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Cooking oil and ghee: the hidden calories in Indian food

Cooking oil and ghee: the hidden calories in Indian food

Every teaspoon of cooking oil or ghee adds about 45 kcal to your meal, and a typical Indian sabzi or tadka hides 270-400 kcal in oil alone. Mustard oil, groundnut oil, coconut oil, ghee and olive oil all sit at 884-900 kcal per 100g, so a 'healthy' oil has the SAME calories as a refined one. The real lever for a calorie deficit is less oil, not a different oil.

13 Jul 2026 · Burnie Academy
cooking-oil ghee calorie-deficit indian-food

Oil is the quiet calorie in Indian cooking. A spoon here, a spoon there, a shiny tadka on top of the dal, and the numbers climb without you ever feeling full. A single teaspoon of any cooking fat, ghee included, is about 45 kcal. A tablespoon is about 130-135 kcal. A normal sabzi or tadka often takes 2-3 tablespoons, so 270-400 kcal can hide in the oil before you have even eaten the vegetable. This article shows where those numbers come from, why switching to a 'healthy' oil does NOT cut calories, and the one honest lever that does: using less oil.

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