How would you respond to the statement that honey is more nutritious than white sugar?

Answer 1

People often ask: What is the difference between honey and white sugar? Is honey, by virtue of being natural, more nutritious? Honey, like white sugar, contains glucose and fructose. The difference is that, in white sugar, the glucose and fructose are bonded together in pairs, whereas in honey some of them are paired and some are free single sugars. When you eat either white sugar or honey, though, your body breaks all of the sugars apart into single sugars. It ultimately makes no difference, then, whether you eat single sugars linked together, as in white sugar, or the same sugars unlinked, as in honey; they will end up as single sugars in your body. Honey does contain a few vitamins and minerals, but not many.

Honey is denser than crystalline sugar, too, so it provides more energy per spoonful. Table 2-2 shows that honey and white sugar are similar nutritionally—and both fall short of milk, legumes, fruits, grains, and vegetables. Honey may offer some health benefits, however: It seems to relieve nighttime coughing in children and reduce the severity of mouth ulcers in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation.