In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores ghee and its traditional importance as a food, medicine, and sacred offering in Ayurveda.

Ghrita is the Sanskrit word for clarified butter. In Hindi it is called ghee, and in Marathi it is called tup. Different languages have different names for it, but ghrita is the primary Sanskrit term. It has been regarded for many thousands of years as a superior food, medicine, and offering into the sacred fire.

Ghee is made by clarifying butter, usually from cow’s milk. It can also be made from buffalo milk or goat milk, but cow’s milk is most commonly used because the cow is regarded in India as a sattvic animal, provided that the cow is being fed a sattvic diet. In the case of cows, this means grass.

Making ghee is not difficult. There are many ways to learn how to prepare it. The main thing is that you must pay attention because it is easy to burn ghee. Once the ghee has been properly prepared and the moisture has been removed, it can last for a very long time.

Ghee is therefore an excellent source of fat. Most oils in Ayurveda are considered warming, but ghee is regarded as a cooling form of fat. We value it because fat is important nourishment for the body’s own fat tissue, but we also appreciate that ghee has this cooling quality.

Ghee is also a useful anupana. Anupana means something that is mixed with a medicine to assist that medicine in doing its work in the body. Ghee also has a certain quality of being a yogavahi. It is not as strong as honey in this respect, because honey has a more penetrating quality, but ghee can help substances mixed with it reach deeper into the tissues of the body.

When ghee is mixed with honey, however, Ayurvedic texts advise that ghee and honey should never be mixed in equal proportions. They have different qualities, and combining them equally may create difficulty for the body. The extent to which this matters today is not completely clear, but there is no harm in simply making sure that when you mix ghee and honey, there is slightly more of one than the other.

The texts describe ghee as life itself. Ghee is the brilliance, the subtle fire of Vishnu himself. But remember that this refers to ghee made from properly raised cows, ideally grass-fed cows, and preferably from A2 milk, since A2 protein is considered easier to digest than A1 protein.

The extent to which this difference affects ghee is still uncertain. What is clear, however, is that traditionally in India, ghee is often made from cultured butter. The milk and cream are fermented into yogurt, and then that cultured cream is cooked into ghee. Commercial butter in many Western countries is generally not cultured and does not contain those beneficial bacteria that help make fats more digestible.

If possible, making ghee from cultured butter is preferable. But ordinary butter can also be used, and it can still be beneficial, provided that you do not consume too much.

Like everything else, even something beneficial must be taken in the proper matra, the proper amount. If you know the amount that is appropriate for you and consume ghee properly, it has the potential to support good health and clear awareness.

Because ghee has been clarified through fire, it has had heavy, obstructing, and unclear qualities removed from it. This quality of clarity can support clear awareness, especially when ghee is combined with other herbs that support the mind, such as Gotu Kola, Brahmi, or Bhringaraj.

Ghee has appeared throughout Indian culture in many different ways. The Charvakas, the materialist philosophers of India, used to say that since you only live as long as you live, you should borrow money from others and drink ghee. Their belief was that after death nothing remains, so there would be no consequence.

Whether that philosophy is true or not, it is probably better not to go into debt simply to drink ghee. But consuming ghee in the proper amount can certainly support health and clarity of mind.