Discover the Nutritional Value of Honey
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| Honey |
A naturally sweet substance, honey is made by the honey bees using nectar of flowers. From fitness freaks to chefs, from Ayurveda loyalists to food aficionados, everybody love honey (Benefits of Honey) for its distinct flavor and aroma.
Advertised all over the globe as a healthier substitute to sugar, natural honey demonstrates an impressive nutritional profile. Read this article to learn about nutritional value of honey and you will love your honey more than ever.
World’s healthiest sweet treat honey offers an array of nutritional benefits. As compared to any man made chemical sweetener, raw honey offers a host of nutritional value. Nutritional value of honey may vary with their floral origins, but it remains more or less similar for all types of honey.
Generally raw honey consists of 80 percent carbohydrates, 18 percent water and 2 percent vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Nectar, from which honey is made, is itself contains sucrose and water. During the production process, the bees add a variety of enzymes to the nectar, allowing for a chemical transformation.
As a result of this transformation, the sucrose get broken down into fructose and glucose. The water also gets evaporated as a result of constant fanning. The resultant low-water product becomes immune from bacterial attacks.
Honey (Honey Myth and Facts) is generally labeled as a nutritive sweetener. Of a typical batch of honey, 82 percent is sugar. It is a combination of different types of simple and complex carbohydrates.
Honey has fructose and glucose as predominant carbs. It has about 38.5 percent fructose and 31 percent glucose. It also has a variety of complex carbohydrates that include maltose and sucrose among others. The relative presence of glucose and fructose vary significantly depending on the floral sources of honey.
Depending on the changing fructose to glucose ratio, the Glycemic Index of different types of honey can vary from low to high.
In general, honey has a healthy Glycemic Index (GI)—55, which means it does not promote sudden release of glucose into the bloodstream. The different types of sugars present in honey get absorbed into the bloodstream through a gradual process. With a significantly lower GI, honey provides steadier and longer source of energy.
Although the amount is not very high, pure honey (Sugar vs Honey) does contain a variety of vitamins and minerals. Some of the vitamins commonly found in honey are: vitamin B6, thiamine, niacin, riboflavin and pantothenic acid. It also contains a variety of minerals including iron, calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, sodium and zinc. The percentage of vitamins and minerals may vary according to the floral origin of honey.
Manuka honey is believed to have the highest level of vitamins and minerals. All these elements aid in the metabolizing of undesirable cholesterol and fatty acid on the organs and tissues. This helps an array of diseases including obesity.
Honey is particularly rich in antioxidants. Different types of antioxidant substances found in honey include: vitamin C, chrysin, pinobanksin, catalase, and pinocembrin.
The presence of antioxidants varies with different types of honey. Some darker varieties of honey reportedly have 20 times more antioxidants than their lighter counterparts. Thus some nutritionists hold that darker honey like Buckwheat honey makes better option.
Honey (Quality of Honey) is created by evaporating the moisture contents and as such, honey contains very little water. Only 17.2 percent of honey is made of water. This low water content prevents it from getting fermented. Honey happens to be 36 percent denser than water.
The nutritional profile of one type of honey may not match exactly the other. This is because, the chemical composition of honey depends on the floral origins, used by the bees for the produced the honey.
1 table spoon of raw honey supplies 64 calories. This healthy sweetener contains no fat, no cholesterol or sodium.
The fact that honey has nearly 40 percent of fructose prevents many nutritionists to consider it as a daily must-have food. As per the nutritional profile, honey has lots of fructose, which give it a bad name. On the other hand, it is rich in antioxidants that can go a long way to improve your health.
So the question remains should I or should I not eat honey? It actually depends on individual health. If you are blessed with normal health and weight, there is no harm in having some honey every day.
It will certainly be a better and healthier substitute for sugar. But people who have diabetes and obesity and those who already have enough carbs in their diet, should avoid consuming honey (Health Benefits of Honey) every day. When it comes to substituting sugar in your baking and dessert recipes, honey provides an excellent option.
