Honey’s Unexpected Effect on Diabetes

While being high in glucose and fructose, honey has some helpful effects for diabetics

Honey can be a good sugar substitute to meet the sugar needs of people with diabetes. Shutterstock

Yes, you aren’t reading incorrectly: Honey can reduce blood sugar despite being roughly 80 percent sugar. In addition to lowering blood sugar, honey can boost immunity and slow the aging process. Recently, researchers have shown that honey has a wide range of unanticipated advantages.

For example, diabetics who consume honey in moderation might significantly reduce their risk of developing heart disease and diabetes complications. Eating honey can also help with obesity and lower blood pressure to prevent diabetes. Although honey has long been used in traditional medicine, it has only recently come to the attention of scientists who have begun to explain its advantages. The health advantages of honey are covered in full here, which may inform your view on it.

Can Diabetic Patients Eat Honey?

There is a long-standing misconception that diabetics can’t use honey in their diets because of the high amount of carbohydrates in its chemical makeup. So can diabetics eat honey or not?

Researchers from the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Romania discovered that when compared to the consumption of dextrose and sucrose, honey caused people with diabetes to have lower elevated blood sugar levels and higher elevated insulin levels. According to the study, honey benefits diabetic individuals. Additionally, honey’s antioxidant properties are crucial in the management of diabetes.

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According to research published in 2008 in The Scientific World Journal, these beneficial effects may be related to the high content of fructose in honey. The high amount of fructose in honey stimulates glucokinase in liver cells, which plays an important role in promoting the uptake and storage of glucose in the liver. Therefore, fructose in honey is very important in lowering blood sugar (pdf). Honey also contains other sugars; notably, it contains high amounts of glucose, but has significantly less maltose and sucrose.

Mamdouh Abdulrhman, a professor of pediatrics at Ain Shams University in Egypt, has been studying the health effects of honey for a long time. One of his studies (pdf) reported that diabetic patients taking honey might experience an increase in blood sugar in the first few weeks, but consuming small amounts of honey over a long period can be beneficial to health. The study also showed that honey can lower blood pressure as well as improve cardiovascular function when consumed by diabetics over a long period.

Prevent Heart Disease Complications in Diabetics

Diabetic patients are known to be prone to heart disease. In general, diabetic patients have complications such as hypertension and lipid metabolism in addition to hyperglycemia, which can easily lead to atherosclerotic heart disease. In November 2022, researchers from the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada, found that eating honey in moderation can effectively reduce the risk of heart disease.

The study found that honey was able to lower key indicators of the development of heart disease, including total cholesterol and triglycerides. The researchers explained that honey is a complex composition of common and rare sugars, proteins, organic acids, and other biologically active compounds that are likely to benefit health.

Honey Can Improve Obesity, Prevent Diabetes

Obese patients are more likely to develop diabetes compared to healthy individuals. Obesity is the most significant risk factor for diabetes because obese patients frequently have higher overt insulin resistance and because research demonstrates a clear association between obesity and insulin resistance.

Studies have reported that honey not only doesn’t contribute to obesity, but it can also help reduce it. The Scientific World Journal study included 55 overweight and obese participants in a 30-day trial. The participants were split into two groups, with one group consuming 70 grams of sucrose daily and the other 70 grams of raw honey.

The scientists discovered that eating honey led to a slight decrease in body weight (1.3 percent) and body fat (1.1 percent). Honey was also found to lower total cholesterol (3 percent), LDL cholesterol (5.8 percent, a “bad” cholesterol), triacylglycerol (11 percent), fasting glucose (4.2 percent), and increase HDL cholesterol (3.3 percent, a “good” cholesterol) in the subjects. The researchers concluded that the consumption of natural honey didn’t increase body weight in these subjects.

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The study concluded that the control of obesity could be attributed to fructose, which is a major component of honey, as well as the many other proteins, organic acids, vitamins, minerals, and phenolic compounds found in honey. These substances in honey cause a decrease in lipogenic activity, thus reducing the accumulation of lipids in fat cells. In addition, the phenylalanine found in honey increases the levels of peptide YY, a substance that reduces appetite. Therefore, honey is ideal for obese or overweight people whose high body weight and caloric intake can be controlled by it. In addition, honey contains several bioactive compounds, including phenolic acids and flavonoids, which positively affect obesity and weight management.

