For most people, ghee is neither a heart food nor a heart poison: it is about 60 per cent saturated fat, and WHO, ICMR-NIN and the NHS all advise keeping saturated fat low; ICMR-NIN and the NHS link high intakes to heart disease. ICMR-NIN's advice is to limit ghee to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, or avoid it if possible.
If you have heart disease, high cholesterol or high blood pressure, or take medicine for any of them, follow your cardiologist's advice on ghee and every other fat. This article is general reading, not advice for your case.
At a glance
- USDA FoodData Central lists clarified butter (ghee) at 60 g of saturated fat and 900 kcal per 100 g.
- ICMR-NIN's 2024 Dietary Guidelines for Indians say high saturated fat intake increases the risk of heart diseases and stroke, and advise limiting ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day.
- On ICMR-NIN's 5 g teaspoon and USDA's figures, 2 teaspoons of ghee carry about 6 g of saturated fat, under the NHS maximum of 20 g a day for women and 30 g for men.
- A 2020 Cochrane review of 15 trials with 56,675 people found that cutting saturated fat reduced combined cardiovascular events by 17 per cent, with little or no effect on deaths.
- We found no trial that tested ghee against heart attacks; the human studies on ghee and heart disease are observational, and they disagree.
What do health bodies say about ghee and the heart?
They say the same thing in different words: ghee is a saturated fat, and saturated fat should be kept low. None of WHO, ICMR-NIN or the NHS calls ghee good for the heart, and none bans it. Each names ghee as a source of saturated fat, and WHO and the NHS advise replacing some saturated fat with unsaturated fats.
| Body | What it says | The figure |
|---|---|---|
| WHO (2023 guideline) | Fat should be mainly unsaturated; names ghee, butter, lard, palm oil and coconut oil as sources of saturated fat | No more than 10 per cent of total energy from saturated fat, for everyone aged 2 and over |
| ICMR-NIN (2024 Dietary Guidelines for Indians) | High saturated fat intake increases the risk of heart diseases and stroke; limit ghee and butter | Ghee or butter: 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, or avoid if possible |
| NHS (Fat: the facts) | Saturated fat can raise cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease; lists ghee among foods high in it | No more than 30 g saturated fat a day for men, 20 g for women |
| USDA FoodData Central | Composition of clarified butter (ghee) | 60 g saturated fat, 900 kcal and 300 mg cholesterol per 100 g |
ICMR-NIN is the most specific of the four. Its chapter on fats says saturated fatty acids "are known to increase serum total and LDL-cholesterol levels, increase inflammation, reduce insulin sensitivity and enhance the tendency of clot formation (thrombogenicity) and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke". It lists ghee among the fats containing them, and its points to register include "Limit the use of high saturated-fat containing oils/fats such as ghee, butter etc."
WHO frames its fat guidance as a way to reduce the risk of diet-related noncommunicable diseases, cardiovascular disease among them, and suggests replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats or plant monounsaturated fats.
How much saturated fat is in 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee?
About 3 to 6 grams. ICMR-NIN counts a teaspoon of fat as 5 grams, and USDA lists ghee at 60 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams, or 0.60 grams per gram. So one teaspoon carries about 3 grams of saturated fat and two teaspoons about 6 grams.
The 5 gram teaspoon comes from the guidelines, which put the visible-fat limit at "20–50g (4–10 teaspoon full) per person/ day". The arithmetic:
- Weight of ghee: 1 teaspoon = 5 g; 2 teaspoons = 10 g.
- Saturated fat: 5 g × 0.60 = 3 g; 10 g × 0.60 = 6 g.
- Against the NHS maximum: 6 g is 30 per cent of the 20 g limit for women (6 ÷ 20) and 20 per cent of the 30 g limit for men (6 ÷ 30).
- Against WHO's 10 per cent: on a 2,000 kcal diet, 10 per cent is 200 kcal. ICMR-NIN gives fat 9 kcal per gram, so that is 200 ÷ 9 = about 22 g of saturated fat, and 6 g is about 27 per cent of it.
Milk, meat and bakery foods draw on the same allowance. Where the saturated fat in ghee comes from, fatty acid by fatty acid, is in our article on whether ghee is a saturated fat, and how the limit works in kitchen measures is in how much ghee per day.
What does the strongest evidence on saturated fat and heart disease show?
The strongest summary is a 2020 Cochrane systematic review of randomised trials. Cutting saturated fat reduced combined cardiovascular events by 17 per cent, on moderate-quality evidence. It found little or no effect on deaths from any cause, on cardiovascular deaths, or on non-fatal heart attacks.
