Hello and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's midweek segment called Ask a Nutritionist.

My name is Brandy Burrow. I'm a licensed and registered dietitian here at Nutritional

Weight and Wellness. On today's show, I'll be

answering a nutrition question we received from one of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners.

So today's question is, are ghee and tallow considered healthy or beneficial fats? So I thought this was

a really good topic to explore in February because February is

Heart Health Month. And we get a lot of questions about what the best fats are to support your

heart, what fats could be damaging to your heart. And in general, I think fat is kind of a

controversial topic when it comes to heart health

because fat's gotten a really bad reputation for being bad for your heart.

But the truth is, it's sugar in processed foods that are more damaging to your heart.

And we actually need some good natural fats in our diet, not just for your heart

health, but for your brain health, your bone health, blood sugar control, appetite control,

and the list goes on and on. So back to the question, are ghee and tallow considered

part of those natural healthy fats that are good for your heart?

Well, I'm just going to start with the punchline and say that yes,

ghee and tallow can be considered healthy fats.

Both fats are considered natural fats, which means they do exist in nature without any chemical processing,

kind of like the refined oils that we talk so much about,

like soybean oil and canola oil.

I consider ghee and tallow natural fats just like olive oil,

butter, nuts and seeds, avocados.

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