About Sugar
Sugar is a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are the most important fuel for our brains and provide our bodies with the energy our organs need to function. Sugars are present in nature; plants make sugars through photosynthesis. Sugar (sucrose) in your sugar bowl is simply water-extracted by sugar producers from beet or cane. Sucrose found in fruits and sucrose used in baking are the same thing. All have the same calorific value (4 kcal/17 kj of energy per gram). The body does not distinguish between sugars used in manufactured food and drinks or in the home, and those found naturally in foods. Sugar is cane sugar that has been minimally processed. The precise definition varies, depending on who you talk to. Adherents to a raw food diet, for example, may have very specific definitions that involve temperature and handling, while others may view any sort of lightly refined sugar as raw sugar. In all cases, raw sugar is the product of the first stage of the cane sugar refining process, and as a result it has some very distinctive characteristics.
Jaggery (gur)
Jaggery is an unrefined natural sugar that is made without the use of chemicals. India produces more than 70% of the total jaggery produced worldwide. Jaggery is commonly referred to as "medicinal sugar" and is nutritionally equivalent to honey. It has been used as a sweetener in Ayurvedic medicine for over 3000 years. Jaggery is said to be effective in the treatment of throat and lung infections in Indian Ayurvedic medicine.