Advertised all over the globe as a healthier substitute to sugar, natural honey demonstrates an impressive nutritional profile. Read this article to learn about nutritional value of honey and you will love your honey more than ever.
World’s healthiest sweet treat honey offers an array of nutritional benefits. As compared to any man made chemical sweetener, raw honey offers a host of nutritional value. Nutritional value of honey may vary with their floral origins, but it remains more or less similar for all types of honey.
Generally raw honey consists of 80 percent carbohydrates, 18 percent water and 2 percent vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Nectar, from which honey is made, is itself contains sucrose and water. During the production process, the bees add a variety of enzymes to the nectar, allowing for a chemical transformation.
As a result of this transformation, the sucrose get broken down into fructose and glucose. The water also gets evaporated as a result of constant fanning. The resultant low-water product becomes immune from bacterial attacks.
Carbohydrates
Honey (Honey Myth and Facts) is generally labeled as a nutritive sweetener. Of a typical batch of honey, 82 percent is sugar. It is a combination of different types of simple and complex carbohydrates.
Honey has fructose and glucose as predominant carbs. It has about 38.5 percent fructose and 31 percent glucose. It also has a variety of complex carbohydrates that include maltose and sucrose among others. The relative presence of glucose and fructose vary significantly depending on the floral sources of honey.
Depending on the changing fructose to glucose ratio, the Glycemic Index of different types of honey can vary from low to high.
In general, honey has a healthy Glycemic Index (GI)—55, which means it does not promote sudden release of glucose into the bloodstream. The different types of sugars present in honey get absorbed into the bloodstream through a gradual process. With a significantly lower GI, honey provides steadier and longer source of energy.
Vitamins and Minerals
Although the amount is not very high, pure honey (Sugar vs Honey) does contain a variety of vitamins and minerals. Some of the vitamins commonly found in honey are: vitamin B6, thiamine, niacin, riboflavin and pantothenic acid. It also contains a variety of minerals including iron, calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, sodium and zinc. The percentage of vitamins and minerals may vary according to the floral origin of honey.
Manuka honey is believed to have the highest level of vitamins and minerals. All these elements aid in the metabolizing of undesirable cholesterol and fatty acid on the organs and tissues. This helps an array of diseases including obesity.
Antioxidants
Honey is particularly rich in antioxidants. Different types of antioxidant substances found in honey include: vitamin C, chrysin, pinobanksin, catalase, and pinocembrin.
The presence of antioxidants varies with different types of honey. Some darker varieties of honey reportedly have 20 times more antioxidants than their lighter counterparts. Thus some nutritionists hold that darker honey like Buckwheat honey makes better option.
Honey (Quality of Honey) is created by evaporating the moisture contents and as such, honey contains very little water. Only 17.2 percent of honey is made of water. This low water content prevents it from getting fermented. Honey happens to be 36 percent denser than water.
The nutritional profile of one type of honey may not match exactly the other. This is because, the chemical composition of honey depends on the floral origins, used by the bees for the produced the honey.
Calories
1 table spoon of raw honey supplies 64 calories. This healthy sweetener contains no fat, no cholesterol or sodium.
The fact that honey has nearly 40 percent of fructose prevents many nutritionists to consider it as a daily must-have food. As per the nutritional profile, honey has lots of fructose, which give it a bad name. On the other hand, it is rich in antioxidants that can go a long way to improve your health.
So the question remains should I or should I not eat honey? It actually depends on individual health. If you are blessed with normal health and weight, there is no harm in having some honey every day.
It will certainly be a better and healthier substitute for sugar. But people who have diabetes and obesity and those who already have enough carbs in their diet, should avoid consuming honey (Health Benefits of Honey) every day. When it comes to substituting sugar in your baking and dessert recipes, honey provides an excellent option.
