Ghee vs Sunflower oil: nutrition per 100 g

Ghee is clarified butter, an animal fat; sunflower oil is pressed from seeds. Both are essentially 100 g of fat per 100 g, so a spoon of ghee and a spoon of oil add the same energy to a dish. This data set lists each at 884 kcal per 100 g, a figure calculated from the fat content rather than measured, equal to 42 per cent of a sedentary man's daily energy need and 53 per cent of a woman's. Swapping one for the other therefore does nothing for weight. The difference is in the kind of fat, and in what each does to flavour and to the way food cooks.

Ghee is mostly saturated fat, 71.02 g per 100 g, about 6.2 times the 11.39 g in sunflower oil. Diets high in saturated fat tend to raise LDL cholesterol, which is why heart guidelines advise keeping it modest. Ghee, as an animal fat, also contains cholesterol, though this data set gives no figure for it; plant oils contain none.

Sunflower oil is mostly polyunsaturated fat, 62.65 g per 100 g, about 24.7 times the 2.54 g in ghee, and nearly all of it is the omega-6 linoleic acid. Replacing some saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat is linked with better blood cholesterol. The monounsaturated share is the same in both, 26.44 g and 25.96 g. Ghee carries a little omega-3 ALA, 550 mg per 100 g, ranking 16th of 203 foods, while IFCT lists none for sunflower oil.

Ghee's low polyunsaturated content makes it stable at high heat; it does not break down easily during tadka or frying, and its milk solids have been cooked out, so it does not burn like butter. Sunflower oil's high polyunsaturated fat is more prone to breaking down when heated for long periods or reused, which is a reason not to reheat it again and again. Ghee carries a rich, nutty aroma that oil cannot copy, which is why a small spoon of it does so much for dal, khichdi or a hot phulka.

Ghee holds a special place: drizzled on dal-chawal, smeared on rotis in Punjab and Rajasthan, poured over Gujarati and Rajasthani dal-baati, used for halwa, ladoos and Mysore pak, and in temple prasad and pongal. Sunflower oil is the workhorse for everyday sabzi, frying and restaurant cooking, especially in the south. A practical household pattern uses oils for most cooking and keeps ghee for the finishing spoon where its flavour counts.