Jaggery or Sugar? What to Eat in Diabetes?

Jaggery or Sugar: Which one is better to eat? Especially when you have diabetes? 

Is jaggery healthy or sugar? What’s the difference between the two? 

Nowadays, almost everyone is cutting sugar from their diet because sugar is considered the biggest enemy of your health. Many people are using jaggery as a sweetener in their diet. But is jaggery really as beneficial as people think, compared to sugar?

Let’s dive into the details, and first, let’s compare the nutritional values of jaggery and sugar!

100 grams of jaggery contains 383 calories, while 100 grams of sugar contains 387 calories.

Jaggery contains minerals like iron, magnesium, potassium, and calcium, whereas sugar only contains calories. These nutrients in jaggery are the reason why it's considered healthy.

However, if we talk about the glycemic index, the glycemic index of sugar is 65, which is considered medium, while the glycemic index of jaggery is 84, which is quite high. The glycemic index is a scale that indicates how quickly a particular food raises blood sugar levels. The lower the glycemic index, the safer it is.

This means that eating jaggery can raise your blood sugar levels much faster compared to sugar.

Now the question arises, is jaggery healthy or not? And if someone has diabetes, what should they eat?

Whether you eat  jaggery or sugar, your sugar level will increase in both cases. In diabetes, you should avoid both jaggery and sugar.

And if you think jaggery is healthy and are consuming it while having diabetes, you’re making a big mistake.

Because jaggery is less sweet than sugar, you may end up consuming 2 spoons of jaggery where you would normally use 1 spoon of sugar. This means you are consuming double the calories for a few nutrients, and your blood sugar level is also increasing significantly.

If you want to have a natural sweetener, you should opt for things like stevia or erythritol.

Source:- 1.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/efd2.75 

                2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6046027/