None of the guidelines we read lists ghee as a food to avoid in pregnancy, and none recommends it either. ICMR-NIN classes ghee as a visible, saturated fat and says visible fat should be restricted during pregnancy, while giving no separate ghee figure for pregnant women. The belief that ghee eases labour has, as far as we could find, never been tested in a clinical trial.
This article sets out what the guidelines say, what ghee adds in calories, and what traditional practice around ghee looks like, kept apart from the evidence. It is general information, not advice for your pregnancy. Your doctor or obstetrician knows your weight, blood tests and history: follow their advice on how much fat, and which fats, you eat. If you have diabetes in pregnancy, high blood pressure, raised cholesterol or concerns about weight gain, ask them before changing anything.
At a glance
- No guideline we read bans ghee in pregnancy or recommends it; ICMR-NIN classes it as a visible, saturated fat and says visible fat should be restricted in pregnancy and lactation.
- ICMR-NIN gives no ghee figure for pregnant women; its sample day for a sedentary pregnant woman lists 30 g of cooking oil and 40 g of nuts and oil seeds.
- A 5 g teaspoon of ghee is about 45 kcal, about an eighth of the extra 350 kcal a day ICMR-NIN adds from the second trimester.
- Studies in Bihar record ghee as the accepted way to add energy to a pregnant woman's or new mother's food; easing labour is one reason families give, and no clinical trial has tested it.
- The NHS says there is no need to "eat for 2" and advises cutting down on saturated fat; follow your doctor's or obstetrician's advice on your own diet.
Is it safe to eat ghee during pregnancy?
The guidelines we read neither ban nor promote ghee in pregnancy. ICMR-NIN counts ghee as a visible fat and a source of saturated fat, and asks for visible fat to be restricted in pregnancy. The NHS asks pregnant women to cut down on saturated fat. Whether ghee suits your diet is a question for your doctor.
The Dietary Guidelines for Indians (2024) from ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition say that vegetable oils, butter and ghee make up dietary visible fats, and they list ghee with butter, coconut oil and palm oil as foods that contain saturated fatty acids. They state that saturated fats increase serum total and LDL cholesterol. Our article on ghee and cholesterol goes through that evidence for adults in general.
The same guidelines also say something useful about tradition: there is no need to avoid any specific foods because of wrong food beliefs and taboos. By the same logic, a belief is not a reason to eat more of one.
How much ghee do the guidelines allow in pregnancy?
No guideline we found gives a ghee amount for pregnant women. ICMR-NIN's fat chapter says that during pregnancy and lactation visible fat should be restricted and trans fat avoided. For adults generally, it says to limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day or avoid it.
Here is what the ICMR-NIN document says, in its own terms:
- Fat chapter: during pregnancy and lactation, oil seeds, nuts, beans and fish must be encouraged to meet the higher fat and essential fatty acid needs of the foetus and infant; visible fat should be restricted; trans fat should be avoided.
- Pregnancy chapter: a suggested daily chart for a normal pregnancy lists nuts and oil seeds at 40 g and cooking oils and fats at 20 ml. The sample day's menu for a sedentary pregnant woman that follows lists "oil" at 5 g, 15 g and 10 g across breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is 30 g. Neither names ghee.
- For overweight pregnant women: added sugars should be avoided, and refined cereals and edible oil intake should be reduced.
- For adults generally: "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible." This line is not written for pregnancy, and the document does not say whether it applies.
- On hydrogenated fat: the pregnancy menu's "don'ts" say to avoid foods made with it, and the fat chapter says not to cook with vanaspati, as it may contain trans fats.
So the honest answer is that the Indian guidelines say nothing specific about ghee in pregnancy. They give a direction (restrict visible fat, favour nuts, seeds, beans and fish) rather than a number for ghee. How the general 1 to 2 teaspoon ceiling, explained in our guide to daily ghee intake, fits your pregnancy is for your doctor to say.
How many calories does ghee add compared with what pregnancy needs?
A teaspoon of ghee, which ICMR-NIN takes as 5 g, gives about 45 kcal. ICMR-NIN adds 350 kcal a day to a normal-weight woman's diet from the second trimester. One teaspoon is about an eighth of that extra allowance and two teaspoons about a quarter, before counting the fat already in your cooking.
