Research Projects

A number of traditional diets including Indian and Mediterranean diets recommend variety of fats in different recipes PMID28854932. Ayurveda recommends consumption of ghee for many health benefits. There are some scientific studies which show positive impact of traditionally consumed fats on health. However, the data remains very preliminary and non-conclusive, especially in case of ghee. Thus, positive and preventive health benefits of consumption of ghee remain undermined. Fats are important dietary constituents severe reduction in fat content in diet can lead to health problems, especially related to accelerated aging and degeneration. Very low amount of dietary fat increase risk of encountering non-communicable, degenerative diseases as well as physiological disturbance dry skin, hair, nails and disturbed digestion PMID30274325. Inclusion of healthy fat in required amount can mitigate the probleMs. However, most of the contemporary diet advices often includes highly reduced quantity of fats. Further, there is no clear understanding on benefits of ghee made from different milk source milch animal type, variety of cow indigenous/hybrid-cross breed etc and by following different procedures curd, curdled cream or plain cream. Even though Ayurveda has understanding of properties of different varieties of ghee and respective health benefits, contemporary scientific data is largely lacking. Scientific enquiry about probable special qualities of indigenous cow products would be helpful to understand the advantages, especially for health benefits. In the proposed project emphasis would be given on cellular and molecular level understanding of possible health benefits of traditionally prepared indigenous cow ghee, which is highly recommended in Ayurveda.