Why should you eat jaggery during pregnancy?

If you are a pregnant mother, you have surely been recommended a healthy diet by your ob-gyn.

However, if you happen to have a sweet tooth, you will surely be unhappy to see that most sweet food items as this could lead to unnecessary weight gain during pregnancy.

But there is one fantastic way that can help satiate your love for sweet items, yet control weight gain.

Jaggery is the solution to your problem. Yes, that’s right. Jaggery is sugar in its unrefined form.

As such, not only does it help you stay away from weight gain caused due to refined sugars, but it has its own health benefits as well.

In fact, Jaggery is often recommended by doctors to anyone who wants to avoid the side-effects of consumption of refined sugars on a daily basis.

Jaggery can be made from sugarcane and date palm as well. It is available across the world and works great at sweetening food items and can be a great addition to any to-be mom’s diet.

But should you take jaggery when you are pregnant? Well, researches show that jaggery is especially beneficial for pregnant women.

Jaggery can help prevent low birth weight problems in newborns caused due to poor nutrition and poor lifestyles in expecting mothers.

Moreover, the inherent medicinal properties of palm jaggery can reduce the occurrence of common pregnancy difficulties.

Also, since it can purify breast milk, newborns will be able to feed on healthy and clean breast milk, thus ensuring better growth and development.

Here we will see how jaggery can be beneficial for pregnant women:

Controls blood pressure

Modern lifestyle often leads to abnormal blood pressure levels in most people.

A good number of people are seen to suffer from hypertension which means that they have abnormally high blood pressure levels.

Hypertension is a modern day evil and can lead to a number of serious health conditions such as heart attack, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, etc.

And all these mainly occur due to high levels of sodium in the body. That is why, you need a food that is low on sodium, and jaggery fits the picture perfectly.

Its low sodium content helps in lowering blood pressure and controlling it.

Lowers water retention

If you are an expectant mother, then water retention can be a major problem for you.

The build of excess fluids can lead to edema. That is where jaggery comes in. Jaggery is loaded with potassium that prevents water retention in the body, thereby helping to control weight gain in pregnant mothers.

Prevents anemia

Jaggery is known for its rich mineral content, especially iron. Researches have shown that a tablespoon of jaggery (approx. 20 gm) has 2.2 mg iron content.

Its high iron content makes it highly beneficial for pregnant mothers who often tend to suffer from anemia.

Consumption of jaggery helps to increase the RBC count of the blood, thus preventing anemia.

This also helps in boosting the immune system and in providing an energy boost, when needed.

Purifies blood

Jaggery can help in removing clotted blood from the body, thereby helping cleanse it. This benefit is obtained with regular consumption of jaggery in limited quantities.

Clean blood not only ensures good health for you and your unborn baby as well.

Supplies antioxidants

Jaggery also supplies the body with a good amount of antioxidants as well.

These antioxidants fight against the free radicals present in the body that can cause DNA degradation, cell damage, and other serious damages to the fetus.

Jaggery also helps in eliminating toxins and other wastes from the body by helping cleanse the liver, which promotes better health for both the
mother and the child.

Improves your digestive system

Jaggery is unrefined sugar that increases production of digestive enzymes in the stomach.

This helps in the better digestion of the different food items, thus minimizing the chances of flatulence, indigestion, intestinal worms, and other such issues of the digestive system.

It also helps in easier bowel movements, thus relieving problems of constipation.

In short, you will have no issues digesting any food that is taken during pregnancy.

Eases joint pain

Pain in the different joints of the body is very common due to the additional stress that the skeletal system has to bear during the growth of the body.

This is a common problem in all expecting women. However, eating jaggery can solve the problem.

Jaggery being a good source of vitamins and minerals helps nourish the bones and strengthen the joints, thereby reducing problems like join stiffness, join pain, and similar bone issues.

Keeps respiratory problems at bay

Research has shown that people suffering from respiratory problems get relief by consuming jaggery.

It is best taken with sesame seeds and can offer relief from respiratory problems like bronchitis, asthma, etc.

Taking jaggery during pregnancy can offer respite from your existing
respiratory problems.

Improves pregnancy

Jaggery can also supply folate in abundance to pregnant women. Folate is necessary in significant amounts to ensure a healthy pregnancy.

Thus, to-be moms should include jaggery in their diet to ensure that they have a normal and healthy pregnancy.

Supplies energy

Jaggery being a type of sugar supplies good amount of carbohydrate to the body.

However, being a complex carbohydrate, the energy is not released into the body immediately.

Instead, the energy release is slow and prolonged, which is why, jaggery can supply energy to the body for a long time without increasing the blood sugar levels.

This also helps in the prevention of weakness and fatigue that is common in pregnant women.

So, now that you are aware of the several health benefits of jaggery for to-be moms, you would surely be interested in adding some to your daily diet.

You can replace sugar with jaggery for sweetening food items or you could even have sweets made out of jaggery without any worry.

However, before you do any of that, be sure to ask your doctor for advice.