Can Diabetes Patients Eat Jaggery? Here's The Answer!

Jaggery or gur is the traditional sweetener that is widely used in many Asian and African countries. Jaggery is considered a healthier alternative to refined sugar and dietitians often recommend adding jaggery to desserts instead of sugar. This is because the sweetener is unrefined and hence, it retains larger number of nutrients than the refined sugar. However, a lot of diabetics are often confused about the whether or not they can use it instead of sugar, which is beyond the scope of their diet. So what is the truth? Is jaggery really safe for diabetics or should it be shunned by diabetes patients altogether, along with sugar?

To answer this question, we must look at the way jaggery is produced. Jaggery is made from either sugarcane or date palm. Traditionally, to make jaggery, raw sugarcane juice or date palm sap is boiled in large and shallow vessels. The residue left after the process is complete, is less refined than the crystallized sugar that you eat. Therefore, it has more nutrients than the refined product. You're more likely to get sugarcane jaggery, which is more commonly available. But the nutrient profile of the sweetener notwithstanding, it is still very high in simple sugars.

Jaggery has a number of health benefits, including regulation of blood pressure due to the presence of iron. It also beats oxidative stress and aides digestion. This is why our elders believe in having a piece of jaggery after meals. However, for diabetics, an ideal diet consists of foods that have low glycemic index. Jaggery's glycemic index is very high and hence, it is not advisable for diabetics to consume jaggery. Even generally, diabetes patients must eliminate sweet foods and desserts altogether as a big part of dealing with erratic blood sugar is also killing the sweet tooth altogether. This is essential to condition diabetics to stay away from sugary foods.

So in conclusion, if you're perfectly healthy and have no blood sugar problems, then you may use jaggery as an alternative to white sugar. But if you have diabetes, then you must stay away from jaggery altogether.