But first, you may be wondering: What is Ghruta?

Origin

The term Ghruta originates from the Sanskrit word ghrta, which means ‘clarified lipid,’ or ‘clarified fat.’ In esoteric language, the ‘clarity’ of ghruta actually refers to ‘illumination,’ such as that which can be provided by consuming sustenance from holy Indian cows.

Formula

Ghruta is produced using a multi-step, hand-crafted process that has been used traditionally in Ayurveda for millennia.

The creation of Ghruta begins with free-range Indian Gir cows, whose prominent hump harnesses solar energy, illuminating the organs and fluids with gold-bearing rays. Once the cows give cues to their handlers, the golden milk is (kshira) drawn. Over the following week, the kshira is cultured (dadhi) and separated, at which point the butter (navnita) is further cultured, boiled and separated to create Ghruta (clarified lipid).

The result is a nutrient-rich ancient food that nourishes the body, mind, and spirit.

Ghruta vs. Ghee

Many people are quick to use the terms ‘ghee’ and ‘Ghruta’ synonymously, but these substances are very different. Both are clarified lipids, but Ghruta is prepared very differently.

Ghruta is also made from Indian Gir cows, which are quite a bit different from the Jersey cows that produce much of the world’s ghee. Physically, Gir cows produce a much easier-digested form of protein; spiritually, they are revered as potent vessels for the energy of the sun.

Though they may share a lot of the same properties, Ghruta is generally a more complete, healthier, and pure substance than ghee.

Ghruta Health Benefits

One of the most powerful health benefits of Ghruta is its ability to enhance the body’s agni. Agni is often referred to as the digestive fire. It’s involved in metabolizing all substances that come into the body – not just nutrients from food, but prana from the air we breathe and the sunlight that we absorb. Those with strong agni are able to assimilate more life force and prana, ensuring good health and vitality. 

In addition, Ghruta builds ojas, which is the subtle essence that gives tissues strength and endurance. Ojas is one of the most important energetic substances in the human body because it influences all aspects of health and well-being. It’s responsible for our vitality, vigor and virility, and improves the function of all bodily systems.

Some of the ways Ghruta improves health with regular consumption include:

• Boosting Immunity
• Stimulating Detoxification
• Enhancing Reproductive Health
• Fostering Cardiovascular Health
• Strengthening Bones, Joints & the Skeletal System
• Supporting Hormonal Health & the Endocrine System
• Improving Cognitive Function
• Nourishing the Skin, Hair & Nails
• Restoring Balance to the Doshas

Uses for Ghruta

In addition to its general health benefits, Ghruta has a number of other important uses. For one, it’s the most widely-used substance for the preparation of Ayurvedic medicine. It’s considered an anupan, or carrier substance, as it possesses an incredible ability to help draw the medicinal properties of herbs deeper into the body.

Ghruta is also useful for:

• Cooking
• Detoxing
• Nasya
• Netra tarpana
• Oil pulling
• Abhyanga
• Wound healing
• Candle-making
• Aiding seasonal transitions
• Anti-aging

How much Ghruta should I have?

The serving size of Ghruta depends on your use for it:

• For general health and wellness, simply take 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon on an empty stomach in the morning or evening. Using Ghruta in the morning will soothe the nerves. Using it before bed can encourage restful sleep.
• If you’re using Ghruta to boost your agni so that you can better digest and absorb nutrients, it’s wise to consume 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of Ghruta on an empty stomach 15 to 30 minutes before meals.
• For cooking, replace your butters with Ghruta and use it as a cooking fat, spread, or dressing. Ghruta can also be added to coffee, tea, smoothies, or soup.
• To use Ghruta as an anupan for medicinal formulas or for detoxification, it’s best to consult with an Ayurvedic practitioner.

Where should I buy Ghruta?

There are a few important factors to consider when buying Ghruta. To ensure it’s high quality, Ghruta should be from organic, hormone-free, and antibiotic-free cows. Pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics contribute to ama build up, which can decrease the effectiveness and purity of a substance.

In addition, it’s best if Ghruta comes from Gir cows. Gir cows are believed to be capable of harnessing the illuminating energy of the sun. They also produce easier to digest proteins than Jersey cows, which produce much of the world’s dairy and ghee.

It’s also important that Ghruta comes from cows that are grass-fed or pasture-raised. Cows which have not been grass-fed and pasture-raised will have fewer nutrients and an inferior composition of fatty acids.

Ethical sourcing is another contributing factor of high quality Ghruta. In Ayurveda, the quality of ingredients are not just evaluated by their chemical composition, but also by their energetic nature. Ingredients that are fresh, organic, and cultivated with integrity will have higher life force. Therefore, you want to be sure that you buy Ghruta from ahimsa (non-violent) farms in which the cows are milked by free will and not by force.

Ghruta should also always be packaged in glass jars for maximum freshness and purity.

Lastly, high-quality Ghruta should be made according to Ayurveda traditions to ensure maximum potency.