In fact, it may be a mistake to overemphasize fructose as a weight-loss measure or a part of a healthy diet, given research that suggests that fructose on its own can have harmful effects. A review study published in Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences in 2020 found “dietary fructose intake strongly promotes hepatic insulin resistance via complex interplay of several metabolic pathways, at least some of which are independent of increased weight gain and caloric intake.”

Other research also linked fructose with decreased insulin sensitivity, a defining trait of diabetes. These findings suggest that the combination of complex compounds in honey provides a critical element to its overall effect.

Honey Is Best When Eaten in Moderation

Companies often promote their products in a way that magnifies their benefits; therefore, people should be wary of packaging that features “honey.” These products often contain little real honey and more substantial amounts of other added sugars along with processed ingredients that negate any real benefit.

It also isn’t wise to consume excessive amounts of honey. Consuming three to four tablespoons per day is sufficient. According to the World Health Organization, the calories provided by simple sugars shouldn’t exceed 10 percent of the total body requirement. Honey contains approximately 60 calories per tablespoon. Therefore, the 180 to 240 calories provided by honey per day is significant and will require you to closely watch other sugar intake.

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To absorb the maximum benefits of honey, consume it one hour before lunch. Drinking it 30 minutes before bedtime helps to relax the nerves and help you fall asleep. Some people have allergic reactions to certain enzymes or pollen in honey, resulting in atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis. People with allergies should take a small amount of honey to test their sensitivity. Babies shouldn’t be given honey either, as it can lead to infant botulism.

Diabetes is a chronic disease, and according to the researchers from the Romanian study, it’s vital to determine the optimal dose of honey for human intake. People with diabetes shouldn’t drink honey indiscriminately. People should have their blood sugar levels tested and be sure they are normal before consuming honey regularly. More than 80 percent of honey is composed of sugar. Because honey is rich in monosaccharides and fructose, it’s a blood sugar-raising food that acts quickly.

While eating honey won’t cause high blood sugar in an average person, drinking a lot of honey water or consuming a lot of honey will cause a sudden rise in blood sugar in a diabetic patient, almost like drinking sugar water. Therefore, it’s recommended that people with diabetes pay attention to the amount of honey they use and not consume large amounts at once. A sudden rise in blood sugar can be challenging to control in this population, and acute complications of hyperglycemia may occur.

While honey can be used as a potential hypoglycemic agent that can reduce the complications of diabetes, long-term studies on diabetics are needed. What is certain is that honey can be a good sugar substitute to meet the sugar needs of people with diabetes.

How to Consume Honey

Honey is a completely natural food that may be eaten on its own. A popular method of consuming honey is to make honey water, prepared by combining a suitable quantity of honey with hot water. Honey shouldn’t be brewed with water that is hotter than 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees C), which is hot enough to steam but not bubble and to dip your finger in briefly without burning you. Heating honey beyond 140 degrees F will cause many of the health-promoting active ingredients to lose their potency and reduce the nutritional content of the honey.

Honey can also be added to other foods for consumption. Honey can be used instead of syrup for pancakes and waffles. Honey can also be spread on toast or bread, or added to coffee or tea to enhance the taste. Mixing honey with yogurt, cereal, porridge, or oatmeal also tastes excellent. Adding honey to hot milk before bedtime can also improve sleep.

Ensure Your Honey Is Genuine

In the face of the booming honey market, some shady vendors have begun producing “fake honey,” and there are many ways to counterfeit it. It can be difficult to tell real honey from fake, though there are a variety of tests promoted online that may give you some indication.

One of the best ways to ensure your honey is real is to purchase it from a local producer. Then you will not only gain the benefits of real honey, but also gain additional benefits from supporting your local food system and drawing a deeper connection to the local plants bees feed on.