Cultured Ghee

The Secret Source of Ayurvedic Ghee

How do we find the best Ayurvedic ghee? We start by requiring it to be grass-fed, organic, and sustainably, humanely farmed and free from pesticides or artificial hormones. But there is one factor, commonly absent in high-end ghee products, that determines whether or not the ghee will deliver the health and longevity benefits ascribed by Ayurveda. This factor is the pasture! Not all pastures are created equal! Our new Cultured Organic Ghee is produced using traditional Ayurvedic methods using organic butter from grass-fed cows that enjoy a happy life filled with luscious wide open pastures and green grasses. The ghee is slow-cooked over many hours to the optimal point to fully remove water and separate milk solids from the golden oil. This gives our ghee its rich flavor. Our ghee is produced in a solar powered kitchen within a building designed according to Vedic principles.

Why Cultured?

The fermentation process used to prepare cultured ghee adds a slightly sour taste, which according to Ayurvedic tradition increases its health benefits. Lactose in the milk solid of the butter becomes more easily digestible lactic acid. As this ghee is more easily assimilated it can be more health promoting than traditional ghee. Culturing ghee is a process where the  lactic acid producing bacteria and others, naturally occurring Cin grass fed cows milk consume any remaining milk sugar (lactose) and milk protein (casein) making cultured grass fed ghee easier to digest. The culturing process converts milk lactose to lactate which then converts butyrate in the digestive tract which is responsible for gut immunity, weight regulation, digestive and eliminative strength and a healthy microbiome. Lactic Acid Bacteria based cultured ghee have been found to support immunity, skin health, heart health, mental health, intestinal health, respiratory health and the better absorption of minerals by the breakdown of phytic acids. It tastes more buttery as the milk fat has been more completely purified than conventional ghee or clarified butter. This is because cultured ghee is slow cooked for significantly  longer than conventional ghee. Heating ghee to high temperatures produced 10 times less harmful and dangerous acrylamides than cooking vegetable oils to the same temperature. Ayurvedic texts say that cultured ghee will promote 1000 benefits such as, memory, intelligence, digestive strength (agni), lubricates tissues, detoxifies, supports beauty, radiant complexion, immunity, vision, vitality, vigor, virility and a longer life.

What is Ghee?

In India, ghee has always been a sacred and celebrated symbol of auspiciousness, nourishment, and healing; especially in the daily rituals of cooking and worship. It is a premium cooking oil celebrated for its taste, nutritional benefits, and medicinal qualities. Ayurveda, the ancient medical science of India, recognizes ghee as an essential part of a balanced diet, and considers it to be the best fat one can consume. Ghee is the very essence of butter; the end result of a long, slow, careful clarification process that removes all of the moisture, milk solids and impurities. The absence of milk solids and water in ghee make it completely shelf stable. Ghee has a very high flash point at 485ºF, which make this oil the best choice for high-temperature cooking. Ghee is comprised of full spectrum short-, medium-, and long-chain fatty acids, both unsaturated and saturated. It contains Omega-3 and Omega-9 essential fatty acids, along with vitamins A, D, E and K. Nine phenolic antioxidants, as well as numerous other minerals are present in ghee. Ghee is known as a substance that gives longevity, its elemental qualities balance the aging characteristics by enriching the living body. Ghee has been used for centuries as a digestive and elimination aid, for energy, sexual vitality, skin and eye health, as a lubricant for the joints and for alkalizing the blood. The purity of ghee allows it to be deeply penetrating and nourishing as it passes through the lipid membranes of cells. For this reason, the vitamins and minerals from food cooked in ghee will be drawn deep into the body where they impart the most benefit. The assimilation of the nutrients increases when suspended in a ghee matrix. When you add spices to ghee when cooking, the flavor is carried deep into the food. Many herbal preparations use ghee as the carrier oil because of these characteristics.

Grass-Fed Cows

You have probably heard by now that grass-fed is better than grain-fed when it comes to your meat or dairy products. Well, the differences might amaze you! Cows grazing grass pastures with no supplemental feed had a whopping 500% more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in milk fat than cows fed typical dairy diets. (1) When ghee is organic from grass-fed and pasture-raised cows, it is one of the highest natural sources of CLA on the planet. CLA has numerous health benefits including boosting immunity, supporting healthy bone mass, overall cardiovascular health, and optimal weight. (2, 3) Perhaps CLA’s most well-documented benefit is its ability to help the body burn fat. Numerous studies suggest that the ingestion of CLA, short-term or long-term (6 months - 2 years), supports a reduction in the body’s fat mass index as a part of a regimen of calorie reduction. (4-6)

Worried About Saturated Fat?

Sadly, much of the science telling us for the past 30 years that saturated fats were bad for us was flawed. Cholesterol turns out to be good for us in the general "total cholesterol" sense, especially in light of what we were told to replace it with: carbohydrates and highly-processed fats. New research suggests that it is the size of both the HDL and LDL particles that determines cardiovascular risk. In fact, study after study has begun to unravel the association between certain saturated fats, such as those found in ghee, and increased cardiovascular health risks. (7, 8)

Ghee-Producing Microbes

Butter shares the origin of its name with a fatty acid called butyric acid, and ghee, which is concentrated butter, is the highest known food source of butyric acid. Butyric acid is the primary fuel for the cells of the colon, boosts immunity, feeds the good microbes and much more. As is turns out, the body loves this short-chain fatty acid so much that the microbes in our intestinal tracts make their own! Scientists have discovered a whole host of microbes that actually produces butyric acid in the gut. (9, 10) Those with superior digestion have shown to have higher levels of butyric acid in the gut. (11) Additional benefits of naturally-occurring butyric acid: (10-12)

• Helps maintain gut homeostasis
• Supports intestinal epithelial cell integrity
• Decreases oxidative stress in healthy colon cells
• Supports the proliferation of beneficial bacteria in the gut
• Linked to histone deacetylation and overall intestinal health at the cellular level

Ghee in Ayurvedic Detox

Environmental toxins, such as pesticides, preservatives, heavy metals and industrial toxicants, are all fat-soluble or "lipophilic" (lipo = fat, philic = like). Such lipophilic toxins have been linked to hormone imbalances, immune system suppression, reproductive concerns, and many other health issues. (13, 14) Ayurveda detoxifies these fat-soluble toxins by using a “lipophilic-mediated” detoxification procedure, where ghee is ingested to pull (detox) or chelate fat-soluble toxins from the body. Based on the Ayurvedic approach of using ingested fats to detoxify environmental toxins, there have been studies showing impressive results. In one study with 88 subjects, 48 of them underwent a 7-day detox of ingesting ghee while on a no fat, meat or dairy diet. The researchers measured 9 different environmental PCB toxins and 8 pesticide toxins. They saw a decrease in 46% of the PCBs measured and a 56% of the pesticides measured. These results suggest that lipophilic-mediated detoxification may be effective in reducing body burdens of fat-soluble toxicants. (15, 16)

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10531600
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22452730
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29306896
4. https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/85/5/1203/4632999
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27636835
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2826589/
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20071648
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5475232/
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19222573
10. http://mbio.asm.org/content/5/2/e00889-14.full
11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923077/
12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3751348/
13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3569688/
14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3691527/
15. http://w.theraj.com/pregnancy/Herron.pdf
16. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12233802