This is how eating jaggery every day helped clear my terrible acne

I want to begin this story with an admission of guilt: I actually gave in to a WhatsApp forward and tried a remedy recommended by a complete stranger without even spending a second researching about whether or not there was any scientific backing to it.

“Gud khaiye, good ho jaiye”, the lady screamed at the top of her lungs in the video sent by a certain distant bua ji on the family group. 

You can judge me all you want, but I did have enough time to actually watch the entire 4-minute video explaining the many benefits of eating jaggery. Blame it on the ever-increasing acne breakouts on my face or my sheer desperation to somehow get the situation under control, I was hooked to the lady giving her two cents on jaggery being the magical remedy to acne.

And so, my tryst with jaggery began
As per her recommendation, I killed my inner anti-sugar health freak to give way to the newfound jaggery-lover and started eating a lemon-sized piece of good-old jaggery after lunch every day.

What started as a trial-based acne cure became a post-meal habit because I realised how eating jaggery naturally suppressed my dessert cravings. I mean, you could place a moist brownie dripping with hot chocolate in front of me and I wouldn’t feel like reaching for it—for the very first time in life. So, I continued my rather-modest sweet indulgence to keep my sweet tooth from breaking my restraint.

Also Read

Cinnamon for period pain: Here’s how to use it to deal with menstrual cramps Read Now

The clear skin came as a bonus
To be honest, I had completely forgotten the very purpose of including jaggery in my diet. In fact, I hadn’t even realised how my acne reduced to scars after two months of eating jaggery post lunch every day.  

Surely, the skin-clearing results weren’t half as quick as that of a glycolic peel treatment at a skincare clinic or simply taking hormonal birth-control pills for acne treatment (usually prescribed for those suffering from a hormonal imbalance/Polycystic Ovarian Disease-PCOD). However, the happened minus any side-effects, extra moolah, or any administration of synthetic hormones.

Yes, jaggery deserves credit for it
I looked into the matter before going on to share this experience with y’all through extensive Goggle research just to make sure that my deduction about jaggery fixing my problem wasn’t baseless. 

Guess what? It wasn’t! According to a study published in the International Journal of Chemical Studies, jaggery is touted as the healthiest sugar in the world. And for all the right reasons:

1. It’s packed with antioxidants
The study points to the fact that jaggery is packed with antioxidants and selenium, which enables it to fight off the free radicals in your body that can also cause oxidative stress on your skin and make it more sensitive to damage, infections, and even acne.

2. It’s a powerhouse of magnesium
The study also mentions how jaggery happens to be a rich source of magnesium. Now, this wonder mineral can strengthen your skin’s immune function and prevent it from breaking out. Additionally, magnesium is known to have a positive impact on your endocrine system and restore hormonal balance in your body. Hence, it works against acne which is usually also a result of excess oil production by the skin’s sebaceous glands as a result of a hormonal imbalance.

3. The iron content can also be held responsible for it
Even though excess iron levels in the body is linked with acne, the lack of it can lead to lower hemoglobin and slow down the healing process. Hence, if you’re anemic, the extra iron doze from jaggery can really help your case of acne.

So, should you try it as well?
Unless you’re diabetic or have been asked to stay off anything even remotely sweet due to any health condition, you can definitely try this all-natural remedy. After all, you have nothing to lose here and as an added bonus, you’ll feel more energetic throughout the day as well.