Yes, on the numbers: ghee has no carbohydrate and is almost pure fat, so it fits the macronutrient pattern of a ketogenic diet. Whether a ketogenic diet suits you is a separate, medical question. If you have diabetes, kidney disease, a heart condition, are pregnant or take any regular medication, follow your doctor's advice before cutting carbohydrate this far.
Below: what ghee contains, what a ketogenic diet is and where medicine uses it, and how ghee's fatty acids compare with coconut oil's. We suggest no amount and make no weight-loss promise.
At a glance
- USDA FoodData Central lists ghee at 0 g of carbohydrate, 100 g of fat and 900 kcal per 100 g.
- FSSAI requires ghee to be at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, with no more than 0.5 per cent moisture.
- FSSAI's fatty acid table puts ghee's caprylic (C8) and capric (C10) acids together at 1.2 to 6.5 per cent of its fatty acids.
- An American Diabetes Association consensus report says adults with diabetes starting a very-low-carbohydrate plan need a knowledgeable practitioner, to adjust insulin and other glucose-lowering medicines.
- The International Ketogenic Diet Study Group describes the classic medical ketogenic diet as 90 per cent of calories from fat, used for epilepsy that has not responded to medicines.
Does ghee have carbs?
No. USDA FoodData Central lists clarified butter (ghee) at 0 g of carbohydrate, 0 g of sugars and 0 g of protein per 100 g, with 100 g of fat and 900 kcal. India's food regulator, FSSAI, requires ghee to be at least 99.5 per cent milk fat. Either way, there is almost nothing in it but fat.
One caution about the USDA record. Its figures for ghee were back-calculated by USDA staff from a product label, so they are label figures rather than a laboratory analysis. They are still consistent with the Indian standard. FSSAI describes ghee and butter oil as fatty products made by processes that remove almost all the water and the milk solids-not-fat.
For a ketogenic diet, that makes ghee a carbohydrate-free fat in the same way coconut oil is. It does not make ghee special. Our comparison of ghee and coconut oil shows how close the two are on total fat.
What is a ketogenic diet?
A ketogenic diet cuts carbohydrate far enough to put the body into nutritional ketosis. The American Diabetes Association's 2019 consensus report on nutrition therapy says such plans often aim for 20 to 50 g of non-fibre carbohydrate a day to induce nutritional ketosis. It calls any plan under 26 per cent of calories from carbohydrate very-low-carbohydrate.
For comparison, the same report defines a low-carbohydrate plan as 26 to 45 per cent of calories from carbohydrate. A ketogenic plan sits below that range.
The medical version is stricter still. The International Ketogenic Diet Study Group, in its 2018 recommendations for children with epilepsy, describes the classic ketogenic diet as a ratio of 4 g of fat to every 1 g of protein and carbohydrate combined, which means 90 per cent of calories come from fat.
Where is the ketogenic diet used in medicine?
Its best-established medical use is epilepsy that has not responded to medicines. The International Ketogenic Diet Study Group calls ketogenic dietary therapies "established, effective nonpharmacologic treatments" and says they should be used in children after two anti-seizure drugs have failed. It counted four randomised controlled trials as of 2018.
Even there, the diet is run as a treatment. The group's recommendations say a clinic visit before starting is strongly advised, and that every child should be seen by a paediatric neurologist and a dietitian at clinic visits. They also list conditions in which the diet is ruled out, including disorders of fat metabolism and porphyria.
Ketogenic eating outside a clinic is a different matter. The diabetes consensus report reviewed low-carbohydrate eating for adults with diabetes, but it also noted that most of those trials did not restrict saturated fat and that long-term studies with clinical event outcomes are still needed. Our article on whether ghee helps with weight loss found no trial showing that ghee itself causes weight loss.
What are the risks of a ketogenic diet?
The documented risks include digestive upset, raised blood lipids and, in children on the medical diet, kidney stones and slower growth. In people with diabetes, the main risk at the start is blood glucose falling too far on unchanged medicines. Both clinical sources below say the diet needs professional oversight.
The International Ketogenic Diet Study Group lists these among the side effects seen in children on dietary therapy for epilepsy:
- Constipation, vomiting and abdominal pain, in up to 50 per cent of children.
- Raised blood lipids, which the group calls a well-known side effect of almost all ketogenic dietary therapies.
- Kidney stones, historically in 3 to 7 per cent of children.
- A usually mild metabolic acidosis, and negative effects on growth in studies longer than six months.
For adults with diabetes, the 2019 consensus report says a very-low-carbohydrate plan can cause diuresis and lower blood glucose swiftly. It says consultation with a knowledgeable practitioner at the outset is necessary, to prevent dehydration and to reduce insulin and other glucose-lowering medicines so that blood glucose does not fall too low.