ICMR-NIN gives fat as 9 kcal per gram and a teaspoon as 5 g. USDA FoodData Central's record for clarified butter (ghee) lists 900 kcal, 100 g of fat and 60 g of saturated fat per 100 g, which gives the same 45 kcal for 5 g. The table is for scale, not a suggested amount.
| Item | Energy | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Extra energy a day, second and third trimester (normal weight) | 350 kcal | ICMR-NIN 2024 |
| Extra energy a day, undernourished pregnant women | 450 kcal (350 + 100) | ICMR-NIN 2024 |
| Extra energy a day, first six months of breastfeeding | 600 kcal | ICMR-NIN 2024 |
| 1 teaspoon of ghee (5 g) | 45 kcal | 5 g × 9 kcal/g; USDA 900 kcal per 100 g |
| 2 teaspoons of ghee (10 g) | 90 kcal | 10 g × 9 kcal/g |
| 1 teaspoon as a share of the 350 kcal | About 13 per cent | 45 ÷ 350 |
| 2 teaspoons as a share of the 350 kcal | About 26 per cent | 90 ÷ 350 |
Calories are only part of the picture. ICMR-NIN says the extra calories and protein in pregnancy should ideally come from micronutrient-dense foods, not from foods that supply only calories, and it names folic acid, iron, calcium, vitamin D, iodine and vitamin A among the nutrients that need attention. On the USDA record, ghee carries no protein, calcium or iron, though it does list vitamin A. A spoon of ghee therefore adds energy without adding most of what the extra allowance is meant to supply. For the first trimester, the guidelines ask for a nutrient-rich balanced diet and place the extra calories in the second and third trimesters.
Why do Indian families give extra ghee in pregnancy?
Studies in rural Bihar record ghee being added to rice, milk and sweets for pregnant women and new mothers. They found rice with ghee, and milk, to be foods that mothers, mothers-in-law and health workers broadly agreed on, with ghee seen as the accepted way to add energy.
Two studies from Bihar, by overlapping research teams led from the University of Texas at Austin, describe the practice in detail. They used focus groups, interviews and surveys of 1,200 recent mothers and 400 community health workers. Hashmi and Legare (2025) report that ghee "emerged as the culturally sanctioned caloric booster", that cost rather than acceptability limited its use, and that one mother-in-law said: "One spoon of ghee in every plate—doctor or no doctor." The same paper describes women eating ghee after delivery.
Lunkenheimer and colleagues (2021) found cow's milk to be the food most often named for adding to the diet around pregnancy and birth. The reasons given for milk, often mixed with ghee, included easing labour and helping the body make breast milk. Their background section describes the Ayurvedic idea that new mothers are encouraged to eat milk, ghee, nuts and jaggery to return to a state of balance.
These are studies of what people believe and do. They record practices and the reasons families give. They do not test whether any of those reasons is correct. Both describe one state, so the details will differ elsewhere in India.
Does ghee make labour easier?
We found no clinical evidence that it does. A search of PubMed for ghee together with labour, childbirth or pregnancy found no clinical trial testing whether eating ghee changes labour. The belief is real and well recorded, but recording a belief is not testing it. Talk to your obstetrician about preparing for birth.
It is worth being precise about what exists. The Bihar studies show that easing labour is one reason some families give for adding milk with ghee, and in the 2025 survey 11.7 per cent of the mothers who said they increased their food intake gave easing labour as a reason. That figure is about eating more in general, not ghee in particular. Neither study measured how labour went.
We found no study linking ghee in the diet to how the birth canal or the muscles of labour behave. We are not saying ghee harms labour either; the point is that no study we found has shown an effect either way. Since the guidelines ask for visible fat to be restricted, extra ghee in the final weeks is a choice to discuss with your obstetrician, not a medical step.
What does the NHS advise about fat in pregnancy?
The NHS says you do not need to "eat for 2" in pregnancy. It lists butter and other spreading fats, with oils, cream and pastries, among foods high in fat, sugar or both, to have less often and in small amounts, and suggests cutting down on saturated fat in favour of small amounts of unsaturated fat.
The NHS page does not mention ghee by name. It explains that fat is very high in calories, so eating fatty foods too often can lead to weight gain, and that too much saturated fat can raise blood cholesterol.
We make ghee at Himdhara, so we have an interest in this subject. That is why this article reports only what the guideline bodies and studies say and adds no amount of our own.
The short version
No guideline we found recommends ghee for pregnancy or tells pregnant women to avoid it. ICMR-NIN classes ghee as a saturated, visible fat, says visible fat should be restricted in pregnancy and lactation, and gives no ghee-specific figure for pregnant women. A teaspoon of ghee is about 45 kcal against an extra allowance of 350 kcal a day from the second trimester. Ghee in milk and rice is a well-documented tradition in the Bihar studies we read, and easing labour is one of the reasons families give, but we found no trial that tests it. Follow your doctor's or obstetrician's advice on fat in your own pregnancy.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. Indian Council of Medical Research.
- NHS (2023). Have a healthy diet in pregnancy. NHS.
- Hashmi FA, Legare CH (2025). From counsel to consumption: examining sociocultural influences on perinatal nutrition in rural India. Frontiers in Nutrition.
- Lunkenheimer HG, et al. (2021). Tradition, taste and taboo: the gastroecology of maternal perinatal diet. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health.
- USDA Agricultural Research Service (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central.