The benefits of jaggery include its ability to cleanse your body, act as a digestive agent, sweeten your food in a healthy manner, and provide good amounts of minerals.
Most of you might not find its look very interesting or attractive as a food item, because the dark yellow color and its amorphous and sometimes gooey look is more than enough to keep some of you away. Of course, there are probably some daring dieters who say that jaggery’s color and appearance is far more appealing and interesting than that monotonous, white, crystalline sugar. After all, color is all around us, and one of the best parts of the visual experience of life! Live a little!
Jaggery often sticks to your hands and lips while eating, which can also be a nuisance. In Myanmar, the native country of jaggery, people don’t notice this, since they have been eating jaggery since childhood and it is a mouth watering sight for most of them. Furthermore, if you hear about the way it is manufactured and stored and the standards of hygiene there, you might never think of eating it, but it is far-far better than those frozen meats and so called hygienically packed food items with chemical preservatives in them that are stored for weeks or months before reaching the consumer. In fact, in some cases, the jaggery blocks may contain some particles of sand or ash that flies in from the oven, but I don’t think they are unhygienic in any way. We eat a multitude of dust and pollutants every day while we breathe and talk. Still doubtful?
This is how Jaggery look like...
Health Benefits of Jaggery
1. Prevents constipation
Jaggery helps prevent and relieve constipation by stimulating bowel movements. It activates the digestive enzymes in our body and thus helps in proper digestion of your food. This is the reason, why most people tend to eat gur after their meals. Here’s how to relieve your constipation with these easy home remedies.
2. Energy Food
We know that carbohydrates, consumed in our food, give us energy upon oxidation. The simpler the carbohydrate, the sooner the energy released. On one hand, this simplicity comes as a blessing for athletes and people suffering from serious fatigue because they need instantaneous energy and can find quick relief. Therefore, sugar and glucose is the proper carbohydrate for them, because they are very simple and are absorbed in the blood stream almost instantaneously to fill them with a sudden burst of energy.
But on the other hand, studies show and doctors advise that this sudden rise in sugar or energy level can be a major threat to the integrity of internal organs, particularly in the case of diabetics. In the long run, this may even give rise to diabetes, since the fluctuating sugar levels may affect the pancreas, to the point where the pancreas may lose its capacity to release large amounts of insulin at once to counter the quick increase in the body’s sugar level. This sudden uplift may cause severe damage to kidneys and eyes, can raise blood pressure, and create a number of other problems in the related organ systems. Jaggery is a more complex form of carbohydrate than plain sugar. When you eat jaggery, it is digested and absorbed gradually and releases energy over an extended period of time. This can provide the eater with warmth and energy for a more extended period without harming their internal organs.
3. Digestive Agent
This may sound strange, but in India, it is recommended to take a few grams of jaggery after a heavy meal or after eating meat because it facilitates digestion. Jaggery activates the digestive enzymes and itself changes to acetic acid in the stomach, thereby speeding up digestion and making the process go very smooth, reducing strain on the intestines and digestive tract.
4. Cleansing Agent
You may not normally connect sweeteners and sugars with “cleansing the body”, but that is actually one of the well-proven benefits of jaggery. It effectively cleans the respiratory tracts, lungs, food pipe, stomach and intestines. It pulls out dust and unwanted particles from the body, while also giving relief from constipation, perhaps due to presence of fiber in it. Reducing constipation and stimulating the movement of the bowels further cleanses the body of the toxins which jaggery just cleaned out and prepared for excretion.
5. Source of Minerals
Unlike sugar, jaggery is rich in minerals, mainly iron with traces of other mineral salts. While most of the iron in jaggery comes through its processing in iron vessels, the other minerals come directly from the sugar cane juice, since the juice does not undergo refinement or bleaching of any kind. Therefore, jaggery is a very good source of minerals for the body.
6.Increases immunity
Our body’s ability to fight infections and keep us healthy is greatly dependent on our immune system. Jaggery is loaded with antioxidants and minerals like zinc and selenium, which help prevent free-radical damage and also boost resistance against infections. Here are 5 amazing tips to improve your immunity.
