Local food#5 - Ghee(The best desi product)

Local food#5 - Ghee (The best desi product)

When you first read "ghee" What's your first thought! Well, my thought was "who eats fat?" (Share your thoughts below in comment section 😊) 

My experience for ghee is like this - 

I was not eating ghee until I went to Haryana. There I saw people making ghee and consuming ghee. Before going Haryana, my thought was "eating ghee leads to weight gain". But at Haryana, I saw people had ghee but they were fit. It amazed me a lot. The first thought pop on my mind was "they are different lifestyle in a very different environment". There I started eating ghee(in a small amount). Then I came back to Odisha and here I started observing north Indian students in our campus. They were eating ghee here also! Yet they were fit! Then this put me in thinking 🤔. Well, whatever the food is I first think about my weight! and For my weight gain, the simple answer is "stop overeating" 😁 but ghee was something I had never eaten since my childhood. So, I wanted to read some theories on ghee. I watched videos of India's top dietitians like Rujuta Diwekar, Dr. Sikha Sharma. They very nicely present the importance of ghee and the recommended portion of ghee. That knowledge will be explained here. My experience for ghee is just about adding flavour to my food and it fills the stomach and prevents from overeating.

Top ghee producers-

Do you know the name of the highest ghee producing country? If you know then that is good. If you don't know the answer then the answer is India. In India, Uttar Pradesh is the highest ghee producing state.

Ghee-

It is local and familiar to most of the Indians. Many Indian prepare ghee by themselves. The consumption of ghee gets decreased over generations. We should remember that "old is gold". There is no doubt, it is fat. But it is good fat. It is clarified butter. Clarified butter means the water milk solid get removed and only butterfat remains. Ghee can be consumed by people having lactose intolerant symptoms because of the absence of solid milk. In India ghee is widely used for sweet preparation, in biriyani, on various types of parathas and many more food items. Except for food items, it is also used during worshipping to God. What I get to learn from the famous dietitians are worth sharing. They make us learn to eat ghee for good health not to feed our taste buds. 

Benefits of eating ghee-

Most of the information I have collected from "The Indian Superfoods" written by Rujuta Diwekar.

-It is the good fat. It helps other fats to mobilize and transfer to energy for our body.

-It is very helpful for constipation patients. Consumption of a particular amount(keep reading to know the amount) of ghee can treat your constipation problem.

-If you have sinusitis then you can apply heated ghee to your forehead. It gives relaxation to your mind and provides relief from headache. 

-It helps to sleep better. You can intake it with milk. One tablespoon of ghee and one glass of milk will give you a good night sleep. If you have a sleep disorder then you should drink it.

-It is better to eat a mixture of jaggery and ghee instead of eating any sweet after a meal. It provides the satisfaction of eating your meal. It doesn't make you addict towards any food.

-If you have any joint problem then eating ghee will nourish the joint movement.

-It is good for heart function.

- This fat is easy to digest by our gut microorganisms. [Gut is the part starting from mouth to anus, it includes the mouth, oesophagus(food pipe), stomach, small intestine, large intestine and anus. Inside the gut, we have trillions of microorganisms. So for them, ghee is the better food to digest] 

-Ghee is good for losing weight. As it is written in the first point it helps other fats(which are bad) to move and utilise inside our body.

-It helps in maintaining our cholesterol level.

What happens after overeating of ghee?

-Most wants to show good effects. Some sources say the intake of ghee in a high amount can increase the risk of heart problems, and it can increase weight. 

Recommended quantity to eat ghee-

Three tablespoons per day are recommended by Rujuta Diwekar. She said to eat ghee during breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you don't want to eat during that time they eat ghee and jaggery mixture after lunch and dinner time. Anyway, it will help your body to be fit. People like me, who had never eaten ghee can start from one tablespoon then increase up to three tablespoons not more than this.

Best ghee to eat-

The best one is from Indian cow milk. The ghee made from Indian cow milk is the best. Dietitian recommends its students or readers to make ghee at home and consume that. Homemade ghee is far far better than market ghee. But If you can't then you can buy ghee by looking at the composition tag (buy wisely😎).

How to make ghee from milk at home -

-Take fat milk (as per your requirement).

-Boil for 25 to 30 minutes on low flame. Then switch off the flame and let it cool. Refrigerate for 6 to 8 hours without covering. 

 -A thick layer will form on the top of the milk. Collect that thick cream layer and use remaining milk as usual. 

-Store the thick cream layer with covering.

-Do the same process for 12 to 15 days and collect the thick layers of milk.

-Leave it overnight.

-Then take the required cream and blend it on high speed.
(Use water during blend and blend it until the butter separates.)

-Wash the butter two to three times using chilled water.

-Drain water and low heat to butter.

-Put on low heat until white turns to dark golden colour(Do not overcook).

-Cool it down and use the homemade ghee.

                                                                   (Ghee in a glass jar)

You can store the prepared ghee in steel, glass, or plastic container. You can keep it in room temperature. It should be kept away from sunlight.

What I learnt- 

I learnt eating ghee is completely your choice. You can get benefited by eating ghee or you may not get benefited also or you can live your life without ghee. But if you are getting ghee in your locality then why to depend on foreign products! (True isn't it!) 🙃 The best way to get benefited is to follow some simple rules and mostly not to overeat ghee. Ghee is fat. For our body functioning, we need carbohydrate, protein and fat. So fat shouldn't be avoided. Fat doesn't mean it gets deposited inside our belly. It has many more functions. Fat is required for our nervous system to function properly. If I talk about ghee, It is short-chain fatty acids, which are easily digested and helpful for our nervous system. Through reading others experience, I found out the ghee should not be consumed with honey (I don't know the reason but I will try to find and write).

To know more about other local foods search www.localfoodbenefits.blogspot.com.

Keep reading and sharing.

Thank you.