How much ghee per day is safe?

ICMR-NIN's Dietary Guidelines for Indians (2024) say to limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, or avoid it if possible. That is 5 to 10 g, and it counts inside your total limit for all visible fat, ghee and cooking oil together, which is 20 to 50 g a day depending on how active you are.

Is 1 tablespoon of ghee a day too much?

By ICMR's numbers, yes. ICMR counts a tablespoon as 15 g and a teaspoon as 5 g, so one tablespoon is three teaspoons of ghee, above its limit of 1 to 2 teaspoons for ghee or butter. If you like a tablespoon on festival days, balance it with less the next day.

Does ghee count as cooking oil?

Yes. ICMR groups vegetable oils, butter, and ghee together as visible fat. So the ghee on your roti and the oil in your tadka share one daily limit. If you add ghee, use that much less oil.

How much ghee should a child eat?

ICMR's 2024 guidelines give no separate teaspoon limit for children, so this calculator does not set one. Children's needs change fast with age and growth. Ask your paediatrician, and see our guides on ghee for babies and toddlers.

How many calories are in a teaspoon of ghee?

About 45. ICMR counts a teaspoon as 5 g, and every gram of fat gives 9 kcal. Two teaspoons a day is about 90 kcal.

Ghee Lab

Ghee calculator

1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee a day is the limit in ICMR-NIN's 2024 guidelines for Indians, and that ghee counts inside your total for all cooking fat: 20 to 50 g a day, depending on how active you are. Add the people in your home to see each one's ghee and oil, and what the ghee costs a month.

We make ghee, and at home we eat 1 to 2 teaspoons each a day, on roti, dal, and khichdi, a little more in winter sweets. These are ICMR's numbers for the general population. If you have heart disease, high cholesterol, fatty liver, gallstones, or kidney disease, ask your doctor for your own limit.

Who eats at home?

Your home, every day

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ghee, all adults together

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cooking oil left for the rest of the day's food

Prices from our Ghee Price Index, September 2026. 1 teaspoon = 5 g (ICMR) or about 5 mL, 30 days a month.

ICMR's daily limit for all cooking fat

ICMR calls oil, ghee, and butter "visible fat", and sets one daily limit for all of it together. Ghee takes 1 to 2 teaspoons of this, and cooking oil the rest.

Adult	Mostly sitting	Moderate	Heavy work
Man	30 g 6 tsp	40 g 8 tsp	50 g 10 tsp
Woman	20 g 4 tsp	30 g 6 tsp	40 g 8 tsp

ICMR's sample diets for older people use 20 g (a man) and 15 g (a woman), and its sample diet for undernourished pregnant women uses 20 g. On a 2,000 kcal day it puts the limit at 27 to 30 g.

What 1 to 2 teaspoons looks like in an Indian day

1 teaspoon

Spread thin over two rotis, or stirred into one bowl of hot dal or khichdi.

2 teaspoons

One on the morning paratha or roti, one in the evening dal. That is the whole day's ghee.

A festival sweet

Sweets made in ghee, like ladoo or halwa, carry ghee too. On those days, skip the ghee on roti.

The tadka

A ghee tadka for the whole family pot is shared, so count your share of it, and use less oil in that dish.

A teaspoon of ghee is about 45 kcal. For more on portions by goal, read how much ghee per day and what happens when you eat too much.

Questions about ghee a day

Sources

Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 (Guideline 7, printed p. 54; Table 2.1, p. 18; Tables 16.1 and 16.2, p. 102; fats 9 kcal/g, p. 9; household measures, p. 111), ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Checked 26 Sep 2026.

Make the teaspoon count

If it is only 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, it is worth knowing where it came from. We cook your jar after you order and send you the video.

Gir cow ghee Check the jar you have