Healthy Sweeteners!
This 'white poison' is perhaps the only lethal product that doesn't come with a 'warning' label, yet can actually kill a person without any warning! 'White Sugar' is that slow poison which is a daily part of our lives.
Are there any healthier alternatives to satisfy our sweet tooth?
The answer is 'Organic Jaggery'! It contains molasses, which is a nutritious by-product of sugar making process. It is loaded with minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, selenium, manganese & zinc. It is jam-packed with antioxidants, has a higher glycaemic index & is prepared without any toxic chemicals.
Remember how excited we used to get on finding our favourite 'Gur Chikki' made by mom in our lunch-boxes?
many more benefits! To name a few, it helps purify blood, acts as a cleanser for stomach, relieve joint pain, controls blood pressure, boosts digestion by removing toxins, helps treat breathing disorders, prevent anaemia, detoxify liver, boosts immunity, maintain electrolyte balance & helps prevent water retention (thanks to its potassium content). On the contrary, white sugar is just empty calories without any nutritional quotient.
Why don't people replace sugar with organic jaggery everywhere then?
That's because of the signature toffee like flavour of jaggery, which it imparts to every dish it is a part of, making that dish lose its characteristic taste & flavour.
Well then brown sugar might be the solution, right?
No! Though lying slightly on the nutritious side due to traces of molasses, there's absolutely no significant benefit of using brown sugar over white. They are more or less similar with just marginal difference in calories(brown-380 calories & white-385 calories per 100g).
What's the solution then?
For a healthy lifestyle, cut down on overall sugar intake. Though healthy organic alternatives like jaggery, maple syrup, stevia, honey, coconut sugar, agave nectar & thread sugar ('dhaagewali mishri') do exist, but they should always be used as a substitute to white sugar and that too minimally. Expecting to get enormous health benefits by indefinitely consuming jaggery or other natural sweeteners is similar to someone expecting to lose calorie count by consuming green tea in addition to the milk tea and not replacing the latter with the former!
