Is Jaggery Good For Weight Loss…...?The Ultimate Guide 2024

Introduction

Jaggery is a traditional form of natural sweetener, enriched with essential nutrients that has multiple health benefits. The addition of Jaggery into your regular diet helps in conditions like anemia, piles, constipation, indigestion, heart and bone health. It improves immunity and optimizes the overall health of the body. Knowing all these benefits of jaggery a question may arise in your mind, Is Jaggery Good for Weight Loss? The answer is Yes! Jaggery can contribute to weight loss.

Jaggery, also known as Gur, is a natural unrefined sugar prepared by boiling concentrated sugarcane juice until the mixture becomes thicker and allowed to cool to form solid jaggery blocks. Jaggery is available in solid blocks, granular and syrup form.

Jaggery retains all the vitamins and minerals present in sugarcane juice, thus it is known as the healthiest sugar in the world. White refined regular sugar is also made from sugar cane but it doesn’t absorb the vitamin and mineral content found in the sugarcane as it is processed by the use of chemicals. Hence, nowadays in most of the sweet dishes, refined sugar is replaced with jaggery.

In this article, we will learn more about how jaggery is good for weight loss.

Nutritional Value of Jaggery

Jaggery is an excellent source of vital vitamins and minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Iron, Vitamin- C, Vitamin-A and Vitamin -E. The micronutrients present in jaggery have antitoxic, anticarcinogenic properties, prevent bile disorders, purify the blood and are used as a base material for ayurvedic medicines too.

Sugarcane Jaggery Nutritional Values per 100g are as follows

Nutrient	Amount
Energy	383 Kcal
Sodium	19-30 mg
Calcium	40–100 mg
Magnesium	70–90 mg
Phosphorus	20-90 mg
Potassium	1056 mg
Iron	10-13 mg
Zinc	0.2-0.4 mg
Vitamin A	3.8 mg
Vitamin B1	0.01 mg
Vitamin B2	0.06 mg
Vitamin B5	0.01 mg
Vitamin B6	0.01 mg
Vitamin C	7.00 mg
Vitamin E	111.30 mg
Phenolics	280-320 mg

Is Jaggery Good For Weight Loss…?

1. Jaggery is made up of longer chains of sucrose which makes digestion slower and releases energy slowly in the body and retains it for a longer time. This way, it helps prevent overeating, controls appetite and aids in weight loss goals.

2. Jaggery acts as a diuretic, cleanses the urinary bladder and urine, detoxifies the liver, promotes digestion, and cleanses the intestines and stomach.

3. Daily consumption of jaggery keeps your bowel movement regular and clean. Jaggery’s snigdha (oily) property allows easy passage of stool and relieves constipation. Jaggery helps to flush the toxins from the body. This way, it helps to maintain a healthy weight.

4. Jaggery helps maintain the electrolyte balance and prevent water retention in the body.

5. Jaggery helps to boost metabolism and maintain weight.

Can You Replace Sugar With Jaggery For Weight Loss?

Is Jaggery better than sugar? Yes, jaggery is a better alternative for weight loss adding more nutrients to your diet. Let’s go through its nutritional values and benefits.

1. Jaggery is a pure, wholesome, unrefined sugar that contains the natural goodness of vitamins and minerals produced from sugarcane juice. Whereas refined sugar lacks nutrients and only contains calories.

2. Compared to white sugar, consumption of jaggery leads to slow digestion, giving gradual release in blood sugar levels. This avoids the spike and crush of blood sugar levels.

3. As we consume white sugar, our body begins to crave more sugar, resulting in a vicious cycle of sugar consumption. On the other hand, jaggery when consumed, balances the deficiency of sugar levels, satisfies cravings and prevents overeating.

4. It also helps to improve digestion, keep satiated for longer, and prevent overeating. Jaggery increases metabolism which helps shed weight. On the other hand, sugar lacks nutrition and health benefits.

