Sugar: The headstrong enemy of diabetes
Everytime we come across a new diabetic patient our first reaction is: "How much sugar do you take?"
The very next reaction comes in the disguise of an apply-to-all suggestion: "Don't eat too much sugar. You can have jaggery or honey, instead"
Jaggery and honey are seen as the safest sweeteners for diabetics mostly due to the fact they are consumed in natural form. Everything in natural form is considered healthy and jaggery, honey are no exceptions.
Study claims raw honey can control blood sugar and cholesterol
A research study done by researchers at the University of Toronto found that consuming raw honey can give the body cardiometabolic benefits, which means it can help improve heart health and control metabolic disorders like diabetes.
The researchers who studied 1,105 participants for the study have said that the rare sugars found in honey like isomaltulose, kojibiose, trehalose, melezitose improve glucose response.
"Natural and added sugars are metabolized the same way in our bodies"
The increasingly high demand for natural sugars over added sugars draws our attention to a question: Does natural sugar have any impact on metabolic health?
As per a Harvard report: Natural and added sugars are metabolized the same way in our bodies. But for most people, consuming natural sugars in foods such as fruit is not linked to negative health effects, since the amount of sugar tends to be modest and is "packaged" with fiber and other healthful nutrients. On the other hand, our bodies do not need, or benefit from, eating added sugar.
"Jaggery is chemically complex"
“Jaggery is more chemically complex than sugar, and it consists of longer chains of sucrose,” explains Dr. Ashok Kumar Jhingan, Senior Director - BLK-Max Centre for Diabetes, Thyroid, Obesity & Endocrinology, BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi.
Dr Jhingan adds, “using jaggery in place of refined white sugar will add a minimal amount of extra nutrients into a person’s diet. However, a person should not add more jaggery to food just to boost their nutrient intake. It is better to get vitamins and minerals from less calorific sources.”
“It may be slightly “healthier” to replace refined sugar”
On natural sugar like jaggery, Dr Jhingan says Jaggery or gur is the traditional sweetener that is widely used in many Asian and African countries. This is because the sweetener is unrefined and hence, it retains a larger number of nutrients than the refined sugar. Jaggery beats oxidative stress and controls blood pressure too.
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So, while it may be slightly “healthier” to replace refined sugar with a sweetener that has more vitamins and minerals, it's not really advisable to add jaggery to your diet.
The basics of glycemic index
Glycemic index or GI is a rating system for foods containing carbohydrates. The glycemic index of a food reveals how it will mess with your blood sugar level. The simple way to understand GI is that foods with low GI tend to release glucose slowly and steadily and those high on the glycemic index release glucose rapidly.
People with diabetes are always advised to have foods with low GI.
The GI of jaggery is almost similar to refined sugar and the GI of honey is slightly lower than it; however different honeys have different GIs.
"These give a false sense of security to diabetics"
On consumption of natural sugars over the refined ones, which is being done excessively these days, Dr Ramesh Goyal, Head of Department of Endocrinology & Diabetes, Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad says Jaggery is not a good substitute for sugar when it comes to patients with diabetes. The reason being that the glycemic index, an indicator of how a food item affects your glucose level, of jaggery is the same as sugar. A diabetic person consuming jaggery has the same level of high blood sugar which we expect from him/her eating sugar.
Shedding more light on the assumption that jaggery is a safer alternative to sugar, Dr Jhingan says sugar and jaggery both come from the same source which is sugarcane. Hence it is not a good substitute.
“Eating jaggery instead of sugar gives a false sense of security to patients with diabetes,” he adds.
The advantage of consuming jaggery is that it serves as a high source of iron and magnesium and is therefore good for your hemoglobin, but only for non-diabetics, he suggests.
Few points to know
While timely blood check up is vital for diabetes management, one should also be careful about changing style of living.
Unhealthy lifestyle habits which we have considered as new normal are detrimental to health. Therefore, start with simple habits like waking up early, doing physical activity, having sufficient sleep, eating organic food, cutting down alcohol and tobacco consumption can help manage diabetes.