choices,” says Diwekar. Leading nutritionist Shikha Sharma too says: “The new generation is looking at ghee more positively.” And animal activist Anuradha Modi, who founded the Holy Cow Foundation to help sustain desi cows, adds: “People have seen the ill effects of vegetable oils. So, they’re returning to our traditional foods.” Across the globe, too, ghee’s finding numerous takers with local ghee brands springing up from the US to the UK to Aus- tralia. Chef Kunal Kapur recalls stumbling upon a ghee stall at a Sydney farmer’s market last year. “It was most unexpected but they’d had Indian ghee so they started mak- ing it,” he recounts. In the US, celebrity chefs like Alton Brown and Michel Richard are using ghee — Brown even tweeted on how to make it at home. It’s also getting huge mileage from the trendy Paleo diet, which is based on how our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate and so is high in fat. And lovers of the popular Bulletproof Coffee and also of Tur- meric Latte (it’s a variant of our haldi doodh), which is the drink du jour from Sydney to San Francisco, are having them with a dash of ghee. “Ghee has become big in the US as people are moving towards natural foods,” says New Jersey-based Sandeep Agarwal, who quit his Wall Street job to spread the benefits of ghee with his Pure Indian Foods. It’s among the top-selling organic ghee brands on Amazon. And, given Western food preferences, he has even introduced spice-infused variants like Italian Ghee, Herbes de Provence Ghee and his latest, Coco- nut Ghee. Meanwhile, in India, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved has helped churn ghee’s fortunes with cow’s ghee sales ris- ing rapidly. So, Parag Milk Foods’ Gowardhan ghee’s sales are growing at 20 per cent. “Ghee’s a growth driver for us,” says Shirish Upadhyay, vice presi- dent, strategic planning, Parag Milk Foods. Also, Amul ghee’s sales grew about 30 per cent in 2015- 16. And ITC launched its Aashirwad ghee last year. And, with creamy layer, health-con- scious Indians going organic, pre- mium brands like Organic India, Holy Cow and Vedic Cow Products are flying off the shelves too despite their higher prices. Holy Cow’s ghee is priced at Rs 1,600 a kg against Amul’s at Rs 390. “Our ghee is ahimsak as the goshala focuses on cow welfare so male calves are not abandoned,” says Modi. Avani Davda, managing director, Godrej Nature’s Basket, says: “There’s an increase in the number of custom- ers buying ghee.” Its ghee sales have risen from Rs 55 lakh two years ago to Rs 95 lakh today. It stocks eight ghee brands like Sanjeevani Organics and Amira. “A larger number of organic brands are coming to our stores and demand for them has been higher too,” says Davda. So why’s ghee good for you? It’s generally accepted now that the 1980s’ low-fat prescription was misleading and that it’s a myth that saturated fats push up blood choles- terol and clog arteries. Rather, recent studies say that low-fat diets high in refined carbohydrates and sugars are linked to diseases. Even the USFDA removed the link between dietary cholesterol and heart disease last year. So, saturated fats from natural sources like ghee, which Diwekar calls a “super-fat”, are good. That’s because of several properties. For one, ghee’s rich in short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), which help to maintain gut bacteria. This makes it lipolytic, that is, it breaks down fat and so helps in losing weight. D id you know American reality television star Kourtney Kardashian starts her day with a teaspoon of warm ghee? Or that Shilpa Shetty uses two spoons of ghee in her food? Stars like Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan have long been avid fans. Yes, ghee’s making a comeback. It’s always been an integral part of Indian culture, cuisine and Ayurveda. Over the last 60 years, however, it has been reviled as an unhealthy fat that was full of cholesterol as urban Indi- ans switched to refined vegetable oils. But all that is changing now.With Western nutrition science catching up with ancient Indian food wisdom to prove its many benefits, ghee is making a big splash across the world. “The whole attitude to ghee is going through a dra- matic change,” says celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar, a voluble champion of the superfood. So, urban Indians are starting to lose their scepticism about ghee even as premium, organic cow’s ghee brands like Organic India, the Holy Cow Foundation with its ahimsak ghee, and Vedic Cow Products are churning the market. “The last 60 years’ brainwashing about ghee hasn’t gone entirely but there’s a lot of interest in it. As more information reaches people, they’re making intelligent 6 GRAPHITI CoVeR SToRY GRAPHITI 7 GHEE WHIZ! Ghee is the hottest new superfood and it’s back on the table in India and becoming the surprise favourite around the world, says Aarti Dua Ghee is now thought to be a superfood that is detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and rich in antioxidants NUTRITION Photo: Rupinder Sharma Sandeep Agarwal and his wife, Nalini, have turned Pure Indian Foods into one of the top-selling ghee brands in the US Holy Cow Foundation’s Anuradha Modi says there’s a huge demand for her ahimsak cow’s ghee, which is selling at Rs 1,600 a kilo CALCUTTA ● SUNDAY 19 JUNE 2016 PHOTOS COURTESY: PURE INDIAN FOODS American reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian is a big fan of ghee AP