Jaggery: Sweetness That Is Good For You

One of the things we've been enjoying since we got to Pune is using jaggery in our morning oatmeal. We like the distinctive carmel and flowery flavors that it adds. The other day we were investigating how it is made when we stumbled upon some surprising health benefits!

[From Wikipedia]: "Some consider jaggery a particularly wholesome sugar, since it retains more mineral salts than refined sugar and it is made without chemical agents. Indian Ayurvedic medicine considers jaggery beneficial in treating throat and lung infections; [and there was a study that] found that in rats jaggery can prevent lung damage from particulate matter such as coal and silica dust."

And we need all the help we can get protecting our lungs from particulate matter! Yay jaggery :)

The golden-colored, pressed form is the way you usually find it. Recently, we bought a bag of dark (darker means it's richer in minerals) granuals.