True Native

Sugar and jaggery are the two most commonly used sweeteners in every Indian household. Sugar comes in the form of white, translucent crystals while jaggery can range from golden brown to dark brown in color.
Both of them are produced using sugarcane juice but are processed differently. They have different flavors and textures but can substitute each other in various dishes.
Sugar does not have a flavor of its own and hence is considered ideal as a sweetener. However, many nutritionists these days recommend substituting sugar with jaggery. So what makes jaggery better than sugar?

1. Jaggery is rich in vitamins and minerals ​
2. Jaggery is absorbed slowly
3. Fewer calories than sugar​
4. Jaggery builds your immunity
5. Jaggery is good for the lungs
6. ​Sugar can cause weight gain
7. Jaggery helps in digestion
8. Jaggery is natural, sugar is loaded with chemicals​

It is hard to determine the difference between the two kinds of oil while cooking or tasting food, but both of them have different nutritional content, physiological and chemical properties.

Manufacturing process
Since the process does not involve an excessive amount of heat or chemical solvents, cold-pressed oils retain their original flavor, taste, aroma, and nutritional value. Not only the oil is highly beneficial for your cardiovascular health, but also your skin when topically applied. On the contrary, regular refined oils are extracted by using high temperatures and treated with chemical solvents that degrade their flavor, taste, and nutritional composition.

Nutritional value
Cold-pressed oils are rich in essential fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamin E, vitamin K, vitamin C, and other healthy fats as they preserve the potent nutrients of their ingredients and maintain their natural form. While consuming cold-pressed oils can protect the heart by reducing bad cholesterol and blood pressure levels, intake of refined oils in everyday diet can increase the risk of strokes and heart attack significantly.

Shelf-life
Regular oils undergo a hydrogenation process and are further treated with harmful chemicals to increase their shelf-life and yield capacity. On the other hand, since cold-pressed oils are unfiltered and minimally processed, they have a shorter shelf-life and produce a lower yield. For this reason, hot-pressed or regular oils are relatively cheaper than cold-pressed oils with greater quality.

Cooking method
Cold-pressed oils are suitable for food prepared in medium to low heat due to their low smoking points whereas hot-pressed oils are preferred for preparing meals at high temperatures due to their high smoking points.
Making a switch from regular oil to cold-pressed oil can be difficult and expensive, but this little transformation can make a big difference to your health and well-being. Some of the cold-pressed oils to include in your diet for good heart health are coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, groundnut oil, flaxseed oil, walnut oil, borage oil, etc.

Many people swear by honey as a healthy sweetener, an alternative to sugar or non-caloric chemical sweeteners. But can you go overboard on this tasty treat and is it really as good for you as you think?
Since honey is natural, it isn’t automatically filed away in our minds as sugar, but, it is considered an added sugar when you eat it.
It can be easy to go overboard on honey, especially when you’re adding it directly to smoothies, oatmeal, or other recipes and not measuring it out beforehand. “It’s difficult to gauge portions when using it straight from the bottle, and the sugar content adds up quickly. Too much honey consumption is linked to weight gain, diabetes, and tooth decay. Additionally, there is a significant amount of fructose in honey.

The most important thing is to watch your portions and limit added sugars each day. In general, keep all added sugars to less than 10 percent of our diet (not including sugars naturally found in fruit and milk). Stick to a tablespoon or less of honey per serving. One tablespoon provides 64 calories (and just over 17 grams of sugar). It may not seem like much, but that’s over four teaspoons worth of sugar. If you're following the AHA guidelines, that translates to about one and a half tablespoons of honey per day, or 10 and a half tablespoons of honey per week—assuming that's your only source of added sugar. If it's not (and it most likely isn't), you should eat less.