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Since ancient times honey has been valued not only as
a delicious sweet golden nectar, but also for its health benefits.
Please find honey facts, health and nutritional information below.
Interesting Facts
Honey is "manufactured" in one of the world's most efficient factories,
the beehive. Bees may travel as far as 100,000 kilometres and visit more
than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just 500 grams
of honey.
The colour and flavour of honey differ depending on the bees' nectar
source (the blossoms). In fact, there are more than 300 unique kinds of
honey in North America, originating from such diverse floral sources as
clover, canola, basswood, buckwheat and wildflowers. In general, lighter
coloured honeys are mild in flavour; while darker honeys are usually
more robust in flavour.
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Nutritional Information
Honey is primarily composed of fructose, glucose and water. It also
contains other sugars as well trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins and
amino acids.
Honey contains a variety of minerals and trace elements in small amounts
(0.1 to 1.5 %) depending on floral sources and geographic origin. Two
tablespoons (30 ml) of honey contains 25 mg of potassium.
Honey contains trace amounts of vitamins C, B and sometimes A, D and K.
(See: Agriculture Canada Canadian Honey Situation and Trends)
Why is Honey Good For You?
Honey or Refined Sugar? Refined sugar is a "negative" nutrient which
means that it is literally devoid of nutrition and using it actually
makes your body use up stored nutrients to process it. Honey on the
other hand, is a natural sweetener that has many beneficial nutrients,
enzymes, and antioxidants (See: Honey Vs Sugar).
Honey contains virtually the same caloric value as refined sugar, but
honey does not contain any harmful chemicals and is entirely absorbed by
the digestive tract (See: Health Benefits of Honey). Refined sugar goes
through a very complicated process of extraction that involves multiple
superheating processes and treatments of burning sulphur to reach the
end product of a table top sugar (See: Health Benefits of Honey).
Diabetes: Diabetics blood sugar levels can be controlled by using honey
regularly as honey contains nearly 1:1 ratios of fructose and glucose.
Research has shown that the body’s tolerance to honey is significantly
higher than when compared to sucrose or glucose. This in turn helps to
regulate blood sugar levels (See: The World’s Healthiest Foods).
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White sugar is regarded as one of the leading causes of diabetes in
today’s society. Dr. Banting, the discoverer of insulin, states that the
incidence of diabetes in the United States has increased proportionally
with the rapid use of cane-sugar (See: Health Benefits of Honey).
Weight Loss: Common refined dietary sugars in our food supply lack
minerals and vitamins and are called empty calories for this reason.
They need nutrients from our bodies in order to metabolize our
cholesterol and fats. When our bodies lack these nutrients, metabolism
is impeded.
On the contrary, honey contains 22 amino acids and a variety of minerals
essential for its metabolism and therefore helps you in reducing weight.
For anyone looking to watch their weight, honey should be their choice
(See: Benefits of Honey). Honey is rich in antioxidants with similar
levels to fruits and vegetables. These antioxidants work to remove the
damaging by-products from the body that are associated with human
metabolism (See: Fun Facts about Honey, Health and Honeybees).
Cough Relief: Penn State College of Medicine has shown that night-time
coughing can be effectively treated through a single night-time dose of
honey (See: The World’s Healthiest Foods). This research is particularly
useful to parents with children under six years old as the Food and Drug
Administration recommends that children in this category not be given
over-the-counter drugs.
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Digestion: Stomach digestion is a major benefit of honey. The difference
between common sugar and honey is that, the sugars contained in honey
are predigested by the bees and can be quickly and easily absorbed in
the human digestive tract. Thus it is quite useful for digestive
disorders.
Honey can help to heal ulcers and upset stomachs. It has also been
proven to regulate intestinal function, alleviating both constipation
and diarrhea. (See: Fun Facts about Honey, Health and Honeybees).
Immune System: Honey acts as an immune system booster. Hospital research
has shown that honey is effective at reducing high fever incidences by
64% and 32% of cancer patients involved in this survey also reported an
improved quality of life after beginning to regularly consume honey
(See: The World’s Healthiest Foods).
Insomnia: Honey can help you sleep. Eating honey raises your blood sugar
level slightly. This resulted in a controlled increase of insulin, which
then causes the amino acid trytophan to enter your brain. The trytophan
is converted into serotonin, which promotes relaxation. Finally, in the
pineal gland, with the aid of darkness, the serotonin is converted into
melatonin, a well know cure for sleeping disorders.
Honey also contains the ideal 1:1 ratio of fructose to glucose making it
a super food for glycogen storage. Sufficient glycogen storage is
necessary for restful sleep. When your liver runs out of glycogen at
night, your brain starts to trigger stress hormones such as cortisol and
adrenalin to convert protein muscle into glucose. |
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