Jaggery is unrefined natural sugar that is produced without adding any chemicals. More than 70% of the total world jaggery production is done in India. Jaggery is popularly known as the “Medicinal sugar” and is nutritionally comparable with honey. The colour of the jaggery ranges from golden brown to dark brown in colour. It is used to make several Indian desserts and is known as a healthy replacement of sugar, primarily because it is unprocessed.
It has been used as a sweetener in Ayurvedic Medicine for 3000 years. Indian Ayurvedic medicine considers jaggery to be beneficial in treating throat and lung infections. While refined sugar mainly consists of glucose and fructose, jaggery contains glucose and sucrose. But jaggery also has minerals and vitamins which lacks in the refined sugar. The mineral content of jaggery includes calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and iron and traces of zinc and copper. The vitamin content includes folic acid and B-complex vitamins.
Types of Jaggery
