Gur, honey or sugar — to your blood they are all the same sugar

You do not need to quit sweetness or feel guilty for liking it. The goal is simply less added sugar overall — and that is doable once you see where it hides. These steps cut the load without turning meals into punishment.

See a doctor sooner if you have a family history of diabetes, are gaining belly weight, feel constant thirst or fatigue, or were told your fasting sugar or HbA1c is creeping up. For you, the sugar conversation is not optional, and a quick test settles it.

Myth 1 — Gur is healthy, so eat as much as you like.

Jaggery is mostly the same sugar as white, with a few trace minerals. In large amounts it raises blood sugar much like any sugar. A little for taste is fine; treating it as a health food and piling it on is the mistake.

Myth 2 — Honey is natural medicine and won't spike blood sugar.

Honey is glucose and fructose your body absorbs readily. Its blood-sugar effect is broadly similar to sugar. The 'natural' tag does not cancel the calories or the spike.

Myth 3 — 'No refined sugar' on a pack means it's safe.

This often just means the maker used jaggery, honey, date syrup or fruit concentrate instead. To your body it is still added sugar. Read the total-sugar figure, not the buzzword.

Myth 4 — 'Sugar-free' sweets are a free pass.

Many so-called sugar-free mithai still carry plenty of carbohydrates, fat and calories. 'Sugar-free' is not the same as 'eat freely' — portion still matters.

Myth 5 — Only people with diabetes need to watch sugar.

High added sugar quietly pushes triglycerides, weight and fatty liver up in everyone, often years before any diagnosis. Cutting back is sensible long before a test ever turns abnormal.

A little arithmetic clears the fog. Health bodies suggest an adult keep added sugar to about 5–6 teaspoons a day — and gur, honey and white sugar all count toward that single budget.

Where it adds up

• One cup of sweet chaioften 2 teaspoons of sugar — two such cups already eats most of a day's limit.
• One regular cold drinkcan carry 8–10 teaspoons on its own, blowing past the daily mark in minutes.
• A spoon of honey or gurroughly the same sugar and calories as a spoon of sugar — not 'free'.

Tests that reflect your sugar intake (India ranges, vary by city, lab and offers)

• Fasting blood sugarroughly ₹50–150; a quick morning snapshot of how high your sugar sits.
• HbA1croughly ₹300–600; shows your average blood sugar over about three months, so a single sweet day cannot hide.
• Often bundled with a lipid profile in a health package, which can be better value.

General healthy guides (not a diagnosis): fasting sugar under about 100, and HbA1c under 5.7%, are commonly cited as normal — but your own targets depend on your full picture. The smartest move is not memorising cut-offs; it is taking the report to a doctor who reads your weight, family history and lifestyle together.

Step back, and the gur-versus-sugar debate is really a story about how easily a 'healthy' label can fool us. The food world has learned that words like 'natural', 'organic' and 'no refined sugar' sell — and we reach for them hoping to eat sweet without consequence. But your liver and pancreas cannot read marketing; they only feel the sugar load. Understanding that one fact frees you from a comforting illusion.

This matters in India more than most places. Sweets are woven into festivals, hospitality and daily affection, while diabetes and fatty liver are rising fast and striking younger. The lesson is not to banish mithai or feel guilty over a spoon of honey; it is to see all added sugar — gur, honey, white, or hidden in a packet — as one shared budget, and to spend it consciously.

The hopeful part is how much agency you actually hold. You do not need a perfect diet or an expensive superfood. Trimming sugary drinks, reading one label, keeping sweetness for genuine pleasure — these small, steady choices shift your future risk far more than any swap from white to brown ever could.

In the end, the healthiest move is not finding a 'good' sugar to use freely. It is being honest that sweetness is a treat to enjoy in moderation — and letting that honesty, not a reassuring word on a pack, guide what goes into your cup and onto your plate.