According to University of Toronto researchers, adding little honey to your food is a terrific way to add extra flavour and positive health consequences to your diet. Researchers have found that honey enhances many crucial cardiometabolic health indicators, including cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Furthermore, raw honey from a sole floral source has the greatest health advantages.
Honey reduces triglycerides, total and bad cholesterol
The study authors undertook a meta-analysis and systematic review of clinical studies involving honey. Researchers discovered that honey could reduce triglycerides, fasting blood glucose, total and LDL or bad cholesterol. . Furthermore, honey seems to encourage elevated HDL or “good” cholesterol levels and some inflammatory marker levels.
Research associate in nutritional sciences at U of R’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine Tauseef Khan said that the results are surprising since honey is almost 80% sugar. However, honey has a complex composition of rare and common sugars, organic acids, proteins and bioactive compounds with various health benefits.
Past studies show that honey is associated with cardiometabolic health in animal and in vitro studies. So far this review is the most comprehensive to date of relevant clinical studies which also featured detailed data about the floral source and processing.
Honey should not be designated as added sugar
Clinician-scientist John Sievenpiper said that nutrition and public health experts have long held that “sugar is a sugar.” However, the results indicate that might not be the case, and they need to stop the designation of honey as added or free sugar in dietary guidelines.
The researchers stressed that it is important to consider the context of the findings in which clinical study participants followed health dietary. For example, added sugars account for less than 10% of daily caloric consumption in subjects.
Khan warns against starting to take honey if you are not taking sugar presently. However, the bottom line is to replace sugar with honey if you are currently taking table sugar because switching could lower cardiometabolic risk.
