Jaggery Powder ( Nattu Sakkarai / Country Sugar )

COUNTRY SUGAR Nattu Sakkarai

Refined sugar – The sweetest poison

Refined sugar is made from raw sugar that has undergone a refining process to remove the molasses. In White Sugar Removal of colour is achieved by using granular activated carbon. The Refined sugar goes through Several processes that involve many different chemicals. Refined sugar is a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals. “What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. Refined sugar is just sucrose and calories, plus traces of chemicals utilized in the refining process such as lime, sulphur dioxide, and phosphoric acid. Refined sugar increases type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease risks. I would not like to put my health at risk using refined sugar, would you? It is pretty hard to avoid refined sugar, as it is included in almost everything. Another reason for their popularity is the cheap price.

Unrefined sugar – A natural sweetner

The cut and cleaned sugar cane is put into the crusher. The extracted sugar cane juice is collected in a big vessel. A certain quantity of the juice is transferred to a smaller vessel for heating on a furnace for about one Hour. Finally the juice is thickened and reduced to nearly one- third of the original volume. This hot liquid is golden in colour. Now it is poured into a shallow flat bottomed concrete tank to cool and solidify. The tank is large enough to allow only a thin coat of this hot liquid to form at its bottom, so as to increase the surface area for quick evaporation and cooling. After cooling down the jaggery becomes a soft solid which is now left as powder or pressed into the desired shape for selling at the market. But actually, the color of Country Sugar without adding any chemicals (such as bleaching) is brown in color, because the natural color of the sugarcane juice is dark green which then changes to dark brown after boiling. Country Sugar is never a yellow color. A number of families now turn towards Country sugar. Many people now avoid the consumption of refined sugar and in its place people now prefer to go with Natural Sweeteners like Country sugar/Jaggery. Country sugar is extracted from raw sugar cane without the application of any additives or synthetic chemicals. A very good trait of Country cane sugar is that it preserves all the original vitamins and minerals, making it good for regular consumption. Most of the market available brown sugar is a mixture of White sugar coated with molasses. In case, you are health conscious, then using this country sugar would be good for you. As it doesn’t have any chemicals