GUR

Raw palm sugar, made in the East Indies by evaporating the fresh juice of several kinds of palm trees, but specifically that of the palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis).

OR

A form of raw lump sugar, generally honey-brown in color. The best kind looks clean and is easily breakable, not brick hard.

GUR is the natural mixture of sugar and molasses. If pure clarified sugarcane juice is boiled, what is left as solid is GUR which is called jaggery also.

Now everybody knows that sugar is harmful for health. Particularly it creates diabetes which is dangerous disease. Some scientists have described sugar as a white poison. So sugar is a evil. As against this, GUR is innocent and nutritious food and it contains many natural minerals. So this is natural substance. So GUR should be used in our food instead of sugar. GUR is blessing for human health. In India, GUR is used since centuries.

In Mexico & South America Gur it is also known as panela.

Gur making economical

Sugar making process is very much complicated and very very costly. Producing of sugar is heavily centralized in a giant sugar plant with highly complicated and highly costly machinery running into millions of dollars. So naturally there is a huge exploitation of vested interests in sugar industry. As against this, GUR making process is very simple and very cheap. It can be done on the sugarcane farm itself at very small scale. No complicated machinery required. Any layman can master the art of GUR making process easily. Capital requirement in GUR making is only 5% or less than the capital requirement for sugar plant of the same capacity. So GUR making plant is extremely cheap.

So we can conclude from the above that GUR is better for health and easier and cheaper to make it. So it is within the reach of common sugarcane farmers. As against this, sugar is harmful for health and is complicated and costly to make it and it is out of reach of common sugarcane farmers.

Gur consumption

Year	Total per capita consumption Kg / annum
	Gur & Khandsari
1975-76	13.74	19.8
1980-81	12.46	19.74
1985-86	10.99	22.1
1990-91	10.66	23.25
1994-95	12.01	25.45
1995-96	9.08	22.93
1996-97	9	23.47
1997-98	8.99	24.55
1998-99	9	25.13
1999-00	8.88	25.8
2000-01	8.72	26.47

Overview

The manufacture of sugar from sugarcane juice is a process that involves a cocktail of chemicals. Sulphur dioxide, lime, phosphoric acid, formic acid, bleaching agents and viscosity reducers are just some of these. Moreover, the processing of sugar is carried on in mild steel equipment, which leads to a high dosage of Nickel in the mother liquor.

Jaggery (Panela) is a "natural" sweetener made by the concentration of sugarcane juice without the use of any chemicals / synthetic additives or preservatives. It contains an enormous wealth of minerals / protein / vitamins. More importantly, Jaggery (Panela) has great nutritive and medicinal value. It has the reputation of being a medicinal sugar and is prescribed for use in the Ayurvedic system of medicine.

Ancient Medical scriptures dating back to 2500 years state how Jaggery (Panela)purifies the blood, prevents rheumatic afflictions and disorders of bile and possesses nutritive properties of high order.