There is no good evidence that ghee is good for diabetes. We found no proper human trial of ghee in people with diabetes, and ICMR's type 2 diabetes guidelines ask for saturated fat, which makes up most of ghee, to be kept low. If you have diabetes, follow your doctor's or dietitian's advice on ghee and on fat in general; it comes before anything in this article.
Below: what the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) and the American Diabetes Association say about fat, what trials show, and where the idea that ghee "lowers the glycaemic index" comes from. We suggest no amount of ghee for anyone.
At a glance
- No randomised trial of ghee in people with diabetes exists; claims that ghee "controls sugar" or improves insulin sensitivity are untested in humans.
- ICMR's 2018 type 2 diabetes guidelines cap saturated fat at 10 per cent of energy, 7 per cent with raised blood lipids, and name ghee among fats to restrict in that case.
- ICMR favours monounsaturated oils such as mustard, rice bran, groundnut and gingelly for cooking, mixed or alternated; ghee is not on that list.
- A 2016 meta-analysis of 102 feeding trials found that swapping saturated for polyunsaturated fat lowered glucose, HbA1c and insulin resistance.
- Fat can lower a single meal's glycaemic index, but the ghee evidence is laboratory-only, and the American Diabetes Association found no significant effect of glycaemic index on HbA1c.
Is ghee good or bad for people with diabetes?
Neither claim has direct proof. We found no proper trial of ghee in people with diabetes, so the honest answer rests on what guidelines say about saturated fat. ICMR's diabetes guidelines ask for it to be limited, and to be restricted further when blood lipids are raised. Ghee falls in that category.
Ghee is not singled out as forbidden in ICMR's diabetes guidelines. But the claims that ghee "controls sugar" or "improves insulin sensitivity" are not supported by any human trial we could find. Traditional use, laboratory tests and animal studies cannot tell you what ghee does in a person with diabetes eating ordinary meals.
What do ICMR's type 2 diabetes guidelines say about fat?
The ICMR Guidelines for Management of Type 2 Diabetes (2018) say fat should provide 20 to 30 per cent of total energy, that saturated fat should be 10 per cent of energy or less, and 7 per cent in people with raised blood lipids. They add that fat quality "is as important as the quantity".
The guidelines are candid about uncertainty. They say evidence "is inconclusive for an ideal amount of total fat intake for people with diabetes, therefore, goals should be individualized". So your doctor's targets matter more than any general figure.
On which fats to use, they say that in people with type 2 diabetes, "MUFA-rich cooking oil and nuts in moderation may benefit glycemic control and CVD risk factors". MUFA means monounsaturated fat. They name mustard, rice bran, groundnut and gingelly oils as good options and recommend mixing or alternating oils. Ghee is not on that list.
Ghee is named in one place: the advice for people with diabetes and abnormal blood lipids. There the guidelines say "saturated and trans fats food sources like vanaspati, butter, ghee, margarine, coconut oil" and red meats, egg yolk and whole milk products "should be restricted".
How do the main guidelines compare on fat?
They agree on direction: keep saturated fat low, avoid industrial trans fat, and favour unsaturated fats. They differ in detail. ICMR gives percentage targets for people with diabetes, ICMR-NIN writes for the general population, and the American Diabetes Association says the type of fat may matter beyond the total amount.
| Topic | ICMR, type 2 diabetes (2018) | ICMR-NIN, general population (2024) | American Diabetes Association consensus (2019) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total fat | 20 to 30 per cent of energy; ideal amount uncertain, so individualise | Visible fat (oils, ghee, butter) limited to 20 to 50 g a day, depending on energy needs | Cites 20 to 35 per cent of energy, the National Academy of Medicine range for all adults; type of fat may matter beyond the amount |
| Saturated fat | 10 per cent of energy or less; 7 per cent with raised blood lipids | Limit high saturated-fat fats such as ghee and butter | Replacing saturated with unsaturated fat lowers total and LDL cholesterol |
| Ghee by name | To be restricted in people with abnormal blood lipids | "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible" | Not named |
| Trans fat | Under 1 per cent of energy, preferably avoided | Harmful; avoid vanaspati as a cooking medium | Synthetic trans fat minimised as far as possible |
| Preferred fats | MUFA-rich oils such as mustard, rice bran, groundnut and gingelly; mix or alternate oils | Oils in moderation; nuts and oilseeds for essential fatty acids | Foods higher in unsaturated fat instead of saturated fat |
The ICMR-NIN figures are written for the general population, not as a diabetes diet; our article on how much ghee per day the ICMR-NIN guidelines allow explains them. If you have diabetes, your doctor's targets replace them.
Does saturated fat affect blood sugar?
Swapping saturated fat for polyunsaturated fat appears to help blood sugar a little. A 2016 systematic review of 102 randomised feeding trials in 4,220 adults found that this swap lowered glucose, HbA1c and insulin resistance. Saturated fat itself, replacing carbohydrate, had no significant effect on fasting glucose.
