Which one is more appealing White, Brown or Copper brown? Does Jaggery help in reducing Phlegm?
It is observed that when there is a problem with phlegm there appears a severe decrease of Phosphorus in the body. Whenever you experience phlegm first understand the body is lacking phosphorous. Phosphorous has a relative Arsenic. If Arsenic is not there still good as it’s a deadly poison. But when it is present in minute amount this gives strength to phosphorus as its complementary.
In olden days when people were seen suffering from phlegm they were advised to have Jaggery. Jaggery has more Phosphorus than sugar with minute amount of Arsenic which helps in easy absorption. As you all know that jaggery is made from sugar cane juice which also has Phosphorus but being in concentrated form its more and the quality of phosphorus is better in Jaggery compared to sugarcane and is easily digestible and even be given to one day old baby too. So make the habit of eating jaggery to keep the phlegm at bay.
Now question arises, which jaggery to use really as market is flooded with so many options?
In markets generally we found white, brown and copper brown. You need to understand that the more the white jaggery is the more poisonous it is .I remember 10 years back while I was making the payasam(kheer) or porridge my maid said not to use the white version as they add 1 bucket of lime to make the jaggery look white and more appealing it seems and that naturally explained how it spoiled the milk payasam.
Since Britishers invaded India we want everything in white including our food. It is said in nature whatever is more white is not considered healthy and need to be avoided probably that’s why few of you avoid the 5 whites. For example the buffalo milk is not compatible for normal people and its intended for Pahalwans and body builders whereas for us we need to use cow’s milk which is usually yellow in color.
So you have seen that sugar cane juice is not white color and its kind of green in color so how does the white color come from? The white color of the jaggery is from lime. Hence understand that white jaggery is very unhealthy. Now the question is which is the best to use then? Please be informed that the natural color of jaggery is copper color or chocolate colored one. Once the demand ceases the production of white one will also decrease and eventually people with concentrate on natural ones. This will change the supply of white ones.
Coming to sugar though they both are made from the same raw material ie sugar cane juice both have difference of culture really. One is the culture of European nations from where the table sugar originated and the other is Indian from where the jaggery was made.
What basically is the difference is the processing technique involved though the raw material is same for both. Once sugar is made that marks the end of Phosphorus content and its basically sucrose. You need Phosphorus for reducing the phlegm in your body and sugar no longer has it.
Don’t be surprised to know that most of the sugar is refined using bone char or rarely carbon granules.
In the US, sugar companies use predominantly use bone char derived from Cows as they are beef eaters. What is bone char? Bone char is made from animal bones heated at incredibly high temperature and reduced to carbon before being used in a refinery. The sugar does not actually contain bone char particles but it does come in contact with them. Refined sugar does not contain any bone particles. The bone char is used to remove impurities from sugar but does not become part of the sugar though.
I don’t want to go into the deeper aspect of chemistry to explains sugar metabolism in the body but understand that ultimately it becomes acid in the body. Whereas when Jaggery becomes digested its converted to alkali. (Base). As you know our stomach has hydrochloric acid (HCl) already and when sugar metabolism produces acid as the end product this will increase the amount of acid in the body and kidney tries to remove it but after sometime it starts entering the blood stream and eventually these acids causes arthritis in the body. So understand that how much ever you eat jaggery the end product being alkaline balances the acidity of our stomach.
Remember one more thing, it takes long time to digest food when sugar is there and the whole energy is utilized to digest it whereas if you eat jaggery it will facilitate the digestion of all other things present along in the stomach. Ultimately, the take away from this article of mine firstly is to use Jaggery in your daily routine for phlegm ideally better to opt for recipe adaptations and substitution for a hassle-free cooking.
Secondly, people who are fasting for religious reasons to abstain from using table sugars for sugar items as it might have animal bone char. Try to substitute table sugar with cane sugar powder and jaggery so you don’t endure trouble in future.