When it comes to functional foods, honey is constantly talked about. But is it truly better than regular sugar? Will it still spike blood glucose? The answer may surprise you.
honey constitution
Honey is, as we know, made from bees. It’s viscous, thick, and oh so delicious. There are also many varieties of honey as well, like buckwheat, wildflower, Wad, Manuka, and the list goes on.
It’s been used for thousands of years in healing on the skin (topically), as well ingested as a medicine, and is considered one of the oldest foods in the world.
Honey from a honeybee is mostly carbohydrates, nearly entirely monosaccharides: glucose and fructose. Then the second largest component of honey is water. There is a very small amount of protein and enzymes. Finally, vitamins, minerals, phenolic compounds, and flavonoids make up <1% of honey per 100mg (3).
Interestingly, honey from a stingless bee is actually 16-36% carbohydrates, and 23-40% water (3). This difference in types of honey will be addressed later.
Compare that to table sugar, which is sucrose, a disaccharide, which happen to made up of… glucose and fructose.
BUT sugar is made up of the disaccharide, whereas honey is made up of 2 monosaccharides, so the uptake and metabolising of each food is different in the body. Plus, sucrose from table sugar is split 50/50 in the make up from glucose and fructose, where with honey, there is slightly more fructose than glucose.
How honey affects blood glucose
Since honey is a carbohydrate, and a simple one at that, it will raise blood glucose levels (4, 7). However… when substances like this are investigated in the research, there are typically time intervals where blood glucose is measured after the test food and the control food intake. And that is where the magic (aka science) happens.
Honey is considered a moderate glycemic food, so is sugar. Honey’s score is 58, and sugar’s is 60. The lower the score, the slower a food increases blood sugar (1).
We’ve seen in the research that low glycemic index/glycemic load can decrease A1C levels, fasting BS, and TG (2) in those living with diabetes. That’s great! But do the 2 points really make a difference?
Most of the research I found supported a strong “yes”. I did find a few that showed no difference in blood glucose values when honey was consumed in comparison to a control.
Example one (no difference):
In a study with adults who had impaired fasting glucose, there were no differences in fasting blood glucose and fasting lipid profiles when consuming 30g of Malaysian Kelulut honey for 30 days (5). The control was not to consume anything.
Example two (improvement):
In a meta-analysis and systematic review of 18 studies, where human studies were selected, and orally ingested honey was one of the inclusion criteria, they found that as long as honey (clover, robinia, and unprocessed raw honey) was consumed as part of a balanced diet, that the study participants DID have improvements in glycemic control and lipid values (6). The studies that were looked at used relatively healthy adults, a median intake of 40g of honey daily for a median of 8 weeks.
Example three (improvement):
This one was a large study with type 2 diabetic patients, including 97 people! Plus, there was a good mix of male to female subjects. The testing doses were 75g honey, 30g honey, and 75g glucose. What they found, was, yes, blood glucose rose in all groups. Now, when they took the blood glucose response at 60 mins after ingestion, the honey groups had a significant rapid decline over the glucose group, which indicates a lower glycemic response (7). How cool!
Example four (dose dependent):
This study used Nigerian honey in doses of 1, 2, and 3g/kg to diabetic rats over 3 weeks. What they found, was that the lower doses at 1 and 2g/kg of body weight reduced hyperglycemia and triglycerides (8). They did note that at 3g/kg, those same benefits were not noted, and even included a question if that high of a dose could actually make those values worse.
What to make of this:
I personally believe going the most natural and unprocessed is the way to go. And the large review type of articles even say that in order to get the benefits of honey, you have to consume specific types, ensure that additional sweeteners have not been added to the honey (3), and take a fairly sizable dose for a while.
I will say that “sugar is sugar” still applies here, as honey does raise blood glucose levels, BUT I do believe it is a better choice than table sugar due to it’s other ingredients (like the vitamins and phenolic compounds, though they are in small amounts).
Do I believe honey is “healthy”? No. Do I believe it is a better choice than table sugar? Yes.
If you do have impaired blood glucose levels, or are diabetic, I would proceed with caution, and carefully check your blood glucose values if you do decide to incorporate honey into your diet.
Dosing references:
2g/kg body weight for a 130lbs woman: 118g or 1/3 cup of honey
Compare this to example 2, and that would be roughly 1/3 of this per day.
(1) Holesh, Julie E., Sanah Aslam, and Andrew Martin. “Physiology, carbohydrates.” StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing, 2023.
(2) Chiavaroli, Laura, et al. “Effect of low glycaemic index or load dietary patterns on glycaemic control and cardiometabolic risk factors in diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.” Bmj 374 (2021).
(3) Zulkifli, Muhammad Faiz, et al. “Potential of natural honey in controlling obesity and its related complications.” Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine 27 (2022): 2515690X221103304.
(4) Ahmad, Nur Syamsina, et al. “Effects of post-exercise honey drink ingestion on blood glucose and subsequent running performance in the heat.” Asian Journal of Sports Medicine 6.3 (2015).
(5) Rashid, Mohd Radzniwan, et al. “The effect of kelulut honey on fasting blood glucose and metabolic parameters in patients with impaired fasting glucose.” Journal of nutrition and metabolism 2019 (2019).
(6) Ahmed, Amna, et al. “Effect of honey on cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Nutrition Reviews 81.7 (2023): 758-774.
(7) Nazir, Lubna, et al. “Comparison of glycaemic response to honey and glucose in type 2 diabetes.” J. Pak. Med. Assoc 64.1 (2014): 69-71.
(8) Erejuwa, Omotayo O., et al. “Nigerian honey ameliorates hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.” Nutrients 8.3 (2016): 95.
