Q:

Why is Ghee one of the 5 things you can't live without, and is it true you put some in your nose when traveling on planes?

A:

Ghee makes the world go round. Those of us in the West have always heard how butter isn’t good for us, is filled with saturated fat, and when used in excess can lead to things like heart disease and high blood pressure. But the ancient Indians realized that when you burn off the moisture in butter, you rid it of the very parts that make it so difficult to digest. What we’re left with is the pure fat of the butter, which we call ghee. In Western terms, burning off the moisture in butter converts its long-chain fatty acids to short-chain fatty acids, and this conversion allows for all that we consume to be digested and used by the body.

Ghee serves as a way to nourish and moisturize the body much like natural oils like olive oil and sesame oil do. It is generally balancing, so if you have too much heat, too much dryness, or even too much moisture (mucus) in your body, taking ghee will help to regulate digestion so that any of those imbalances will become less severe. Ghee even works as a way to moisturize dry skin, and when treated in a certain way and infused with herbs, it can be used to nourish the eyes, the ears, and other orifices of the body. And yes, I do indeed put some in my nose when traveling on planes, as the nourishing and moisturizing effects of ghee help to reverse the dryness that takes place when I breathe in the recycled air on the plane.

In short, ghee is one of the five things I can’t live without because it’s something that none of us can live without. At least, we can’t live without it if we plan to live well.

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