Is Honey Better Than Sugar?
Dear Jennifer and Sue:
Are there advantages to using honey over other sweeteners?
Thanks,
Sarah
There are so many sweeteners available that it can get a bit confusing
deciding which to use. Honey is flower nectar that is collected and
concentrated by honeybees.
In response to your specific question, there is really no nutritional
advantage to using honey over some other sweetener. Ounce for ounce, the
nutrient content of honey is the same as table sugar. The same is true for
Turbinado sugar (raw sugar) and brown sugar. Although some less-refined,
more "natural" sugars may contain minerals (half a cup of evaporated cane
juice has 2mg of iron and 114mg of calcium, for example), you would need to
eat unreasonable amounts for it to make any meaningful contribution to your
diet.
The only sweetener with a nutritional advantage is blackstrap molasses,
which contains 5mg of iron in two tablespoons.
A Word About Sugars
Honey contains mostly fructose, the sweetest of monosaccharides (simple
sugars). Fruits, vegetables and cane sugar also contain fructose. Table
sugar is sucrose (glucose plus fructose). Fructose is sweeter than sucrose,
so some people use honey because they can use less to make something just as
sweet. Honey is denser than table sugar, so it contains more calories per
tablespoon -- but using less may counteract this.
Thanks for your question. I hope this answer dispels any myths you may have
heard about honey and puts it into perspective nutritionally with other
sugars. Of course, from a culinary and flavor standpoint, several
differences between honey and sugars could be advantageous or not depending
on your goal.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Schiano, UVM student
Sue Gilbert, M.S., Nutritionist
RESOURCES: As the season unfolds, the bees visit many flowers to collect
nectar to make honey; these include dandelion, raspberry, blackberry,
alfalfa, white clovers, vetches, basswood, milkweed, goldenrod, and the
asters. On the average, they collectively fly 24,000 miles and visit three
to nine million flowers to make one pound of honey. Honey has never been
heated or filtered, and thus it retains the beneficial traces of pollen,
propolis, and beeswax, which the flowers and bees have put there. These
contain healthful minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, and
carbohydrates. Honey forms crystals around these particles, which you see on
the surface or by holding a jar up to the light. Within a month or so after
the fall harvest, Apitherapy honey will crystallize. To soften or reliquefy
honey, place it in a warm place or in warm water. Propolis is a mysterious
substance produced by mysterious creatures. Honey bees produce propolis by
collecting resins from trees such as coniferous and poplar species (amongst
others), and combine that with beeswax, pollen and their own amazing enzymes
Propolis is extremely variable depending on bioregion and season.
Since the beginning, beekeepers have observed that honey bees coat the
interior of the hive with this resinous substance. The bees plug holes,
waterproof, polish wax cells and hold the hive together with this glue. The
healthy hive resists bacterial, fungal, and mold attacks. Honey bees are
extremely clean insects. Years ago in Russia and European countries where
beekeeping has a long history, modern scientists began testing propolis in
the laboratory in controlled experiments to prove or disprove the thousands
of years of anecdotal evidence. Scientists and doctors decided to test
propolis on infectious bacteria and viruses. First they cultured various
pathogens which included, Corynebacterium diptheriae (causes diphtheria),
Salmonella typhus B (paratyphus), Listeria monocytogenes(brain membrane
inflammation), Staphyloccoci species(cause of infections and inflammation of
lungs, kidney, brain, middle ear, eyes, meningitis, and was present in the
Asian flu epidemic in the late 1950's), and a proteus, or Pseudomonas
auruginosa (responsible for digestive system disturbances, which on the
whole, antibiotics are no longer effective against).
Then each culture was inoculated with various dilutions of propolis solution
In each case propolis effectively defeated or inhibited the growth of each
of these pathogens. This experiment was also conducted using a "blind". The
scientists performing the experiment did not know that the chemists had
mixed a synthetic propolis, combining resins, balsams, wax and pollen, which
was tested alongside the bee's propolis. It was noted that the "synthetic"
propolis produced little to no effect on the same pathogens. Propolis would
have had less validity if the artificial propolis had produced the same
effects. Thus the key to this synergy is in the beautiful body of the bee
itself; without the bee there could bee no propolis.
After the tests on bacteria, the Microbiological Institute at the University
of Ljubljana, tested propolis on the influenza virus A. This time propolis
was in combination with honey, pollen, and royal jelly. Scientists
inoculated two chicken embryos, one with just the propolis combination, and
the other with the influenza virus A/ propolis combination. The embryo
inoculated with the propolis/honey continued to grow showing that this
combination was not toxic to the organism.
The second inoculation showed strong inhibition of the influenza virus. The
scientists continued the experiment by diluting the propolis preparation,
and showed positive results in dilutions as low as 1:4 million! Bee products
had proven themselves to the scientific world to be effective against
viruses. Other tests have also been done on the herpes virus with equally
positive results.
Doctors at the Oncology institute in Ljubljana performed studies with a
propolis/honey mixture. Patients who were receiving radiation treatment for
malignant tumors of the oral cavity, tongue and throat were chosen to take
the propolis/honey mixture. The radiation treatment the patients received
was usually followed by a secondary infection of the mucous membranes,
radium mucositis. This infection leaves the patients with extremely painful
swallowing and many would choose to not eat, thus further weakening the body
Radiation treatment also disrupts red blood cell counts. The patients given
the propolis mixture either had complete relief from this infection or had
only mild symptoms. The pain and swelling were alleviated to the point where
the patients could eat. Red blood cell counts also stabilized
As beekeepers we can not say that propolis is a medicine. Thousands of years
of results speak for themselves. Validation by the scientific community is
just icing on the cake. Propolis has incredible potential for human kind.
The bees and all that they produce are good for us. How can we ever re-pay
them?
Timothy McFarline