Jaggery is packed with many essential nutrients that are good for your overall health. The health benefits of eating jaggery are immense. Besides helping you to lose weight, it improves digestion, treats constipation, cleanses your body, improves metabolism and boosts energy levels. It is also claimed that jaggery can help improve immune system and aid in liver detoxification.
How does jaggery or gur help with weight loss?
Unlike sugar, jaggery is loaded with vitamins and minerals, including potassium, which boosts metabolism in the body. A lack of this nutrient can make your body hold onto water, resulting in weight gain, swelling or other medical conditions. Potassium also helps to balance the electrolytes in the body as well as the building up of muscles. Remember, good quality muscles are important to burn more calories. Potassium is also critical for the metabolism of several nutrients such as carbohydrates and fat. This clearly indicates that you need potassium in your body to get toned and burn fat effectively. You need potassium not just for losing weight but for the proper functioning of your mind as well. A lack of this mineral can cause psychological ailments and certain mood conditions like anxiety, anger, depression and irritability.
Other health benefits of jaggery
Potassium in jaggery helps to ease tension in your blood vessel walls, which helps further lower blood pressure. This further reduces your risk of hypertension and heart disease. Since jaggery is also a rich source of iron, it may help in preventing anaemia. Jaggery is also said to support liver health. It helps to flush out toxins from the liver, thereby keeping illnesses at bay. The nutrients in jaggery help in the maintenance of proper functioning of the digestive system. It is believed that regular consumption of jaggery can help prevent many respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis, etc.
Interestingly, jaggery also happens to be a powerhouse of important vitamins and minerals that give nourishment to your hair and skin. By consuming a small piece of jaggery every day, you can prevent various skin problems like pimples, acne. It can also reduce wrinkles and blemishes on your face. Also, the iron in jaggery keeps your hair strong and healthy, thereby boosting hair growth.
While jaggery can be one of the best foods to include in your weight loss diet, you must know that overindulgence in it can have negative health effects. Jaggery, despite having a slightly different nutrition profile compared to refined sugar, has sugar content. In some cases, consuming too much of jaggery can result in significant weight gain instead of reducing the weight. Taking too much sugar from any source can have adverse health effects, including obesity, heart disease and diabetes. So, take jaggery in moderation to lose weight and get the most benefits from this food.