The same report says that, because of theoretical concerns, more research is needed before recommendations can be made for people with chronic kidney disease or disordered eating and for women who are pregnant. If you are in one of those groups, your doctor's advice comes first.
Is ghee a source of MCTs, like coconut oil?
Only in small amounts. FSSAI's fatty acid table for ghee allows 0.4 to 1.5 per cent caprylic acid (C8) and 0.8 to 5 per cent capric acid (C10), so together they make up 1.2 to 6.5 per cent of its fatty acids. Coconut oil carries far more, and most of its fat is lauric acid.
USDA FoodData Central lists coconut oil at 6.8 g of C8 and 5.39 g of C10 per 100 g, or 12.19 g together, and 41.8 g of lauric acid (C12). Ghee's largest saturated fatty acid is palmitic acid, a 16-carbon fat that FSSAI allows at 22 to 38 per cent of ghee's fatty acids.
| Per 100 g | Ghee | Coconut oil | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total fat | 100 g (at least 99.5 per cent milk fat under FSSAI) | 99.1 g | USDA; FSSAI |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g | 0 g | USDA |
| Saturated fat | 60 g | 82.5 g | USDA |
| Energy | 900 kcal | 892 kcal | USDA |
| C8 plus C10 | 1.2 to 6.5 per cent of fatty acids (0.4–1.5 plus 0.8–5) | 12.19 g (6.8 + 5.39) | FSSAI; USDA |
| Lauric acid (C12) | 1.5 to 4 per cent of fatty acids | 41.8 g | FSSAI; USDA |
The units differ, because FSSAI gives a permitted range as a share of fatty acids and USDA gives grams per 100 g of oil. To compare like with like: USDA's coconut oil record lists 82.5 g of saturated, 6.33 g of monounsaturated and 1.7 g of polyunsaturated fatty acids, 90.53 g in all, so its C8 and C10 make up about 13.5 per cent of its fatty acids (12.19 ÷ 90.53). That is roughly twice the top of ghee's permitted range.
We do not claim that ghee's small C8 and C10 share does anything for ketosis. The medical MCT diet the Study Group describes takes 60 per cent of its energy from MCT, supplied as MCT oil rather than ordinary cooking fat.
How does ghee fit into a keto meal plan?
As a cooking fat, like any other. It adds no carbohydrate, so it does not count against a carbohydrate limit, but it adds energy and saturated fat. Every 10 g of ghee carries about 90 kcal and 6 g of saturated fat on USDA figures. How much fat fits your plan is a question for your doctor or dietitian.
The arithmetic: USDA lists 900 kcal and 60 g of saturated fat per 100 g of ghee, so a tenth of that is 90 kcal and 6 g. And because most low-carbohydrate trials in the diabetes consensus report did not restrict saturated fat, the long-term picture on saturated fat in these diets is still open.
If you are thinking of adding ghee to coffee, we looked at the evidence for that habit in our article on ghee in coffee, and found very little. Outside a ketogenic diet, India's dietary guidelines set their own limit on ghee, which our guide to how much ghee per day the guidelines allow sets out.
Who should check with a doctor before going keto?
Anyone with diabetes, especially on insulin or other glucose-lowering medicines, should talk to their doctor first. So should people with kidney disease, a history of disordered eating, raised cholesterol or heart disease, and anyone pregnant or breastfeeding. A child should only follow a ketogenic diet under a medical team.
The clinical sources give the reasons: medicines may need changing at the start, blood lipids can rise, and for several groups the evidence is too thin for a recommendation. Ghee changes none of that.
We make ghee at Himdhara, and we would rather you choose a diet with your doctor than because a jar says "keto" on it.
The short version
Ghee has no carbohydrate and is almost pure fat: USDA lists 0 g of carbohydrate and 100 g of fat per 100 g, and FSSAI requires at least 99.5 per cent milk fat. That makes it compatible with a ketogenic diet on paper, but not a special keto food, and its C8 and C10 share is small next to coconut oil's. The medical ketogenic diet is an established treatment for epilepsy that has not responded to medicines, run by a neurologist and dietitian, with known side effects. If you have diabetes or any health condition, or take medication, follow your doctor's advice before starting.
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.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Oil, coconut. FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Chapter 2.1: Dairy products and analogues (2.1.8 Standard for Milk Fat Products, Table 1). Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.
- Evert AB, Dennison M, Gardner CD, et al. (2019). Nutrition Therapy for Adults With Diabetes or Prediabetes: A Consensus Report. Diabetes Care.
- Kossoff EH, Zupec-Kania BA, Auvin S, et al. (2018). Optimal clinical management of children receiving dietary therapies for epilepsy: Updated recommendations of the International Ketogenic Diet Study Group. Epilepsia Open.