What’s so Great About Ghee? part 1
R
amadan Mubarak to all our brothers and sisters. May Allah accept our good deeds and strengthen our community it Thi This week we’re covering a subject that affects every person’s health - fats are in almost everything we eat and like it or not, these fats are accumulative. Left to be eaten unconsciously, their damage becomes notably apparent with a wide spectrum of symptoms caused by free radical causing inflammation. Cultured Ghee is made from yogurt and is the best type of ghee is medicine with many therapeutic benefits in accordance with Humoral Medicine. This type of Ghee seems to be difficult to find and buy here in Canada however there are some brands available in the USA. Uncultured Ghee made from butter is easily found in many stores and it’s a type of clarified butter that is stable at room temperature and has been used by a variety of regions including Middle-East and India and in Humoral medicine for millennia. •Made up of medium-chain fatty acids, ghee is both easy to digest and beneficial for your heart •Compared to butter, ghee has a higher concentration of butyric acid, known for its positive effects on immune function and inflammation and its Humoral Temperament is HotMoist whereas, butter has 1/3 coldmoist properties (that burns easily when heated) and 2/3 hot-moist properties. •Ghee can be easily made at home using a simple method Ghee keeps well on the counter for weeks and in cooler weather, it soli lidifies much like coconut oil. Like b butter, you can spread ghee on bread, crackers or toast, but you can also sautp broccoli with it with far less c chance of it burning.
PracticalP Benefits of Using Ghee
While there are nutritional benefits to use ghee rather than butter (which I’ll get to in a bit), there are several practi tical reasons as well: • Ghee has a higher smoke point. Regular butter begins to brown, smoke and scorch even at low temperatures, which you may have discovered if you’ve ever tried to fry eggs in butter. However, butter may be better for baking because it has a sweeter taste. Ghee, on the other hand, doesn’t burn as quickly because the flammable milk solids have been removed. The smoke point for ghee is 385 degrees F, which makes it better than butter when it comes to browning, searing or sautping. • Ghee has a longer shelf life. The process used for making ghee prevents it from spoiling as quickly, so it will last for around six months in the refrigerator or up to a year in the freezer. Especially if it will be used sooner than six months, ghee stored at room temperature remains spreadable. Just make sure it’s stored in an air-tight container to keep it free of moisture. • Ghee is easier for lactose-sensitive people to digest. For the lactose-sensitive, ghee may be an option since the trace amounts of dairy are in a form dairy-sensitive people can tolerate.
Not All Ghee is the same
It’s important to note that ghee is only as good as the milk used to make the original butter. Grass-fed butter is made from the milk of cows that munched grass as opposed to grains such as genetically engineered (GE) corn. Cows don’t digest grains well. In fact, grains alter their gut bacteria in ways that promote disease, besides the fact they have a detrimental effect on the nutritional composition of the meat and milk. Raw milk from organic, grass-fed cows contains better nutrients, and poses a lower risk of contamination from growth hormones, antibiotics and pathogens common to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where most conventional dairy cows are raised. Milk, cream, butter and other dairy from cows contain the fat along with beta-carotene, which is where the yellow color comes from. Even whole milk is mostly water, with just over 3 percent fat. Ghee contains medium-chain fatty acids, which may be easier to digest and better for your heart compared to other saturated fatty acids. Ghee also has a higher concentration of butyric acid than butter — a type of acid known for its positive effects on immune function and antiinflammatory activity. Some early evidence also suggests that butyric acid is linked to improvement in irritable bowel syndrome. Healthy saturated fats in raw animal products like butter, cheese and whole raw milk are crucial for good health. For decades, saturated fats were treated like the enemy, which is why “low-fat” and “zero-fat” foods started showing up on store shelves everywhere. Unfortunately, most are still there (although many consumers are getting wise). Th The problembl i is th that t scientistsi ti t l lumpedd all fats together and called virtually all of them unhealthy, when it’s the artificial fats, like synthetic Trans Fats or Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated Soybean Oils that are harmful and can cause heart disease and diabetes. In fact, what consumers have been told about saturated fats is the opposite of the truth. In addition, grass-fed dairy introduces more beneficial omega-3s into your system to balance omega-6s compared to grain-fed dairy. See next part 2 in Miracle June 23rd edition