Jaggery Benefits For Weight Loss

Now that you are familiar with jaggery’s potential and its nutritional value, let’s explore is jaggery good for weight loss or not and how it helps to regulate body weight.

1. Jaggery is a rich source of minerals, vitamins and antioxidants, making it a healthier option compared to white sugar.

2. Jaggery stimulates digestive enzymes, improving digestion, preventing bloating, and reducing sugar cravings. This can be beneficial for weight loss goals.

3. Jaggery is rich in potassium, an essential mineral that helps to reduce water retention and increase metabolism. Improved metabolism aids in weight loss by burning calories more efficiently.

4. Jaggery stimulates Agni (digestive fire) which improves digestion and appetite. Regular intake of jaggery gives regular bowel movements which can be beneficial in the weight loss journey.

How to Use Jaggery in Diet To Lose Weight?

If you are looking to shed pounds and want to include jaggery in your diet then you should know how to consume jaggery for weight loss.

1. You can kick start your day by including jaggery tea or jaggery coffee in the morning. Better avoid adding milk to your beverage when you add jaggery to the tea or coffee.

2. It can be consumed before or after meals.

3. Jaggery can be replaced in dishes where sugar is added like cakes, puddings, muffins, etc.

4. Jaggery can be combined with sesame seeds, coconut, almonds, cashews and peanuts to make traditional sweets like chikkis or laddus.

5. Jaggery and roasted chana is an excellent combination that you can have for brunch.

6. According to Ayurveda, jaggery has a ushna gun (hot potency) which means it produces heat in the body and thus can be relished in winter for the best results.

7. Although jaggery is abundant in vital nutrients, it is a high-calorie sweetener. Therefore, it’s important to remember that it should not be consumed in excess.

How Much Jaggery to Eat Every Day For Weight Loss?

It is best advised to take one to two teaspoons of jaggery a day for weight loss.

Jaggery is rich in minerals and other nutrients compared to refined white sugar. But, finally, it’s sugar and should be taken in moderation.

Excess Jaggery consumption may be unhealthy and unsafe for people suffering from Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity.

Is Jaggery Good For Health?

Yes! Jaggery has the potential to optimize your health when consumed in moderation. It can be included in your diet or can be used in different medicinal preparations.

1. Jaggery can be added with pepper and ginger powder along with honey to get rid of cold and cough. Jaggery can be useful in treating throat and lung infections.

2. Studies suggest, that people who are exposed to dust in their daily work routine are highly recommended to have the daily dose of jaggery as it cleans the respiratory tract and lungs, cleanses the esophagus, stomach, liver, intestines and purifies blood.

3. Consuming jaggery with warm water on an empty stomach in the morning helps to regulate our body temperature, detoxify our body, control acidity, boost natural digestive enzymes, speed up digestion, balance metabolism, and help control body weight.

4. Jaggery relieves tiredness and excess body heat. Jaggery is the source of energy that helps to increase the stamina, and relaxation of muscles, nerves, and blood vessels.

5. Jaggery contains nutrients like sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, which help to regulate blood pressure and are good for the body’s cells and muscles. It strengthens the heart muscles and improves heart function.

6. Jaggery contains iron that helps to increase hemoglobin levels and prevents anemia. Incorporating jaggery in the diet helps to feel less exhausted, improves muscle function, and provides energy.

According to Ayurveda, one should prefer jaggery at least one year of age and less than 4 years for consumption. These types of jaggery are usually dark brown.

Jaggery Benefits For Females

Incorporating jaggery into your routine diet can be beneficial to females. It regulates the hormonal balance, reduces menstrual cramps and bloating, lowers premenstrual symptoms like mood swings and relaxes the body.

Jaggery is a good source of iron. Regular consumption of jaggery can prevent you from anemia and make you feel energetic and active. 10 to 15 g of jaggery can be taken daily to reduce the risk of anemia.

Jaggery contains phenolic compounds that can lower the oxidative stress. Jaggery helps eliminate toxins from the body, purifies blood, cleanses your gut, and improves digestion resulting in healthy and glowing skin.

