Are Ghee and Tallow Healthy Fats?

Transcript:

BRANDY: Hello and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's midweek segment called “Ask a Nutritionist”. My name is Brandy Buro. I'm a Licensed and Registered Dietitian here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness. On today's show, I'll be answering a nutrition question we received from one of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners.

So today's question is, are ghee and tallow considered healthy or beneficial fats? So I thought this was a really good topic to explore in February because February is heart health month. And we get a lot of questions about what the best fats are to support your heart, what fats could be damaging to your heart, and in general, I think fat is kind of a controversial topic when it comes to heart health because fat's gotten a really bad reputation for being bad for your heart.

Natural fats are essential for many aspects of health

But the truth is it's sugar in processed foods that are more damaging to your heart, and we actually need some good natural fats in our diet, not just for your heart health, but for your brain health, your bone health, blood sugar control, appetite control, and the list goes on and on. So, back to the question.

Are ghee and tallow considered part of those natural, healthy fats that are good for your heart? Well, I'm just going to start with the punchline and say that yes, ghee and tallow can be considered healthy fats. Both fats are considered natural fats, which means they do exist in nature without any chemical processing.

Kind of like the refined oils that we talk so much about, like soybean oil and canola oil. I consider ghee and tallow natural fats just like olive oil, butter, nuts and seeds, avocados. These are all natural fats that we want to include in a balanced meal plan. And ghee and tallow are not as common as some of those other natural fats.

Ghee: what is it & what are its benefits?

So I did want to go into more detail about what they are and what some of the unique benefits are to each of them. So let's get started with ghee. Ghee is also known as clarified butter, so they're one in the same. So it is derived from milk, it's derived from dairy, and it's basically butter that's had the milk solids removed.

So they remove the lactose, the casein, and the whey that's naturally found in milk and naturally found in trace amounts in butter. And what you're left with is just the oil from butter. So they remove those milk solids by melting butter at a low temperature and eventually the oil will separate from those milk solids.

And they just skim those milk solids off and they sort of strain off any sediments that are remaining. And then what you're left with is just the oil. So there's a couple of benefits that can come from removing the milk solids from butter. So, basically, when you remove those milk solids, you're removing the lactose, the whey, and the casein, which makes ghee a really great option for folks that have a dairy sensitivity.

So, I know many clients personally who they can't really do heavy whipping cream and butter is kind of iffy, but ghee is something that they can incorporate occasionally without any side effects.

Another benefit is ghee has a higher smoke point compared to regular butter or even some other oils that we normally cook with. So, this means that ghee can be used for higher temperature cooking compared to butter. So it can basically be heated at higher temperatures before it starts to smoke. That is what the smoke point is, the temperature at which an oil smokes. If you see smoke when you're cooking with any oil, that basically means that the fat has been damaged.

It's heated beyond its smoke point and it is now considered a damaged fat. So if you see that happening in the pan with any oil, whether it's olive oil or butter, best just to toss that out and start fresh and avoid heating it that high again. So the smoke point for butter is 350 degrees Fahrenheit. But the smoke point for ghee or clarified butter is somewhere around 465 and 485 degrees Fahrenheit.

So much higher smoke point, which means you can roast in the oven much hotter. You can sear things on the stovetop at a higher heat. You can do stir fries with it. So it's just a pretty versatile cooking oil in a lot of ways.

When it comes to quality, when you’re selecting ghee or clarified butter, I would recommend choosing ghee that comes from grass fed beef. Just like we suggest when it comes to butter or cream, you want to choose dairy products that come from healthy animals, grass fed, pasture raised, and organic if possible. That is just going to ensure that you get the best nutrient profile.

Something to be aware of is that I have seen plant based ghee’s or vegetarian or vegan ghee’s, meaning that it is not derived from milk, but actually made with various vegetable oils. So, just like you've seen like butter substitutes that are made with vegetable oil, there are ghee’s out there that are made with vegetable oil, which actually is a very processed and refined fat. That is the type of fat that you actually want to avoid because these are the types of fats that increase inflammation in the body and can actually increase your risk for developing heart disease. So you're much better just sticking with the real deal, going for real clarified butter, real ghee that is derived from dairy. Same goes with butter.

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Overviewing tallow: is it healthy?

Now let's move on to the other fat that our listener was asking about, tallow. This one might be even more unfamiliar to some of you. I don't think you see this a lot in stores. But tallow is basically the fat that has been rendered from beef. So it's very similar to lard, which is derived from pork.

But tallow, again, is derived from beef. So, very similar fats. And tallow can be considered a healthy fat. But kind of like we just talked about with ghee, I would recommend choosing tallow that comes from healthy animals. So, tallow that comes from grass fed and pasture raised beef would be the best option. And this is because animals, even humans, will store toxins in our fat cells.

So when you eat fat from animals, you potentially could be exposed to the toxins that those animals were exposed to. So that's why it's really important to choose the best quality that fits within your budget when it comes to animal based proteins and animal based fats like tallow, like ghee, like butter, like cream.

If you can remember that, you're doing great. Nutritionally, tallow carries some unique benefits, just like ghee did. Well, first of all, tallow is completely dairy free. So, even somebody with a dairy allergy could use tallow in their cooking. And, similar to ghee, it also has a higher smoke point than some other cooking oils.

So the smoke point for tallow is about 400 to 420 degrees Fahrenheit. So it's slightly higher than butter, slightly higher than olive oil, which also makes it a good choice for pan searing, stir frying or roasting things in the oven.

Recap

So just to recap, I would say yes, ghee and tallow are considered healthy fats, but it is recommended to choose ghee and tallow that come from grass fed, pasture raised animals as often as you can to improve the nutrient content. A unique benefit of ghee is that many people that have a dairy sensitivity can tolerate ghee because those milk solids have been removed.

And tallow is completely dairy free. So I think that would be great for just about anyone. Both are great choices for higher heat cooking, like pan frying, sautéing, and oven roasting. And just as a reminder, when we're thinking about incorporating healthy fat into your diet, it is always best to get a variety of all the different kinds of natural fat every day.

Instead of just using olive oil for everything all day every day, switch it up and try to use some ghee to cook your eggs or add avocado to a salad, throw in some chia seeds or some flax seed into a smoothie. Switching up your fats is just going to ensure that you are getting all the benefits that all of these natural fats have to offer.

Well, that is it for today's episode of Dishing Up Nutrition’s “Ask a Nutritionist”. If you like this episode, if you found it helpful, be sure to leave us a rating or a review on your favorite podcast app so we can help even more people make the connection between what they eat and how they feel. And if you have a question that you'd like us to answer, join our private Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook community.

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