Ghee is probably the typical food item you'll find in every Indian kitchen shelf. While sometimes it is considered to be extremely fattening and that it helps increase cholesterol, the reality is actually quite the opposite. Loaded with vitamins like D, E, A and K, ghee is also known to be rich in dietary fats. Not many people know that ghee is also known to be a fantastic body cleanser as it helps your body get rid of toxins from your body.A little bit of ghee with your food can do wonders with your overall health and mind.

Here are a few science-backed benefits of ghee that you should know of

  1. Rich in Nutrient-Absorption Properties: While ghee is rich in various healthy vitamins, it also helps vitamins to be used by our body. The vitamins need to be combined with fat molecules because they are fat soluble and ghee also helps provide your body with these fat molecules in the form of dietary filbers present in it. This helps the nutrient-absorption in our body and makes it easy for our body to use these vitamins.

  2. Food for the Brain: Ghee is impressive for the nerves in the brain and its overall health. Rich in omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids ghee is food for brains. Ghee also helps keep the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s at bay.

  3. Improves Digestion: A little bit of ghee in your food goes a long way to help improve the digestion process in your body. It not only helps your bowels flow smoothly but also helps your body secrete stomach acids that help your stomach digest food properly.

  4. Helps Prevent Cancer: Ghee generates less free radicals when heated since it is high in saturated fats this not only helps keep cancer risk at bay but also helps improve your overall health. Rich in antioxidants, ghee helps protect your body from free radical damage.

  5. Ghee is Rich Butyric Acid: Butyric acid is an anti-carcinogenic fatty acid that can help restrain the growth of mammary tumours. This not only increases the body's ability to fight infection and studies have also proven its healing and soothing properties as well. It is known to have a potential treatment for IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) as well.

  6. Prevents Constipation: Do you stay constipated all the time? Including ghee in your food can helps ease out your bowel movement and in turn help relieve constipation.

  7. Free of Lactose and Casein: If you are allergic to Lactose or have sensitivity towards casein protein, you may avoid milk, but this product of milk is free from lactose and Casein. You can include ghee in your diet and enjoy its benefits.

  8. A Natural Moisturiser: Ditch those chemical-laden chapsticks and use ghee instead. Ghee is probably the best natural moisturiser you can get. If you have dry skin, there is nothing like ghee for you.

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Ghee Vs Butter

While both ghee and butter have similar nutrients and other properties, there are still a few differences that make ghee a slightly better option than ghee. Ghee contains the kind of fats that not directly associated with heart diseases plus ghee has a higher smoke point and as discussed earlier that protects you from free radicals.

Ghee for Weight loss

Ghee is rich in essential amino acids that help mobilise the fat and allow the fat cells to shrink in size which makes ghee an amazing ingredient for weight loss, despite it having fats. Even the CLA which is one of the primary fatty acids found in ghee can help reduce body fat. However, the portion is the key here, an excessive amount of ghee can help will not be able to help you with weight loss.

There are many other benefits of ghee like it helps improve memory and vision power and ghee is also rich in its antifungal properties and helps strengthens the immune system. However, you must not exceed the amount of ghee you consume in one day, plus people suffering from obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes must avoid ghee or have it only when advised by experts.

References: The effect of ghee (clarified butter) on serum lipid levels and microsomal lipid peroxidation / health benefits of Desi ghee./

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 03, 2018 02:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).