The Complete Ayurvedic Cookbook - The Eumundi Medicine Man

Timeless Knowledge
41BGHEE (PURE BUTTER FAT) LOWERS CHOLESTEROL!
Hypocholesterolemic effect of anhydrous milk fat ghee is mediated by increasing the
secretion of biliary lipids.
Matam Vijaya Kumar, Kari Sambaiah and Belur R. Lokesh Department of
Biochemistry and Nutrition, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore,
Karnataka, India. Received 12 March 1999; accepted 22 October 1999. Available
online 9 March 2000.
32BAbstract:
“The anhydrous milk fat ghee is one of the important sources of fat in the Indian diet.
Our earlier studies showed that rats fed diets containing greater than 2.5 wt% of ghee
had lower levels of serum cholesterol compared with rats fed diets containing
groundnut oil. To evaluate the mechanism of the hypocholesterolemic effect of ghee,
male Wistar rats were fed a diet containing 2.5 or 5.0 wt% ghee for a period of 8
weeks. The diets were made isocaloric with groundnut oil. Both native and ghee
heated at 120°C containing oxidized lipids were included in the diet. The ghee in the
diet did not affect the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA)
reductase activity in the liver microsomes, but it significantly increased biliary
excretion of cholesterol, bile acids, uronic acid, and phospholipids. The rats fed ghee
had lower levels of cholesterol esters in the serum as well as in the intestinal mucosa.
Both native and oxidized ghee influenced cholesterol metabolism. These results
indicate that supplementation of diets with ghee lipids would increase the excretion of
bile constituents and lower serum cholesterol levels.”
Professor Manfred Junius an accomplished
Ayurvedic alchemist would lecture that ghee is the
only oil which is a digestive aid and not taxing to
the liver. Actually he stated that ghee bypasses the
liver by a special prabhava.
42BIt is knowledge and application which can
43Brender a bad thing as beneficial, just as ignorance
44Bcan convert an excellent item to an inferior one.
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