Walk down the health-food aisle of any supermarket and you’ll see sweets and snacks labelled “sugar-free,” “zero sugar,” or “natural sweetener.” What these labels rarely tell you is which sweetener replaced the sugar — and that difference matters more than the label itself.
The natural sweeteners
Refined white sugar
Sucrose (glucose + fructose), stripped of all minerals during processing. Raises blood sugar quickly (GI ~65), provides calories with no nutritional benefit beyond energy. The standard against which everything else is compared.
Jaggery (Gur)
Unrefined cane or palm sugar — the same sucrose as white sugar, but with minimal processing. Retains small amounts of iron, calcium, potassium and B vitamins. GI is similar to white sugar (~65–70), so it raises blood glucose at roughly the same rate. The honest claim for jaggery is “less processed,” not “low sugar.” It is a better choice than refined sugar for the trace minerals and the absence of bleaching chemicals — but if you are managing blood sugar closely, quantity still matters just as much.
Dates (Medjool, Ajwa, Mazafati, Kalmi)
Whole, dried fruit — not a refined sweetener at all. The sweetness comes from fructose and glucose, but also comes packaged with fibre, potassium, magnesium and antioxidants. The fibre slows glucose absorption, giving dates a lower effective GI (~42–55 depending on variety and ripeness) than jaggery or sugar. Using whole dates as the only sweetener — the way we make our Royal Dates and Date Laddoos — is genuinely different from adding date syrup or date powder (which concentrate the sugar without the fibre benefit).
Stevia
Extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana leaf. Zero calories, zero glycemic impact. The sweet compounds (steviol glycosides) pass through the body without being metabolised. Sounds ideal — and for people who need to eliminate all sugar, it can be. The downsides: a bitter or liquorice aftertaste that many people find unpleasant at higher concentrations, and a flavour profile that doesn’t behave like sugar in traditional Indian sweets. You cannot make a proper laddoo or burfi with stevia alone — texture and structure depend on the bulk that sugar or jaggery provides.
Monk fruit (Luo Han Guo)
Similar story to stevia — zero calories, zero GI, extracted from a fruit. Slightly cleaner flavour profile than stevia, which is why it’s become popular in premium “keto” sweets. Also cannot provide the structural bulk of sugar, so it is almost always used in combination with a carrier or bulk agent.
The hidden layer: carriers and bulk sweeteners
This is where most “sugar-free” Indian sweet labels quietly hide something uncomfortable.
Natural high-intensity sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. You only need a tiny amount. But a laddoo or barfi needs bulk — something to give it body, texture, and the right weight in your hand. Manufacturers add carrier and bulk ingredients to fill that gap. Read the ingredient list of most “sugar-free” Indian sweets and you will find one or more of these:
Maltodextrin
A processed starch — usually corn, wheat or tapioca — that has been broken down into short sugar chains. It has a GI of 85–105, higher than white sugar. It is used because it is cheap, neutral in flavour, and provides bulk. A sweet labelled “no added sugar” but made with maltodextrin can spike blood glucose faster than one made with actual sugar. It is technically not a “sugar” by food labelling rules, which is why it is so widely used.
Maltitol
A sugar alcohol made from maltose. Has roughly half the calories of sugar and a GI of about 35 — genuinely lower than sugar. However, it is not well absorbed in the small intestine, and consuming significant amounts causes digestive discomfort (gas, bloating, loose stools) in many people, especially on an empty stomach. This is the most common sweetener in “sugar-free” chocolates and Indian sweets — look for it on labels as “maltitol” or “hydrogenated maltose.”
Allulose
A rare sugar that occurs naturally in small amounts in figs, raisins and wheat. It tastes and behaves like sugar (same bulk, similar browning, 70% as sweet), but is not metabolised — almost all of it passes through the body, giving it near-zero calories and a GI of essentially 0. It is the closest thing to a genuinely good sugar replacement for baking and cooking. The downside is cost and availability — it is significantly more expensive than other options, which is why it is mostly found in premium products marketed to diabetics and people on ketogenic diets.
What we use at Shobha Chi Rasoi — and why
Our laddoos use one of two sweeteners only:
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Jaggery — in Dink-Methi, Ragi, Til, Besan and Gulpapdi laddoos. No refined sugar, no additives. The jaggery does the same structural job as sugar in the traditional recipe, with the trace mineral benefit and the flavour depth that only slow-cooked gur can provide.
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Whole dates — in our Royal Dates and Date Laddoos. The dates bind the laddoos, provide sweetness, and bring fibre and nutrients that a refined sweetener cannot.
No stevia, no monk fruit, no maltodextrin, no maltitol, no allulose. The ingredient list is short because the recipe is old — the kind that existed long before the food industry invented “sugar-free.”
If you are managing diabetes or blood sugar, we will always be honest with you: our laddoos are not a free food. The date-based varieties are the closest we have to a low-GI option. Eat one as an occasional treat, not a daily habit, and preferably with a meal.
Glycemic index values cited are approximate averages from published research. Individual response to any sweetener varies.