Sugars, used as sweeteners, are an important ingredient of human food. However, the best sugar, jaggery, or honey option depends on the unique dietary needs and goals.
Table sugar is the most processed, with little to no nutritional value besides pure sucrose. While table sugar tastes delicious, excessive intake has been related to a variety of health concerns, including weight gain, diabetes and tooth damage.
Jaggery, a traditional sugarcane or palm sap sweetener, is less refined than sugar and contains minerals and antioxidants. Its lower glycaemic index makes it a healthier choice for individuals who monitor their blood sugar levels.
The glycaemic index, simply put, is a measure of how quickly a food causes blood sugar levels to rise. The measure ranks food on a scale of zero to 100.
Honey, a bee-produced natural sweetener, is the least processed of the three. It includes trace levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and its low glycaemic index makes it an appealing option for those looking for a healthy sweetener.
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However, if seeking a healthy sweetener with nutritional advantages, honey is a better option than jaggery and table sugar because it results in a slow rise in blood sugar levels. Honey is regarded as a relatively safer sweetener in diabetics.
Researchers, in a comparative study on the effect of cane sugar, honey, and jaggery in rats with diabetes, validated that honey has the least weight-gaining and blood sugar-lowering effects than chemically processed cane sugar and jaggery when taken in optimal doses.
The choice and role of sweeteners (sugars) such as ordinary cane sugar, honey and jiggery, have always been a difficult decision for patients with Type 2 diabetes.
For the study, 120 male Wistar (albino) rats were randomly allocated into four groups of 30 each. Diabetic controls were fed with an equivalent amount of distilled water, while the other groups of rats were fed freshly prepared sweeteners containing cane sugar, honey, and jaggery solutions, respectively, in a dose of 1 g/kg body weight.
The result, published in the Proceedings of Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex Lahore, demonstrated that honey in type 2 diabetes mellitus possesses a minimum blood sugar-increasing level (hyperglycemic) and weight-gaining effects than processed cane sugar. As it was presumed, minimally processed jaggery has not shown significant beneficial effects on blood sugar levels and body weight.
The researchers, although they did not fully explain how honey reduces hyperglycemia, weight gain, and other anti-diabetic effects, suggested that the blend of various carbohydrates, particularly fructose and oligosaccharides, in honey might be the contributory factors.
They claimed, “Honey rich in fructose, a naturally occurring sweetener, enhances blood sugar control much better than sucrose. It has a glycaemic index of 19, compared to glucose, which has 100, and sucrose (refined sugar), with 60.
“It suggests that glucose-lowering or antidiabetic properties of honey might be attributed to diminished rate of intestinal absorption, extended gastric emptying duration and less food intake.”
In 2009, researchers at the University of Toronto also found that daily ingestion of honey for three weeks progressively and effectively reduced blood glucose levels in rats made to develop diabetes using alloxan.
They claimed that honey also caused a reduction in hyperglycemia that is induced by long-term ingestion of fructose, albeit to a lesser degree than its effect on alloxan-induced hyperglycemia.
According to them, “Honey could not reduce blood glucose in control rats that received neither alloxan treatment nor fructose ingestion, even though it caused an increase in body weight, irrespective of other substances concomitantly administered to the rats.
“It is thus apparent that honey may be a useful adjunct in the management of diabetes while serving as a sweetener, especially if taken in moderate quantities.”
Nutritional recommendations by diabetes associations have emphasised attaining individualised blood sugar, blood pressure and blood fat control along with achievement and maintenance of body weight together to delay or prevent diabetic complications.
It also persuades people with type 2 diabetes mellitus to abate their energy intake while maintaining a healthy eating pattern to encourage weight loss and improved blood sugar control.
Reduced insulin sensitivity has been linked to excessive use of common table sugar (sucrose) and different artificial sweeteners. Considerable research has displayed that the majority of type 2 diabetes mellitus cases can be prevented through simple dietary and lifestyle modifications.
When looking forward to a healthier life, the sweetener we select dramatically affects our well-being. While sugar is commonly used, jaggery and honey have gained popularity as they are believed to be healthier alternatives. Health-conscious individuals should favour these options.