What is the case against honey?

[brimstoneSalad]

I thought they only gave bees sugar when they took away their honey...? If the bees are pollinating I wouldn't see why they would need to give them sugar... ?

If they don't take the honey, there's no need to give them sugar.

Honey will always cost more than sugar, because it required sugar to "make" honey.
If you take X amount of honey, you have to replace it with X amount of sugar.
And then there are added costs of harvesting and refining the honey, as well as additional distribution, on top of that.

Honey is not a financially viable sweetener, because it's founded on sugar.

My point is, cut out the middle bee and just eat sugar if you need empty calories

Companies wouldn't use honey for financial reasons, even if they need more bees to pollinate, because the bees can't produce honey without sugar input to replace it (otherwise you're just starving your colonies, and now you have no more pollinators).

They use honey because consumers think it's better, because they've been duped by the honey industry and a number of alternative health quacks into believing it.

This honey shit is on the rise my mother now uses it in her coffee by the tablespoons thinking it is better than sugar, would you please give me some links to reliable resources I could reference her?

People who have been convinced that honey is more healthy are usually pretty dogmatic about it.
It's like convincing somebody that Jesus isn't the only son of YHWH, born but not begotten, sent to Earth to die for our sins, resurrected, and risen bodily into heaven to watch over us and return in the end times.

The belief is not based on evidence, so it's very hard to challenge with evidence.

Any mainstream and credible health site will talk about the honey health claims in a skeptical light (that is, that they are unproven):

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/medi ... s-of-honey

Even that's not perfect; claims of efficacy in cough suppression are dubious.
Likewise, it should be mentioned that actual medicine is better at wound dressing than honey.
The primary antibiotic effect of honey is the osmotic effects on bacteria (the high sugar content dries them out; like any sugar syrup)

Wikipedia has one of the only reliable, comprehensive, and unbiased, point by point breakdowns of the health claims of honey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey#Health_effects

Note the sources after each one, and see the bottom of the page for links to those sources.
This is the best collection of sources debunking honey I know of.

It also discusses risks after that.


Nutritionally, Honey is mainly Fructose. It contains a number of contaminants, but mostly, it's fructose, with a smaller ratio of glucose..

You can do some research on Fructose to understand why eating high fructose sweeteners (out of balance with glucose) is not good for you. But you might already know that.

Honey might as well be high fructose corn syrup if it weren't for the contamination and additional health hazards it poses.

[brimstoneSalad]

The link that was given made claims that are contrary to all that I've heard so far from bee experts, including a bee expert that was on Minnesota NPR a while back that I found interesting. I'm inclined not to believe that the website is a good resource of information.

It's a little dubious, yes. It's not like most of the claims are outright false, but some are stretches and exaggerations.

But does honey taste better? I don't know personally, I've rarely in my life ever bought a jar of honey, only sugar.

I'd say just stick to that.
When sweeteners are in something, you can barely tell the difference in taste anyway; and the difference in taste is certainly not worth the cost difference.

If you have a sweetener on its own, or on something (like on top of bread, or another mild flavored item), then you can taste it.
In those cases, I usually prefer maple syrup.
Agave tastes similar to honey.

All of these are sugars, and some high in fructose, so it's not like they're much healthier than honey (maybe a little, since they're cleaner and less contaminated), but they're other options for taste.

The best and deepest flavor you'll find is dark molasses. And that actually is healthier than other sweeteners. It can be overpowering for some people though, because it's pretty robust. You really taste it in baked goods and sauces.

Nutritionally, I can only recommend Molasses, and Xylitol (in moderation- too much will cause a laxative effect which I do not recommend).

Of non-nutritive sweeteners, there's Stevia extractives, Sucralose (probably), and Erythritol (which is almost zero calorie), and soon, neotame (which is still patented, unfortunately, but it expires next year So you'll start seeing more of it soon ).

[PrincessPeach]

Thank's for all the info brimstone, my dyslexia got the best of me and I misread your post about taking honey / replacing it with sugar I read things too fast and leave a lot of words out if I don't read slowly...