Why Is Honey A Better Sweetener Than Table Sugar?
- Dt. Rawan
- Feb 16, 2022
- 2 min read
#Honey #Sugar #Sweetners #Nutrition #Health #health_benifits #honeyassweetner #honeyorsugar #NourishingJo
In most ancient cultures honey has been used for both nutritional and
medical purposes (as it is a nutrient, a drug, and an ointment).
For a long time in human history, it was an important carbohydrate source and the only largely available sweetener until industrial sugar production began to replace it after 1800.
Nowadays, there is about 1.2 million tons of honey produced every year in the world, which is less than 1% of the total sugar production.
Honey is 95% composed of carbohydrates, mainly fructose. Compared to sugar, it has a lower glycemic index depending on the botanical source.
Honey is not just a sweetener, it contains small amounts of proteins, enzymes, amino acids, minerals, trace elements, vitamins, aroma compounds, and polyphenols.
Several studies that honey possesses antimicrobial, antiviral, antiparasite, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumor effects.
Most of the health-promoting properties of honey are only achieved by the application of rather high doses of honey such as 50 to 80 g (7 tsp - 11.5 tsp). But this doesn't mean we need to have that amount of honey daily, as it is advised to have not more than 2 tsp/ day of honey. Honey health benefits can be achieved through long-term ingestion of honey.
Since honey has a low GI, it is considered a valuable alternative to high GI sweeteners. one of the low GI honey is acacia honey.
We recommend diabetes patients and those with coronary heart disease to use honey as a better sweetener than table sugar.
Our Hadith included the benefits of the honey, also Romanians use it for its benefits. It was used back then as a cure for diarrhea. Honey was used also for the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders such as peptic ulcers, gastritis, gastroenteritis back in Eastern Europe and Arab countries. It is proven that honey is a potent inhibitor of the causing agent of peptic ulcers and gastritis, Helicobacter pylori.
With all these benefits, honey cannot be given to infants. So what is the science behind this?
Honey contains Clostridium botulinum. Since the presence of this bacterium in natural foods is ubiquitous and honey is a non sterilized packaged food from natural origin the risk of a low contamination level cannot be excluded. Spores of this bacterium can survive in honey, but they cannot build toxin. Thus, in the stomach of infants younger than one year the bacteria spores from honey can survive and theoretically build the toxin, while children older than 12 months can ingest honey without any risk.
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