The review, by Imamura and colleagues in PLoS Medicine, pooled controlled trials in which participants were given the meals, rather than dietary advice. In its conclusion, the most consistent favourable effects on blood glucose and insulin came from polyunsaturated fat, compared with carbohydrate, saturated fat or monounsaturated fat. The trials were in adults generally, not only people with diabetes, and the authors noted possible publication bias.
ICMR-NIN's 2024 guidelines also say saturated fatty acids are known to "reduce insulin sensitivity", as well as raise total and LDL cholesterol. ICMR and the American Diabetes Association both also address cholesterol and heart disease in their diabetes advice. Our article on ghee and cholesterol covers that evidence, including the small trials of ghee in healthy adults.
Has ghee been tested in people with diabetes?
Not in any proper trial we could find. A PubMed search for ghee with diabetes or blood glucose turned up animal studies, surveys and laboratory work, but no randomised trial of ghee in people with diabetes. Two trials in other groups measured glucose along the way.
- Healthy adults, ghee against olive oil (2022). In a randomised crossover trial in 30 healthy adults, each ate ghee or olive oil in equal energy amounts for four weeks. Fasting and two-hour glucose and insulin did not differ between the two diets. The ghee diet raised apo B and non-HDL cholesterol compared with olive oil.
- Fatty liver disease, ghee replaced by rapeseed oil (2024). In a 12-week randomised trial in 110 Iranian adults with fatty liver disease who ate ghee daily, the group advised to switch to rapeseed oil showed lower fasting glucose, insulin and insulin resistance. That group also lost weight, which affects blood sugar too, and the participants were not selected for diabetes.
Neither trial answers the question a person with diabetes is asking. Animal studies involving ghee exist, but a result in rats cannot tell you what happens in a person with diabetes, so we do not rely on them.
Does ghee lower the glycaemic index of a meal?
Fat in a meal can slow the rise in blood glucose, which lowers that meal's measured glycaemic index. For ghee specifically, the evidence we found comes from laboratory digestion tests, not from people with diabetes. Systematic reviews have not shown that lower glycaemic index eating improves HbA1c.
The idea has three parts, and they are of very different strength:
- Fat slows glucose release from a starchy meal. In a small randomised crossover trial in 12 healthy adults in Singapore, adding groundnut oil to white rice delayed the glucose peak and lowered the meal's glycaemic index from 96 to 67. This is a real effect in people, but it used oil, not ghee, and healthy volunteers.
- Ghee does this especially well. The ghee study we found, by Kaur and colleagues in 2015, was an in vitro test: rice was cooked with ghee or vegetable oil and its digestion was simulated in a laboratory. Red rice cooked with ghee released the least glucose, but for white rice the type of oil made no difference. The authors said a study in people was needed. A 2020 laboratory study from ICAR found rice bran oil, not ghee, gave the lowest glycaemic response of four fats.
- A lower glycaemic index improves diabetes control. The American Diabetes Association's 2019 consensus report says two systematic reviews of glycaemic index and glycaemic load in people with or at risk of diabetes found no significant effect on HbA1c and mixed results on fasting glucose.
Fat on rice may flatten the glucose curve after that meal, but it adds calories and, with ghee, saturated fat. Nobody has shown that adding ghee to meals improves diabetes control.
How should you think about ghee if you have diabetes?
As a saturated fat to count, not as a treatment. ICMR's guidelines set saturated fat limits for people with diabetes and favour monounsaturated oils for cooking. Your doctor or dietitian can tell you whether ghee fits inside your own targets, given your blood glucose, cholesterol, weight and medicines.
Questions worth taking to that appointment:
- What share of my energy should come from fat and from saturated fat, given my cholesterol results?
- Which cooking oils should I use most of the time, and should I mix or alternate them?
- Does ghee fit in my meal plan at all, and if so, how should I count it?
We make ghee at Himdhara, and that is why we have kept to what the guidelines and trials say rather than repeating claims we cannot support.
The short version
No proper human trial we found shows that ghee is good for diabetes or that it controls blood sugar. ICMR's type 2 diabetes guidelines ask for saturated fat to stay at or below 10 per cent of energy, or 7 per cent with raised blood lipids, and favour monounsaturated oils. Fat can lower the glycaemic index of a single meal, but evidence that this improves diabetes control is weak, and the ghee-specific work is laboratory-only. Follow your doctor's or dietitian's advice on whether, and how much, ghee belongs in your diet.
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.
- Indian Council of Medical Research (2018). ICMR Guidelines for Management of Type 2 Diabetes 2018. ICMR, New Delhi.
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.
- Imamura F, Micha R, Wu JH, et al. (2016). Effects of Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat, Monounsaturated Fat, and Carbohydrate on Glucose-Insulin Homeostasis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomised Controlled Feeding Trials. PLoS Medicine.
- Evert AB, Dennison M, Gardner CD, et al. (2019). Nutrition Therapy for Adults With Diabetes or Prediabetes: A Consensus Report. Diabetes Care.
- Kaur B, Ranawana V, Teh AL, Henry CJ (2015). The Glycemic Potential of White and Red Rice Affected by Oil Type and Time of Addition. Journal of Food Science.