IS JAGGERY GOOD FOR DIABETIC PATIENTS ?

Being diabetic often triggers sweet cravings. And when sugar is out of limit, you look for non-sugary alternates, one of which is jaggery. Believed to be a great alternative for sugar, jaggery indeed has a number of health benefits. But is it really a healthy choice for diabetics? Let’s have a look.


IS IT AS BAD AS SUGAR? 

Jaggery is a traditional form of sweetener. It is obtained by boiling clarified sugarcane juice. This solid residue is less refined when compared to sugar and retains a lot of essential nutrients such as potassium, iron and calcium. But that doesn’t mean a person with high sugar level can eat jaggery. Its brown colour may seem healthy but for a diabetic patient, it is not a healthy choice. Jaggery does help in fighting oxidative stress and maintains blood pressure because of its iron content, but if you’re a diabetic, jaggery should be out of your food limits.


JAGGERY CONTAINS SUGAR: 

Yes, a lot of sugar! Jaggery is a nutrient-rich sweetener but this sweet-alternate also contains about 65 to 85 per cent of sucrose. And this is the reason that eating jaggery should be a big no for diabetics, as the bulk of it is sugar!


IT CAN CAUSE HIGH SUGAR LEVEL: 

Eating jaggery has somewhat similar effect on your glucose level as eating sugar. Many people have the perception that when they replace sugar with jaggery, it can help them maintain their blood sugar level. But this is not the case. Though complex, jaggery contains sucrose, which when absorbed by our body raises blood sugar levels. That means it is as harmful as any other form of sugar. The only difference is jaggery takes time to get absorbed in the body.
People who don’t have diabetes can replace sugar with jaggery. This is a healthy choice for them. Doctors recommend a low Glycemic Index diet for diabetics. Hence eating jaggery is not an option for them.


WHAT AYURVEDA SAY? 

Even Ayurveda doesn’t recommend jaggery for diabetic patients. Ayurveda uses jaggery to treat lung infections, sore throat, migraines, and asthma. And this ancient form restricts diabetics to use jaggery in their diet. Ayurveda has listed jaggery as an ‘ offender’ for a diabetic’s diet.

The retrospective cohort study, a collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Auckland, and Warwick, as well as University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, was published today in PLOS Medicine.

The researchers studied the incidence of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and ischemic heart and cerebrovascular diseases in a UK primary care database that included more than 9,000 women diagnosed with GDM between 1990 and 2016.

The study found that women diagnosed with GDM were over 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes later in life, over two and a half times more likely to develop ischemic heart disease and almost twice as likely to develop hypertension.

Dr Krish Nirantharakumar, of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Applied Health Research, said: “Results showed women diagnosed with GDM were significantly more likely to develop hypertension and ischemic heart disease at a relatively young age compared with women without a previous diagnosis of GDM in addition to the established risk of developing diabetes. The risk was greatest for type 2 diabetes in the first year following diagnosis of GDM and persisted throughout the follow-up period.

The findings add an important insight into the trajectory of the development of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the early and latter post-partum periods.

“Furthermore, the findings are the first to report on a large UK population and identify an at-risk group of relatively young women ideally suited for targeting risk factor management to improve long term metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes.”

Although current guidelines recommend annual screening for diabetes in women diagnosed with GDM, the study also found that follow-up screening for diabetes as well as cardiovascular risk factors was low. With the exception of blood pressure, less than 60% of women were screened in the first year after giving birth and decreased to less than 40% by the second year after having their baby.

Barbara Daly, of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, said the research was especially important given that the prevalence of GDM is increasing rapidly in most developed countries.

She added: “Guideline recommendations for screening and management of hypertension, lipids and smoking cessation are lacking and need to be reviewed.

“Although the NICE guidelines recommend annual screening for type 2 diabetes in women diagnosed with GDM, this study found follow-up screening was poor for type 2 diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension.

“Clinical guidelines need to include post-partum screening and management for all cardiovascular risk factors in women diagnosed with GDM and not restrict it to diabetes.”