Reviewed by Dr. Jayant Lokhande, MD (Botanical Drugs), MBA (Biotechnology)

The post What is Ghruta? appeared first on PIOR Living.

Clarified Butter vs Ghee

We’ll start from the bottom. Clarified butter and ghee are very similar – to the untrained eye, they might be seen as the same thing. Rest assured, they are not.

Clarified butter is also sometimes referred to as drawn butter. Normally, butter is a concoction of a number of things: butterfat, milk solids, and water. Clarified butter, on the other hand, is butter with the milk solids removed. It is thus considered ‘clear,’ or clarified. 

Clarified butter can be made quite easily – all you have to do is simmer some unsalted butter in a pan over low heat. Firstly, the butter will begin to foam as the water evaporates. After this, white chunks will begin to form.

These clumpy white things are milk solids. Once they sink to the bottom of the pan, you can pour the whole concoction through a lined strainer. The resulting liquid is your clarified butter. 

That sounds pretty similar to the process for making ghee, right? Right.

However, ghee has a bit of a different color and flavor than clarified butter. The reason for that is because it’s left to cook for longer than clarified butter.

Once the milk solids fall to the bottom of the pan, the clarified butter is cooked for a bit longer. The milk solids will turn brown and begin to release a warm, toasty taste and smell. After the milk solids are strained, ghee is produced.

Ghruta

Ghruta is a different process entirely.

Instead of simply heating butter and straining it, Ghruta is made through the traditional hand-crafted Ayurvedic process in which:

• Raw milk is cultured and allowed to ferment until it becomes curd.
• The curd is churned, then a cultured butter is made from the fats and separated from the liquid.
• The remaining cultured butter is then slowly heated and the milk fats separated, much like the production of ghee and clarified butter.

Furthermore, Ghruta is only made from A2 cows, such as Indian Gir or Desi cows. These cows hold great significance for the Hindi people, who believe that the large hump on its back is able to transmute sunlight into bioavailable nutrition.

The Gir cows also produce a different type of milk from Jersey cows, which are most commonly used to make ghee in the West. The latter produces A1 proteins; Gir cows produce A2 proteins which contains beta-casein proteins that are much easier to digest.

The much more complicated procedure of making Ghruta significantly improves upon the already impressive health benefits of ghee. The end result of this process is a powerful, tridoshic substance that can be incredibly healing. Its flavor is further enhanced when compared to ghee, and its chemical makeup is different.

Because of the intensive process involved, Ghruta has a unique lipid profile when compared to ghee. The lipids are purified, allowing them to interact more effectively with the body. This allows for Ghruta to potentially reduce cholesterol levels in the body. It also won’t cause the same immunological reactions that some other lipid molecules are known to cause.

Authentic and pure Ghruta can help to enhance agni, and is said to look, taste, and smell the same as pure ojas. It is believed clarified butter is a tamasic food, while Ghruta is sattvic.

Differences Between Ghruta and Ghee

Ghruta is derived from the Sanskrit word for ghee: Ghrta. When English translations of Vedic texts refer to ghee, they are actually talking about Ghruta as outlined in the chart below:

Ghruta vs Ghrita vs Ghrta

As noted above, Ghruta, also known as Ghrita, is the Ayurvedic term for ghee, which is derived from the Sanskrit word Ghrta. In current conversation and literature, the terms Ghruta and ghee can have different meanings depending on how they were produced. If the ghee is produced using traditional Ayurveda methods as outlined in the chart above (in that it is a clarified lipid that is made using the ancient, traditional hand crafted techniques, by way of sacred, grass fed, free range cows using raw A2 milk etc.). it is typically called Ayurvedic ghee or Ghruta or Ghrita.

Despite the confusion between Ghrita and Ghruta, there are lots of clear differences between clarified butter vs ghee in Ayurveda. Hopefully, this article has clarified some of these differences for you.

Reviewed by Dr. Jayant Lokhande, MD (Botanical Drugs), MBA (Biotechnology)

The post What’s the difference between clarified butter, ghee, and Ghruta? appeared first on PIOR Living.

It’s important to distinguish that ghee is different than Ayurvedic ghee, which is also known as Ghruta, we’ll be referring to the latter in this article.

Ayurvedic Benefits of Ghee

These are some of the most powerful health benefits that you can experience by beginning to consume ghee.

Stimulates Agni & Digestion

One of the most important ways ghee impacts the body is through the digestive system. Ghee boosts the body’s agni, which is the Ayurvedic term for ‘digestive fire,’ but the term covers more than the assimilation of nutrients from food (although ghee is known to aid in this directly by stimulating the secretion of stomach acids to improve the breakdown of food and enhance nutrient absorption).

Agni fuels ojas and tejas, and encourages the absorption of ethereal nutrition: prana, absorbed from sunlight and air. Ghee is able to help encourage all forms of agni to function at their best.