The review, by Hooper and colleagues, pooled 15 randomised controlled trials with 56,675 participants. The 17 per cent figure (risk ratio 0.83) is about combined events, not deaths. The authors found that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat or carbohydrate appeared useful; the effect of replacing it with monounsaturated fat was unclear.
The review is about saturated fat as a whole, the category ghee belongs to, not ghee in particular. For what saturated fat does to blood cholesterol specifically, including the two small trials that fed people ghee, see ghee and cholesterol: what the evidence says. Those trials ran for 8 weeks and 4 weeks per diet and measured blood markers, not heart attacks.
Has anyone studied ghee and heart disease directly?
Only in observational studies, which record what people eat and who has heart disease but cannot show cause. We found three, and they point in different directions. None is a trial, and none can show that ghee raises or lowers anyone's risk.
- Rajasthan, 1997 (cross-sectional survey). Gupta and Prakash surveyed 1,982 rural men aged 20 and over. The 782 men (39 per cent) who ate 1 kg or more of ghee a month had a lower prevalence of coronary heart disease. They were also significantly younger and more literate, and ate more calories. The authors' multivariate analysis kept the association, but a survey taken at one point in time cannot show which came first.
- Isfahan, Iran, 2021 (prospective cohort). Sadeghi and colleagues followed 5,432 adults aged 35 and over for 13 years, with ghee among the fats on their food questionnaire. After adjustment, they found no association between ghee and ischaemic heart disease, stroke, or deaths from any cause or from cardiovascular disease.
- Karachi, Pakistan, 2004 (case-control). Ismail and colleagues compared 193 adults aged 15 to 45 with a first heart attack against 193 matched controls, and linked cooking with "ghee" to higher odds of a heart attack. But the authors define that ghee as hydrogenated vegetable oil.
So "ghee" in a study does not always mean dairy ghee. ICMR-NIN says trans fats are produced when vegetable oils are hydrogenated, giving vanaspati as its example, and it advises avoiding partially hydrogenated fats as a cooking medium. A headline about ghee and heart attacks may be about a different fat altogether.
Why do "ghee causes heart attacks" and "ghee is good for your heart" both overreach?
Because neither has a trial behind it: we found none that fed people ghee for years and counted heart attacks. The case against large amounts rests on ghee being a saturated fat, which guidelines link to heart disease risk. The case for ghee rests on surveys and tradition, which cannot show cause.
"Ghee causes heart attacks" overreaches because heart disease has many risk factors at once. The Karachi study found smoking, raised blood glucose, raised cholesterol, low income and a father's history of heart disease alongside its cooking-fat finding. And the guidelines set a small limit for ghee, not a ban.
"Ghee is good for your heart" overreaches further. The one survey that found less heart disease among heavy ghee users compared men who differed in age and literacy, and the one long cohort we found showed no link either way. Against that sit the guidelines and a systematic review that found fewer cardiovascular events when people ate less saturated fat. No guideline we opened recommends ghee for the heart.
What should you do if you have a heart condition?
Follow your cardiologist. Heart disease, high cholesterol and their medicines change what is sensible for you, and your doctor or dietitian may set a lower saturated fat target than the general guidelines. The points below come after their advice, not instead of it.
- Count ghee inside your total fat. ICMR-NIN's 1 to 2 teaspoons sit inside its 20 to 50 g limit on all visible fat, not on top of it.
- Avoid vanaspati. ICMR-NIN advises against partially hydrogenated fats as a cooking medium because they may contain trans fats.
- Measure it. Level teaspoons keep the 5 g arithmetic above true; a heaped spoon of set ghee holds more.
Himdhara makes A2 bilona ghee from the milk of Badri cattle. Method and sourcing matter for flavour and traceability, but we found no evidence that any kind of ghee affects the heart differently. The amount is what counts.
The short version
Ghee is about 60 per cent saturated fat, and WHO, ICMR-NIN and the NHS all advise keeping saturated fat low; ICMR-NIN links high intakes to heart disease and stroke and limits ghee to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day. A Cochrane review found that cutting saturated fat reduced cardiovascular events, though not deaths. The studies of ghee and heart disease are observational and disagree, so ghee is neither proven harmful in small amounts nor proven good for the heart. If you have a heart condition, your cardiologist's advice comes first.
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. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.
- World Health Organization (2023). WHO updates guidelines on fats and carbohydrates. WHO news release.
- NHS (n.d.). Fat: the facts. NHS Live Well.
- Hooper L. et al. (2020). Effect of cutting down on the saturated fat we eat on our risk of heart disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy), record 171314.