration. They are formed during the partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils. Compared to the consumption of equal calories from saturated fats, trans fatty acids raise levels of LDL and reduce levels of HDL. In India, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil known as vanaspati was introduced in the 1960s and promoted as “vegetable ghee.” It contains up to 40% trans fatty acids and has gained wide usage in home-based cooking. It is also heavily utilized in the preparation of commercially fried, processed, bakery, ready-to-eat, and street foods.[38] Singh and colleagues studied the association of ghee and vegetable ghee intake with higher risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) in rural and urban populations in northern India. Increased prevalence of CAD was associated with the intake of ghee plus vegetable ghee, but the risk was lower with consumption of ghee alone.[39] .[40]
In the last two to three decades, ghee has been implicated in the increasing prevalence of CAD in Asian Indians living outside India, as well as upper socioeconomic classes living in large towns and cities in India.[25,44,45]
Raheja points out that Asian Indians previously had a low incidence of coronary heart disease and for generations had been using ghee in their cooking, which is low in PUFAs such as linoleic acid and arachidonic acid. The epidemic of coronary heart disease in India began two to three decades ago when traditional fats were replaced by oils rich in linoleic and arachidonic acid,[44,45] as well as trans fatty acids which comprise 40% of vanaspati.[38] Adulteration of commercially prepared ghee with vanaspati is also prevalent in India.[46]
Other factors that may be involved in the increased prevalence of CAD include an increased level of stress by induction of atherogenesis because it results in the release of adrenaline which induces narrowing of the arteries and subsequent lipid peroxidation reactions as discussed previously.[19]
Conclusion
For thousands of years Ayurveda has considered ghee to be the healthiest source of edible fat. In the last several decades, ghee has been implicated in the increasing prevalence of CAD in Asian Indians. Our previous research and data available in the literature do not support a conclusion of harmful effects of the moderate consumption of ghee in the general population. Our present study on Fischer inbred rats indicates that consumption of 10% ghee may increase triglyceride levels, but does not increase lipid peroxidation processes that are linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Many research studies have been published, which report beneficial properties of ghee and herbal mixtures containing ghee. In animal studies, there was a dose-dependent decrease in serum total cholesterol, LDL, VLDL, and triglycerides; decreased liver total cholesterol, triglycerides, and cholesterol esters; and a lower level of nonenzymatic-induced lipid peroxidation in liver homogenate, in Wistar outbred rats. Similar results were obtained with heated (oxidized) ghee. When ghee was used as the sole source of fat at a 10% level, there was a large increase in oleic acid levels and a large decrease in arachidonic acid levels in serum lipids.[24] In rats fed ghee-supplemented diets, there was a significant increase in the biliary excretion of cholesterol with no effect on the HMG CoA reductase activity in liver microsomes.[26] A 10% ghee-supplemented diet decreased arachidonic acid levels in macrophage phospholipids in a dose-dependent manner. Serum thromboxane and prostaglandin levels were significantly decreased and secretion of leukotrienes by activated peritoneal macrophages was significantly decreased.[31]
A study on a rural population in India showed a significantly lower prevalence of coronary heart disease in men who consumed higher amounts of ghee.[40] High doses of medicated ghee decreased serum cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids, and cholesterol esters in psoriasis patients.
These positive research findings support the beneficial effects of ghee outlined in the ancient Ayurvedic texts and the therapeutic use of ghee for thousands of years in the Ayurvedic system of medicine.
Acknowledgments
Ellen Kauffman ,Lancaster Foundation, New Bethesda, MD, USA.
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