Is ghee healthier than butter?
First, everyone was generously frying in coconut oil for its health benefits, but it turned out to be rather unhealthy after all. Ghee is also often mentioned as a superfat, but is it actually healthier than butter?
In India, people have been cooking with ghee for centuries. What exactly is it? Nothing more than clarified butter. Butter is heated, causing the milk sugars to separate from the fat. The pure fat is kept, and you have ghee. Because the milk sugars have been removed, it is lactose-free. Perhaps that is why it was picked up as a superfood; a whole host of health benefits are attributed to it.
895 calories
Ghee is said to aid digestion, reduce inflammation, strengthen your bones and even help you lose weight. A miracle cure! Or is it? Because you remove the milk sugars along with moisture from the butter, ghee is almost pure fat. One hundred grams of unsalted butter contains 745 calories, while the same amount of ghee contains 895 (!) calories. So it absolutely does not help you lose weight.
Okay, calories don’t tell the whole story. What about the rest of its nutritional value? It is roughly the same as that of regular butter, so you don’t need to choose ghee for that either. Ghee contains vitamins A, D, E and K, but you’ll find those in butter too.
Grilled cheese sandwich
That doesn’t stop us from continuing to fry at full blast in ghee. Because the moisture has been removed, it has a higher smoke point, allowing you to cook meat at a high temperature without burning it. Tip: you can also make the very best grilled cheese sandwiches in ghee.
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