Health Benefits of Honey: Kind of a sticky subject

The great news is that a long list of claims could be generated regarding the health benefits of honey and nearly all of them would carry some truth. You could walk away thinking that honey is the cure for all of the world's problems.

But like anything else, moderation is kind of important. Water is fantastic (thirst), but too much (drowning) might not be. Wine is marvelous but what it caused Aunt Frieda to do last Labor Day was not. And so below are a few thoughts for you on honey. If one of them strikes your fancy ask Google, Siri or Todd to give you some more information.

Honey and Type II Diabetes

An eight-week study (Bahrami, 2009) of forty-eight individuals found that for a group given a daily oral dose of honey - weight loss occurred, and cholesterol improved. This sounds perfect, but at the same time, their A1c levels went up. If you have Type II diabetes, you know that your doctor is tracking A1c closely as a measure of how your blood sugars are behaving over time. I think it sure would be interesting to get a deeper look into daily fasting levels and averages in a study of honey vs. refined sugar.

There is also evidence that since honey carries with it some antioxidants that it may increase the levels of a hormone called adiponectin that improves the regulation of blood sugars.

If you are trying to cut back on refined sugars, honey can help a bit in moderation. But keep in mind that since you are still replacing one sugar with another – cutting back on overall sugars would certainly carry with it it’s own benefits for diabetics!

Honey and your heart

Right off the bat, know that more research is needed here. A handful of studies on people and some on mice showed some positive results though! Anything that points to lowered risk of high blood pressure and improved cholesterol is worthy of notice and the stuff that bees use to stick things together (propolis) which can show up in raw honey may do just that.

Honey and its extra nutrients

Compared to refined sugar, honey has hidden in its golden goodness a small amount of bonus vitamins and minerals carried to you from plant compounds. That is great to hear, but always remember that honey is still pretty much pure sugar and in order to take in a significant amount of these wonderful vitamins and minerals, you would likely need to consume a whole lot – which might not be ideal. As a kid, I remember seeing statements on a box of Pop Tarts along the lines of “Contains 10 essential vitamins and minerals”. That’s great to know, but not great to build your body on. In the end, a spoonful of sugar takes a backseat to a spoonful of honey in my mind.

Honey and antioxidants

When you see the word antioxidants, you have probably now been trained to pay attention. Medically speaking, the opposing side of the discussion would be the “free radicals” in your body that get linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer when they begin to outnumber the antioxidants. Think of antioxidants as having the ability to put any excessive free radicals to sleep and thus preventing them from doing damage to your cells. Like real mercenaries though, free radicals can sometimes have an important job to do in the body - like fight infection. Having the right amount on hand is kind of the name of the game here.

Honey, and here, raw is better, can deliver some of those plant compounds like phenolic acids and flavonoids as a few more good guys in the small skirmishes that break out inside of you every day. Really, a free radical is just looking for a friend (an extra electron) to pair with and antioxidants are more than happy to give it to them.

Real lemon and honey together - order now.

Honey and that cough and possible sore throat

In children over one, honey might be even more effective in the short run than cough medicine for relief and for sleep without some of the side-effects. The level of effectiveness in studies leaves room for debate, but there is evidence that honey certainly beats a placebo. It should also be noted that if that cough comes along with a sore throat – honey is really thick. Now mix that with some tea and a lemon and your grown up self might fare much better in the night.

Honey and cooking

Honey is really easy to use in a lot of the ways you might already be using sugar, although arguably a bit harder to move around, right?

I have found that in chocolate chip cookies, breaking the brown and white sugar monopoly on the recipe into a threesome (1/3 brown sugar, 1/3 white sugar, 1/3 honey) results in a really good cookie that keeps the moisture better.

1:1 is a pretty easy ratio to use, but keep in mind that honey is also in liquid form which in larger quantities may require you to adjust other liquids in your recipe. And when applying heat to that honey – be mindful that it can brown a bit quicker than other forms of sugar. Whenever I use honey as a glaze (think meat), I wait until cooking is all done – or 99% there – before using any of my raw, unfiltered best.

Reference

Bahrami, M., Ataie-Jafari, A., Hosseini, S., Foruzanfar, M. H., Rahmani, M., & Pajouhi, M. (2009). Effects of natural honey consumption in diabetic patients: an 8-week randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, 60(7), 618–626. https://doi.org/10.3109/09637480801990389