The Rig Veda, an ancient collection of Sanskrit hymns, even states:

Streams of ghee caress the burning wood.

Agni, the fire, loves them and is satisfied.

Ghee also lubricates the digestive system to maintain and repair the mucus lining of the stomach while delivering butyric acid, a short-chain fatty acid that inhibits the growth of bad bacteria and fuels the repair of the intestinal wall. This improves the overall functioning of the digestive system and – according to Ayurveda – proper digestion is essential to our well-being and longevity.

Boosts Ojas & Immunity

A person’s ojas is believed to be involved in their overall health, vitality, and well-being. Those with a high ojas are said to have more life force than others, and are less likely to develop diseases or immune problems.

Ghee can help to restore depleted reserves of ojas. In this sense, it is believed to be a strong immune booster.

Pure ojas is believed to be yellowish in color, have a sweet taste, and to smell a bit like fried rice – all qualities that this ethereal substance shares with ghee. This is further confirmed by the well-known Ayurvedic ideology that ‘like increases like’.

Aids Detoxification & the Excretory System

Ghee can be very useful for helping the body excrete toxins. Ghee increases rasa within oneself while penetrating the body’s tissues. As a result, ghee dislodges toxins (ama) and drains them into the gastrointestinal tract for elimination.

During an Ayurvedic detox regiment known as Panchakarma, a person will take larger doses of ghee internally every morning to prepare themselves for the purging process. They will be given daily ghee massages to help encourage the release of toxins from fatty tissues.

Panchakarma has been shown to help speed up the elimination of at least 14 different fat-soluble toxins. These toxins would normally remain in the body for quite a while, since the body is most efficient at removing only water-soluble toxins.

Enhances Reproductive Health

Ghee helps prepare the body for conception by delivering nutrients, providing energy, and keeping illnesses at bay. It also uniquely increases cholesterol, which is essential for the production of sex hormones that are critical for fertility.

In addition, ghee is often prescribed to pregnant women to aid in the development of their unborn child.

Fosters Cardiovascular Health

Ghee is known to help improve cardiovascular health by regulating blood glucose and reducing the amount of LDL (bad) cholesterol in the blood. This is because ghee can increase the range of vitamins soluble in fat, like Vitamin E, preventing the oxidation of LDL. It also increases the secretion of biliary lipids.

Strengthens Bones, Joints & the Skeletal System

Ghee promotes strong bone and joint health by delivering healthy fat–soluble vitamins, like A, D, E, and K. It can also help the body absorb calcium.

Supports Hormonal Health & the Endocrine System

Our hormones require a healthy source of fat to function well. Ghee can help to ensure the proper functioning of these systems by supplying that fat. Furthermore, by acting as a nerve tonic, ghee can help reduce discomfort caused by overactive adrenals.

Improves Cognitive Function

Ghee is often one of the main ingredients found in tonics and supplements developed by Ayurvedic practitioners to help restore or enhance cognitive health.

One of the reasons for this is because of ghee’s characteristic sweetness. Sweet tastes are believed to nourish nervous tissue and the brain, enhancing cognitive ability and communication between nerve cells.

In addition, saturated fat is essential for proper brain health and ghee is one of the highest-quality sources of saturated fat available. Saturated fats are essential for myelin sheathing, which helps neurons, axons and nerve cells fire and communicate properly. Ghee is also rich in cholesterol, choline and omega-3 fatty acids, which are vitally important brain nutrients.

Aged ghee, which is generally more bitter and possesses more of a heating quality, is believed to be useful for helping to remove mental blockages. This could be useful for helping to remove trauma or barriers preventing one from seeking treatment.

Nourishes Skin, Hair, & Nails

As a potent regenerative agent, ghee is known to moisturize and improve the appearance of the skin, hair, and nails. It does this by promoting the growth of new, healthy cells.

Restoring Balance to the Doshas

Ghee can also be used to balance the doshas. It’s tridoshic, but especially fantastic for managing imbalances of Pitta and Vata. Ghee has soothing qualities that calms and nurtures the body and mind. It is particularly useful during autumn when Pitta and Vata can become easily disturbed. For those with a Kapha constitution, ghee is best taken in smaller quantities for maximum benefit.

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In addition to the numerous Ayurvedic benefits of ghee, it’s also important to note that ghee is rich in butyric acid and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which decrease inflammation and have been linked to the prevention and treatment of cancer. Ghee also contains medium chain triglycerides that help the body achieve optimal weight.

Ultimately, ghee is a powerful medicinal substance with a vast array of health benefits. Its ability to assimilate herbal concoctions and heal the body is surpassed by very few other substances.

Keep in mind that Ayurvedic ghee (Ghruta) is different than conventional ghee. To maximize the benefits of ghee, be sure to make or purchase a form that’s been crafted using Ayurvedic traditions, like PIOR Living Ghruta.

The post What are the health benefits of Ghruta? appeared first on PIOR Living.