Does ghee raise cholesterol?

Probably yes, by a modest amount, when ghee takes the place of a vegetable oil. The firmest number is about butter, which is ghee with the water and milk solids still in it. Across 54 randomized trials in 2,065 people, moving 10% of daily energy from butter to most vegetable oils lowered LDL cholesterol by 8.9 to 16 mg/dL (0.23 to 0.42 mmol/L). Ghee itself has been fed to people in only three small trials, each in 24 to 63 healthy young adults for 4 to 8 weeks. In the newest, 30 adults who ate ghee instead of olive oil ended up with non-HDL cholesterol 20 mg/dL (0.53 mmol/L) higher, with an interval running from 0.01 to 1.05.

Unsettled. Ghee was not one of the fats in the 54-trial analysis, and most of its comparisons were indirect. The three ghee trials are small, short and limited to young healthy people. Two of them, both against mustard oil in India, found either no average change or a rise in total cholesterol matched by a rise in HDL. The direction for ghee is the one milk fat shows everywhere else. The size of the effect for ghee in particular is not pinned down.

Established. Replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat lowers LDL cholesterol. The 54-trial analysis above measured butter against oils, and WHO rates the wider finding as high-certainty evidence from randomized and strictly controlled feeding trials. The more saturated fat is cut, the more LDL falls.

What the trials found

Ghee against olive oil

Thirty healthy adults ate ghee for 4 weeks and olive oil for 4 weeks, in random order, with the same calories. On ghee, apolipoprotein B was 0.09 g/L higher (95% CI 0.02 to 0.17) and non-HDL cholesterol 20 mg/dL (0.53 mmol/L) higher. LDL cholesterol was 11 mg/dL (0.29 mmol/L) higher, a difference that did not reach significance, with an interval from -0.05 to 0.63. It is the only trial of ghee against an unsaturated oil that measured these modern markers, and its full text was not available to us, so we cannot say how many grams of ghee a day people ate.

Ghee against mustard oil

In 63 young, physically active Indian volunteers, 52 men and 11 women, ghee supplied 10% of energy for 8 weeks while the comparison group used mustard oil for all visible fat. Total cholesterol rose in the ghee group by week 4 and stayed up at week 8. HDL cholesterol rose too, so the ratio of total to HDL cholesterol did not change. The abstract gives the direction and not the size. The authors say their result cannot be carried over to older people, people with high blood lipids or people with less healthy habits until those groups are studied.

A smaller trial of 24 young lactovegetarians used the same 10% of energy for 8 weeks and found no significant change in the average lipid profile of either group. Two of the 11 people on ghee and one of the 13 on mustard oil had total cholesterol rise by more than 20%. That is a count of individuals, not a tested result, and a trial this small cannot rule out a modest average rise.

Butter oil, the same kind of fat as ghee

Butter oil is anhydrous milk fat, the same product class as ghee. In 57 overweight adults given 40 g of milk fat a day for 8 weeks, LDL cholesterol rose by 14 mg/dL (0.36 mmol/L) when the fat came as butter oil and by 1.5 mg/dL (0.04 mmol/L) when it came as whipping cream. Total cholesterol went up 12 mg/dL (0.30 mmol/L) on butter oil and down 0.04 on cream. HDL and triglycerides did not differ.

A meta-analysis of 5 randomized trials points the same way from another angle. Hard cheese lowered LDL cholesterol by 8.5 mg/dL (95% CI -11 to -5.4; metric: 0.22 mmol/L, -0.29 to -0.14), or 6.5%, compared with butter at a similar ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat. HDL fell by 1.9 mg/dL (0.05 mmol/L). Milk fat seems to act differently depending on what surrounds it, and ghee is milk fat with almost nothing around it.

Heart disease, from observational studies

A 2025 meta-analysis of 10 studies from the Indian subcontinent, 19,948 people in all, found an odds ratio for coronary heart disease of 1.15 with ghee, and an interval from 0.71 to 1.59 that crosses 1. That is odds, not risk, and no absolute numbers are given. Most of the studies were case-control or cross-sectional, some of low quality, and the authors still describe the result as a marginal increase. Its separate pooling of lipid studies found no difference whose interval cleared zero.

Older Indian surveys contradict one another. In rural Rajasthan, among 1,982 men, those in the higher ghee intake group had less heart disease, an odds ratio of 0.23 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.30), while a survey in Moradabad found the opposite direction. Neither measured cholesterol, and both are snapshots confounded by age, activity and income.

