Is honey a good substitute for sugar?

May 30, 2021  11:23

Some people looking to lose weight or live a healthy lifestyle are replacing sugar with honey, considering it a healthier alternative.

However, according to nutritionist and endocrinologist Hasmik Abovyan, such a replacement is meaningless, since in fact honey is no different from other sweets: it contains a lot of sugar, which affects the body in the same way as sugar from any other sweet foods.

Bee honey is the nectar or sugary secretions of some plants partially digested in the goiter of a honey bee. 100 grams of honey contains about 304 calories and 82 grams of sugar. It also contains some potassium, sodium and other trace elements.

When people talk about the "naturalness" of honey, they usually mean a product that was not given sweetened water to the bees. However, no matter what the bees ate, the product they produced is still obtained from a substance with a huge amount of sugar.

Can people with diabetes consume honey?

As Hasmik Abovyan noted, diabetics usually do not need to completely exclude all sweets from their diet: in most cases they can afford a small amount of sweets, including honey, but this does not mean that they can eat unlimited honey.

In addition, as the specialist noted, people with diabetes can eat honey if, due to an excess of drugs or insulin, their blood glucose levels sharply decrease: in such situations, honey, like any other sweets, will help raise blood glucose levels and avoid problems that might arise from its sharp fall.

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