| Honey | Sugar | |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 300 | 387 |
| Carbohydrates | 80 grams (g) | 100 g |
| Protein | 0.3 g | 0 g |
Honey consists of about 80-90% sugar. The majority of it is fructose (a sugar most abundant in many fruits), followed by glucose, with lesser amounts of sucrose and other sugars. In addition, honey contains antioxidant compounds, enzymes, water, and small amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Refined sugar is 99% sucrose, which is broken down into fructose and glucose. Sugar also contains trace amounts of vitamins and minerals. For example, while honey contains 52 milligrams of potassium per 100-gram serving, sugar contains only 2 milligrams.
“Healthy” means different things to different people, and sugar and honey have different health aspects to consider.
Processing: Sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beets. The juice is extracted, boiled, cleaned of impurities, and crystallized. Sometimes, manufacturers add preservatives or whitening agents. Some people consider the refinement process unhealthy.
On the other hand, you can eat honey raw, straight from the hive, which keeps its natural enzymes and proteins. It can also be filtered to remove bits of wax or debris. Pasteurized honey is heated to kill microbes and extend shelf life, but this process removes some of the beneficial compounds.
Nutrition profile: Honey contains antioxidants and other useful compounds that sugar does not. It also has a lower glycemic index, so it may cause a smaller blood sugar increase.
Calories and sweetness: Honey has slightly fewer calories than sugar and tastes sweeter because it contains much more fructose, the sweetest type of sugar. This means you can use less honey than sugar to get the same sweetness.
Health effects: The evidence is mixed. Some studies suggest honey may help lower blood sugar and cholesterol, but the results aren’t strong or consistent enough to be certain.
Honey contains hundreds of compounds that can be antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Research suggests it could help with things like:
- Faster metabolism
- Improved wound healing
- Fewer symptoms from colds and coughs
- Decreased inflammation
- Relief from some side effects of cancer treatment
Refined sugar doesn’t provide any health benefits, and eating too much sugar can lead to health complications such as:
- Dental cavities
- Weight gain
- Obesity
- Type 2 diabetes
- Heart disease
Still, small amounts of sugar can fit into a balanced diet.
The recommended limit for most adults is no more than 10% of daily calories from added sugar—which includes honey. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that’s 200 calories, or about 12 teaspoons. On average, though, American adults consume about 17 teaspoons of sugar per day.
Both sugar and honey can typically be part of a balanced diet as long as you consume them in moderation. Here are a few tips to reduce daily intake of added sugars:
- Swap out sugar-sweetened beverages: A large part of many people’s sugar intake comes from soft drinks and fruit juices. Opt for water and unsweetened tea or coffee to help reduce your sugar consumption.
- Read nutrition labels: Added sugars are in many foods, even those that aren’t sweet. The nutrition label shows how much sugar a food contains, including how much is from added sugar.
- Read the ingredient list: Added sugars can also appear in the ingredient list as brown sugar, cane sugar, dextrose, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, raw sugar, rice syrup, malt syrup, agave nectar, and date sugar, and so on.
- Replace some refined sugar with honey: You can replace sugar with honey in recipes or sauces to consume the beneficial compounds in honey and to sweeten with less added sweetener.
- Use less sugar than the recipe calls for: In many recipes, you can gradually decrease the sugar you use. Your taste buds will get used to less sugar over time.