Who should be careful

No agency sets a limit for ghee itself. The number that bounds it is the WHO ceiling of 10% of total energy for saturated fat, a strong recommendation for adults and children, and saturated fat makes up most of ghee. On a 2,000 calories diet that ceiling is about 22 g of saturated fat a day. That ceiling is the only safety statement we found on this question.

Not for everyone. Whether trimming ghee is worth it depends on your heart risk. A 2026 review of 17 randomized trials in 66,337 people found that cutting or changing saturated fat brought little or no benefit over 5 years to people at low cardiovascular risk. People at high risk saw important reductions in deaths and major heart events, most clearly for heart attack when the saturated fat was replaced with polyunsaturated fat. The certainty was low to moderate, and the review is about saturated fat in general rather than ghee.

Check which ghee is in the jar. On labels in South Asia the word covers two different fats. Vanaspati ghee is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, and a review of the food supply and regulations of Pakistan names it among the major sources of industrial trans fat there. Everything above is about dairy ghee.

What expert bodies say

WHO recommends cutting saturated fat to 10% of total energy, suggests going further below that, and recommends replacing it with polyunsaturated fat. WHO judges with high certainty that swapping saturated fat for unsaturated fat or carbohydrate lowers LDL cholesterol. None of this names ghee. We tried to read the American Heart Association page on saturated fat and the 2024 Dietary Guidelines for Indians, and could not confirm either from the primary document, so neither is cited here.

How we searched

What would change this answer

• A larger and longer randomized trial of ghee against a vegetable oil such as mustard or groundnut oil, in people who already have raised LDL, reporting LDL and apolipoprotein B with grams of ghee a day. None is registered.
• Any ghee trial in older adults or people with high blood lipids. Every trial so far recruited young healthy volunteers, and the authors of the largest say their result should not be stretched beyond them.

More on ghee itself, what is in it and how it is used: the ghee page.

Sources

1. ev-ghch-01 · Meta-analysis or systematic review · systematic review and random-effects dose-response network meta-analysis of RCTs · n = 2065
   Each 10% of dietary energy from butter replaced with an equivalent amount of safflower, sunflower, rapeseed, flaxseed, corn, olive, soybean, palm, and coconut oil, and beef fat was more effective in reducing LDL-C (−0.42 to −0.23 mmol/l).
   
   Who: adults in randomized trials of at least 3 weeks comparing oils and solid fats, 1984 to 2018
   Effect: LDL-C -16 to -8.9 mg/dL (-0.42 to -0.23 mmol/L) per 10% of energy exchanged from butter to safflower, sunflower, rapeseed, flaxseed, corn, olive, soybean, palm or coconut oil, or beef fat; total cholesterol -19 to -7 mg/dL (-0.49 to -0.18 mmol/L)
   Certainty: Ghee itself was not a node; butter is the closest dairy-fat node (ghee is butter with water and milk solids removed). Most contrasts relied on indirect comparisons; 33 of 54 trials at low risk of bias.
   J Lipid Res, 2018 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the fulltext
2. ev-ghch-02 · Meta-analysis or systematic review · systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs · n = 5 RCTs
   Compared with butter intake, cheese intake (weighted mean difference: 145.0 g/d) reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) by 6.5% (-0.22 mmol/l; 95%CI: -0.29 to -0.14) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) by 3.9% (-0.05 mmol/l; 95%CI: -0.09 to -0.02) but had no effect on triglycerides.
   
   Who: healthy adults in randomized trials comparing hard cheese and butter with similar P/S ratio
   Effect: cheese vs butter: LDL-C -8.5 mg/dL (95% CI -11 to -5.4; metric: -0.22 mmol/L, -0.29 to -0.14), -6.5%; HDL-C -1.9 mg/dL (95% CI -3.5 to -0.77; metric: -0.05 mmol/L, -0.09 to -0.02); no effect on triglycerides
   Certainty: Indirect for ghee: shows that milk fat without the cheese matrix (butter, and by extension ghee) raises LDL more than the same fat inside cheese.
   Nutr Rev, 2015 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
3. ev-ghch-03 · Randomized controlled trial(s) · randomized two-period crossover trial · n = 30
   Compared with the olive oil, the diet with ghee increased fasting plasma apo-B (apo B) (0·09, 95 % CI 0·02, 0·17 g/l, P = 0·018), non-HDL-cholesterol (non-HDL-cholesterol) (0·53, 95 % CI 0·01, 1·05 mmol/l, P = 0·046) and LDL-cholesterol did not differ significantly between diet groups (0·29, 95 % CI -0·05, 0·63 mmol/l, P = 0·092)
   