Precaution

Compared to white refined sugar, jaggery is nutrient dense and white sugar contains only calories without any nutrients. Gur is healthier than white sugar.

But, inside Gur along with nutrients comes with calories too. Jaggery’s calorie value is slightly lesser than Sugar.

To get an adequate amount of nutrition from jaggery, you need to eat Gur in sufficient quantity and that’s not at all healthy. It’s not recommended to eat jaggery in greater amounts.

Thus, to get maximum health benefits from jaggery, it should be consumed in a limited proportion.

Conclusion

Is jaggery good for weight loss? According to the Ayurveda concept, Jaggery has healing properties and can be used in Ayurvedic medicine preparation. But do you know? Good quality jaggery contains more than 70% of sucrose which signifies that Gur is a high-calorie natural sweetener.

Thus, one should always keep the consumption of Gur in check. Jaggery when taken in moderation of one to two teaspoons, can be beneficial for our body optimizing overall health. Avoid freshly prepared jaggery and prefer at least one-year-old jaggery to get maximum health benefits from it. Jaggery’s rejuvenating and strengthening properties contribute to overall health.

Excessive consumption of jaggery may lead to weight gain, elevate the blood sugar level and can be risky for obese, diabetic and cardiac patients as well.

FAQ’s

Q.1 What is jaggery?

Ans. Jaggery is an unrefined, natural sweetener derived by concentrating the juices obtained from sugarcane juice. Palm jaggery and sugarcane jaggery are popular in India.

Q.2 What are the side effects of jaggery?

Ans. According to Ayurveda, freshly made Gur may cause

Indigestion or bloating, cough and cold by increasing the kapha dosh.
Jaggery, if not prepared properly, may cause intestinal worms and may increase kapha disorder in the marrow, blood, fat tissue and muscles.
If consumed a lot, it may result in weight gain, tooth decay, increased blood sugar level, etc.

Q.3 How much jaggery is good for weight loss?

Ans. It’s recommended to have a moderate amount of Gur for daily consumption one to two teaspoons daily. Jaggery is high in calories and may cause health issues if taken in excess but if it’s taken in moderation, it doesn’t harm.

Q.4 Is jaggery tea good for weight loss?

Ans. Yes, Jaggery tea is a much better alternative compared to refined sugar as it provides important nutrients to the body and can be beneficial to maintain overall health.

Q.5 Can jaggery reduce belly fat?

Ans. Jaggery can help to boost metabolism and promote the burning of fat in the body. Still, one should include routine physical exercise and a balanced diet to reduce belly fat.

Q.6 Is jaggery good for the skin?

Ans. Yes, Jaggery is good for the skin. Jaggery is a rich source of antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. It also acts as a blood purifier, is antitoxic, and cleanses the stomach and intestine which in turn helps to give beautiful glowing skin. It also helps to brighten the skin and reduce pimples and wrinkles.

Q.7 Is Jaggery good for joint pain?

Ans. Jaggery helps reduce pain for people suffering from arthritis or any joint pain due to its vata-balancing properties. It is also rich in calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium which contribute to bone health.

Q.8 Is jaggery good for diabetes?

Ans. Jaggery is not good for diabetic people. It is an unprocessed sweetener that takes time to digest and get absorbed in the body giving a steady rise in blood sugar levels. Like white sugar, jaggery doesn’t give a rapid rise in blood sugar levels and sometimes can be used to satisfy sugar cravings. But, jaggery is a high-calorie sweetener that may not be appropriate for people suffering from diabetes. Always consult your physician before including jaggery into your diet.

Q.9 Does jaggery cause weight gain?

Ans: Jaggery if taken too much, may give rise to weight gain. Jaggery is high in calories and has the property to increase the kaph dosh, especially in new or freshly prepared jaggery. Elevated kaph dosh can lead to weight gain. Hence, it’s recommended not to eat jaggery in excess.