Ayurvedic ghee (also known as Ghruta) is a sattvic, freely-given food that is a shining example of what nature can provide for our health. The golden, creamy substance helps to fortify the entire body and can even help to promote a sattvic mind and balance all the doshas. The major ghee benefits for stomach and digestion include the stoking of the agni (digestive fire), increasing absorption of nutrients, helping to promote regular bowel movements, ensuring digestion is smooth. This article will explore the use of ghee for digestion so that you can understand why it’s important to include this golden substance in your diet if you want to have strong agni.
Ghee, Butyric Acid & Agni
When the agni is strong, the digestive tract is healthy and all foods can be processed accordingly. American scientists found the digestive tract produces a substance that may be one of the physical aspects of our agni. A healthy digestive tract produces butyric acid, and people with low agni and unhealthy digestion often have low amounts of it. Ghee is made from butter, and butyric acid is the main fatty component of butter. This means that ghee may be unique in the sense of it being the only way to directly supplement agni. The colon and the digestive tract use butyric acid to help maintain energy levels. It also helps to support the health of the dhatus or tissues. Without it, we can’t properly absorb nutrients and the structural integrity of our gut might be compromised.
Benefits of Ghee for Stomach & Digestion
Ghee provides benefits all throughout the digestive tract, not just in the stomach.- Ghee helps to lubricate the digestive tract and ensures that digestion and assimilation can occur properly.
- Regular consumption of ghee keeps you regular.
- Ghee helps to heal and repair the gastrointestinal mucosa, preventing damage to the intestine.
- Ghee helps to prevent the growth and spread of unwanted bacteria
- People with conditions such as IBS often respond positively when consuming ghee as part of an Ayurvedic diet. Ghee helps reduce symptoms of pain and discomfort that these conditions may be causing.
- Ghee can also help to improve other areas of our health that relate, directly or indirectly, to our digestion, including:
- Helping to reduce hunger levels and therefore balancing overall food consumption.
- Helping to decrease nervousness.
- Increasing sensitivity to insulin and therefore improving the health of people with diabetes.
- Helping to support healthy cholesterol levels by reducing bad LDL cholesterol and increasing good HDL cholesterol.
You can also use ghee as a carrier oil for other dietary components like herbs. This allows for the nutrients in the herbs to penetrate deeper into the other tissues in the body. Regular ghee consumption will help your diet become primarily sattvic. It also increases the availability of these nutrients so that your agni can focus on the breakdown and absorption of other components.