   Who: 30 healthy men and women, free-living outpatients, isoenergetic ghee or olive oil for 4 weeks each
   Effect: apo B +0.09 g/L (95% CI 0.02 to 0.17); non-HDL-C +20 mg/dL (95% CI 0.39 to 41; metric: 0.53 mmol/L, 0.01 to 1.05); LDL-C +11 mg/dL (95% CI -1.9 to 24; metric: 0.29 mmol/L, -0.05 to 0.63), P = 0.092
   Certainty: Only head-to-head trial of ghee against an unsaturated oil with modern lipid markers; small and short. Full text not in PMC.
   Br J Nutr, 2022 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
4. ev-ghch-04 · Randomized controlled trial(s) · parallel randomized controlled trial, 8 weeks after 2-week lead-in · n = 63
   The serum total cholesterol level showed a significant rise in the experimental group at 4 wk; the rise persisted at 8 wk. A similar rise was also seen in HDL cholesterol. Hence the total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio did not show any significant change.
   
   Who: sixty-three healthy, young, physically active adult volunteers (52 male, 11 female); ghee 10% of energy vs all visible fat from mustard oil
   Effect: total cholesterol rose at 4 and 8 weeks in the ghee group; HDL rose similarly; total cholesterol/HDL ratio unchanged (sizes not given in the abstract)
   Certainty: Abstract gives direction but not size; young active volunteers. Authors call for trials in older and hyperlipidemic people.
   Indian J Physiol Pharmacol, 2005 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
5. ev-ghch-05 · Randomized controlled trial(s) · parallel randomized controlled trial, 8 weeks · n = 24
   In neither group was there any significant change in the serum lipid profile at any point in time. At 8 wk, 2 volunteers in the experimental group, and 1 volunteer in the control group had more than 20% rise in serum total cholesterol as compared to their 0 wk values.
   
   Who: 24 healthy young volunteers on a lactovegetarian diet; ghee 10 en% (n = 11) vs mustard oil (n = 13)
   Effect: no significant change in serum lipid profile in either group; more than 20% rise in total cholesterol in 2 of 11 on ghee and 1 of 13 on mustard oil
   Certainty: Very small trial; underpowered to rule out a modest LDL rise. Individual responders are a descriptive count, not a tested subgroup.
   Indian J Physiol Pharmacol, 2002 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
6. ev-ghch-06 · Randomized controlled trial(s) · single-blind randomized controlled isocaloric parallel trial, 8 weeks · n = 57
   As expected, the control diet increased plasma lipids, whereas the MFGM diet did not [total cholesterol (±SD): +0.30 ± 0.49 compared with -0.04 ± 0.49 mmol/L, respectively (P = 0.024); LDL cholesterol: +0.36 ± 0.50 compared with +0.04 ± 0.36 mmol/L, respectively (P = 0.024)
   
   Who: overweight men and women (n = 57 randomly assigned); 40 g milk fat/d as whipping cream or butter oil
   Effect: LDL-C +14 mg/dL (0.36 mmol/L) on butter oil vs +1.5 mg/dL (0.04 mmol/L) on whipping cream (P = 0.024); total cholesterol +12 vs -1.5 mg/dL (0.30 vs -0.04 mmol/L); HDL-C and triglycerides did not differ
   Certainty: Butter oil is anhydrous milk fat without the milk fat globule membrane, the same product class as ghee; within-group changes reported as mean plus or minus SD.
   Am J Clin Nutr, 2015 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
7. ev-ghch-07 · Observational data · systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control, cross-sectional, cohort and randomized studies · n = 19948
   Using a random-effects model, the CHD risk was ORp: 1.15 (95% CI: 0.71–1.59). Another meta-analysis of eight studies on ghee and lipid profiles found that ghee intake had neutral to positive effects on lipid levels.
   
   Who: participants from the Indian subcontinent in clinical and epidemiological studies of ghee and CHD, 1994 to 2024
   Effect: CHD OR 1.15 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.59), random effects; separate pooling of 8 lipid studies: total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglyceride differences all with intervals spanning zero
   Certainty: Mixed designs, mostly case-control and cross-sectional, some with low Newcastle-Ottawa scores kept for historical value; lipid pooling used standardized differences. Authors still call the CHD result a marginal increase. Not indexed in PubMed.
   Aulesa C, Fernandez E. Progress in Nutrition, 2025; 27(3): 16889 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
8. ev-ghch-08 · Observational data · community cross-sectional survey · n = 1982
   There was significantly lower prevalence of CHD in men who consumed > kg ghee per month (odds ratio = 0.23, 95% confidence limits 0.18-0.30, p < 0.001).
   
