Jaggery
From Wikiwel
Jaggery also known as Gud, is prepared from sugarcane juice as a traditional unrefined sugar. It is a traditional unrefined non-centrifugal whole cane sugar consumed in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is a concentrated product of cane juice/date juice without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in colo. The sugars present in jaggery are sucrose and glucose and is often referred as medicinal sugar because it helps in treating dry cough, indigestion and constipation too. Similar non-centrifugal sugar products exist all over Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, although they all have different names :
- Gur: India.
- Panela: Colombia.
- Piloncillo: Mexico.
- Tapa dulce: Costa Rica.
- Namtan tanode: Thailand.
- Gula Melaka: Malaysia.
- Kokuto: Japan.
See also : Blackstrap Molasses
Special Precautions of Jaggery
- Gram by gram, jaggery is more nutritious than sugar. However, there is a big “but” when it comes to describing it as nutritious.
- It’s essentially still sugar, and any extra nutrients you get come with a lot of calories.
- You would also need to eat a lot of jaggery to get a meaningful amount of these nutrients, which you can get in much greater amounts from other sources.
Benefits and uses of Jaggery are
- Jaggery is prepared without the use of chemicals in its processing. It is rich in important minerals like salts, magnesium which strengthens our nervous system and helps to relax our muscles.
- Jaggery with selenium acts as an antioxidant. The potassium and sodium present in it maintain the acid balance in the body cells and control the blood pressure in the body.
- diabetic people are often advised to replace sugar with jaggery
- purifies the blood
- extremely beneficial for anemic people as it is rich in iron
- helps maintain blood pressure levels due to low amounts of sodium
- reduces water retention in the body so controls weight of the body
- is rich in anti-oxidants so helps in fighting the free radicals in the body
- strengthens the nervous system
- helps control indigestion and constipation problems
- extremely beneficial for throat and lung infections
- helps in preventing breathing problems and asthma
- helps fight pollution by allowing people to breathe easily in higher levels of pollution and smoke
- is rich in magnesium so helpful in relieving fatigue and relaxes muscles and nerves
- prevents rheumatism
