What’s honey?
Honey is the gold-coloured syrup created by bees following the gathering of nectar from flowering vegetation. It is saved as honeycomb to offer meals for the beehive in the course of the winter months.
In historic Greece, honey was described because the ‘meals of the Gods’, whereas in China it’s labeled as a drugs.
Uncover our full vary of well being profit guides and be taught extra in regards to the well being advantages of manuka honey and whether or not honey is vegan.
Dietary profile
In its uncooked kind, honey consists of amino acids, antioxidants, nutritional vitamins, minerals and sugar. It has a excessive fructose content material, making it sweeter than sugar however with a average glycaemic index (GI).
Figures per 1 tablespoon (20g) of honey:
• 58kcal / 246KJ
• 15.3g carbohydrates
• 15.4g sugars
• 0.1g protein
• 0g fats
What sorts of honey are there?
Industrial honeys endure a filtration course of and are heat-treated to forestall the sugars from crystallising in addition to kill microbes earlier than storage. This extends the shelf life and makes the product extra enticing within the jar. Nevertheless, it negatively impacts the honey’s antioxidant content material and its potential well being advantages. Uncooked honey however is unprocessed and hasn’t been pasteurised or filtered.
Regarded as the ‘queen’ of honey, manuka honey is a well-liked but costly possibility which is produced from the nectar of the flowering manuka tree. It’s excessive in a chemical known as methylglyoxal, which has been claimed by researchers to be the supply of honey’s antibacterial properties.
Is honey a wholesome selection?
The well being advantages of honey rely on its processing in addition to the standard of the flowers the bees acquire from. Uncooked honey has not been heated, pasteurised, clarified or filtered in any means, and this kind usually retains extra of the health-promoting vitamins that may be misplaced to plain processing strategies.
Honey has been used topically as an antiseptic for years. It’s believed to hurry up the therapeutic course of in delicate, superficial wounds, ulcers and burns. As a result of honey consists primarily of glucose and fructose, two sugars that strongly entice water, honey absorbs water within the wound, drying it out in order that the expansion of micro organism and fungi is inhibited.
Honey, notably the darker varieties, is a wealthy supply of chemical compounds equivalent to flavonoids. Flavonoids have been reported to have antibacterial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergenic properties. Because of the flavonoid content material, some view honey as a more healthy various to sugar and a supply of antioxidants.
Nevertheless, though honey has a decrease GI than desk sugar, it’s nonetheless excessive in energy and causes will increase in blood sugar so needs to be consumed carefully.
Is honey higher than sugar?
Honey has a decrease GI than sugar, which means that it doesn’t elevate blood sugar ranges as shortly. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so it’s possible you’ll want much less of it, but it surely does have barely extra energy per teaspoon so it is clever to maintain a detailed eye in your portion sizes.
In case you do desire honey, strive to decide on a uncooked selection, which incorporates extra nutritional vitamins, enzymes, antioxidants and different vitamins than white sugar, and use it carefully. It’s value remembering, nonetheless, that any dietary profit from consuming uncooked honey is negligible.
Is honey secure for everybody?
Honey is classed as a ‘free’ sugar, the kind we’re suggested to restrict in our diets – so though it might be secure for many adults it needs to be consumed inside guideline quantities.
For diabetics, or these making an attempt to handle their blood sugar ranges, there is no such thing as a actual benefit to substituting sugar for honey as each will in the end have an effect on blood sugar ranges.
Along with this, all infants underneath the age of 12 months mustn’t eat uncooked or commercially produced honey. It’s because they might be susceptible to a kind of meals poisoning known as botulism.
Though most of us could get pleasure from honey in our diets, it’s not acceptable to all. Honey shouldn’t be vegan, it is because harvesting honey is seen as detrimental to the bees, who’ve labored exhausting to fabricate it and assist their very own survival by means of the winter months.
All the time examine together with your GP or different well being skilled if in case you have issues over honey’s suitability for you or your baby.
Wholesome honey recipes
Honey-roast beetroot
Honeyed winter salad
Clementine & honey couscous
Honey-mustard steamed inexperienced medley
Puy lentil, spiced roast carrot & feta salad
Moroccan aubergine & chickpea salad
And take a look at extra of our honey recipes
Learn extra…
The well being advantages of apple cider vinegar
The well being advantages of cinnamon
The well being advantages of oranges
All our well being advantages guides
This text was final reviewed on 27 June 2022 by Kerry Torrens.
Kerry Torrens BSc. (Hons) PgCert MBANT is a Registered Nutritionist with a publish graduate diploma in Personalised Vitamin & Dietary Remedy. She is a member of the British Affiliation for Vitamin and Life-style Drugs (BANT) and a member of the Guild of Meals Writers. Over the past 15 years she has been a contributing creator to a lot of dietary and cookery publications together with BBC Good Meals. Discover her on Instagram at @kerry_torrens_nutrition_
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