   Who: 1982 rural males aged 20 years and more, Rajasthan
   Effect: CHD prevalence OR 0.23 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.30) for the higher monthly ghee intake group; the threshold is garbled in the abstract ('> kg ghee per month')
   Certainty: Cross-sectional, confounded by age, activity and income; the opposite direction was reported in Moradabad (PMID 8910075). Neither measures cholesterol change.
   J Indian Med Assoc, 1997 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
9. ev-ghch-09 · Position of an expert body · WHO guideline, agency position · n = —
   WHO recommends that adults and children reduce saturated fatty acid intake to 10% of total energy intake (strong recommendation). 2. WHO suggests further reducing saturated fatty acid intake to less than 10% of total energy intake (conditional recommendation). 3. WHO recommends replacing saturated fatty acids in the diet with polyunsaturated fatty acids (strong recommendation)
   
   Who: adults and children, general population
   Effect: saturated fat no more than 10% of energy (strong); further below 10% (conditional); replace with polyunsaturated fat (strong)
   Certainty: A position on saturated fat, not on ghee. Certainty of evidence: moderate for recommendation 1, very low for recommendation 2. On a 2,000 calories diet 10% is about 22 g of saturated fat.
   Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children: WHO guideline, 2023 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
10. ev-ghch-10 · Position of an expert body · WHO guideline rationale summarizing systematic reviews · n = —
    As assessed in RCTs and strictly controlled feeding trials in the systematic review by Mensink (58), replacing SFA with polyunsaturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and carbohydrates all resulted in reductions in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in adults (high certainty evidence). The LDL cholesterol-lowering effects of replacing saturated fatty acids with other nutrients are cumulative – that is, the more SFA intake is reduced, the more LDL cholesterol is lowered.
    
    Who: adults in RCTs and controlled feeding trials reviewed for the WHO guideline
    Effect: LDL cholesterol reduction when SFA is replaced by PUFA, MUFA or carbohydrate (high certainty); cumulative, observed across SFA intakes of 2% to 24% of energy
    Certainty: WHO cites the Mensink review; effect sizes sit in the T1 cards above (ev-ghch-01).
    Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children: WHO guideline, 2023 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
11. ev-ghch-11 · Meta-analysis or systematic review · risk-stratified systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials, Cochrane methods · n = 66337
    For persons at low cardiovascular risk, reducing or modifying saturated fat intake has little or no benefit over a period of 5 years. Among persons at high cardiovascular risk, low- to moderate-certainty evidence was found for important reductions in mortality and major cardiovascular events, particularly for MI, with respect to replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat.
    
    Who: adults with or without cardiovascular disease in trials reducing or modifying saturated fat intake
    Effect: all-cause mortality RR 0.96 (95% CI 0.88 to 1.06); non-fatal MI RR 0.86 (0.70 to 1.06), RR 0.75 (0.58 to 0.99) when replaced with polyunsaturated fat; absolute benefit below importance thresholds at low baseline risk
    Certainty: Low to moderate certainty (GRADE). About saturated fat in general, not ghee.
    Ann Intern Med, 2026 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
12. ghr5-10 · Position of an expert body · review of published trans fat content data, product labels and food regulations · n = —
    Vanaspati ghee (partially hydrogenated vegetable oil), bakery shortening, hard margarines, and fat spreads are identified as the major sources of TFAs.
    
    Who: food supply of Pakistan, industrially produced foods and product labels
    Effect: vanaspati ghee, bakery shortening, hard margarines and fat spreads identified as the major sources of trans fatty acids; existing national limits judged insufficient
    Certainty: This is a regulatory review, not a measurement study of dairy ghee. It says nothing about the trans fat in butter ghee, which is ruminant trans fat and a different question.
    J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich), 2020 · checked 2026-09-24 · we read the abstract
13. ghr5-13 · Randomized controlled trial(s) · randomized controlled trial, parallel design, stated limits of extrapolation · n = 63
    However, more studies are needed on older subjects, hyperlipidaemic subjects, and on subjects following less healthy lifestyles before the results of this study can be extrapolated to the general population.
    
    Who: 63 healthy, young, physically active adults, 8 weeks; no trial found in people with high cholesterol, in older people or over longer than 8 weeks
    Effect: authors state more studies are needed in older subjects, hyperlipidemic subjects and people with less healthy lifestyles before extrapolating
    Certainty: This card records a gap, not an effect. The corpus holds no study of how ghee changes absorption of any nutrient and no ghee entry in the USDA retention tables, so cooking losses and bioavailability are open questions.
    Indian J Physiol Pharmacol, 2005 · checked 2026-09-24 · we read the abstract