Honey Vs Sugar- Which One Is Better? By Kevin Richardson, NYC Personal Trainer

Over the years helping people lose weight as a NYC Personal Trainer, I clients will often ask about the benefits of honey versus sugar .Usually they are in the process of making the transition towards healthier eating and are searching for something that will fill the hole left by the elimination of simple sugars. As much as I would love to say that you can use honey to your heart’s content, unfortunately this simply is not the case. If you are serious about weight loss and even more importantly, your overall health and longevity, then I would strongly advise against using honey as a sugar substitute. The problem is that your body will have a significant insulin response to it, which is never good for the body, though many have accustomed themselves to it by eating a diet filled with refined sugary foods.

Honey Is Not Better Than Sugar- You Need Fiber To Consume Simple Sugars Safely

On a diet focused on naturally occurring foods, as would be consumed in an environment away from all the modern inventions that masquerade as food in our society, there would almost never be any large insulin spikes from sugars or products like honey. A fact that would make it very easy to maintain a healthy bodyweight, and also a fact that would make disorders such as Type II diabetes very much uncommon.

Human beings are not designed to ingest sugars on their own, since in nature they always occur in the presence of fiber. Fruit can be very sweet (due to the fructose content), but the fiber content serves to not only slow down the way our body responds to it (keeping insulin at relatively steady levels) but also to stop us from eating too much of it at once.

Fiber is insoluble and tends to be very filling and as such it is very hard to over eat fruits as the fiber naturally fills you up and prevents you from getting to a point where your insulin levels rise to far. Now if you think about it, honey is very much a processed substance with a high content of fructose, glucose, maltose and sucrose- all of it of it without the presence of any fiber whatsoever. So by using honey as a sweetener, there will inevitably be a high amount of insulin secretion as a response to all those sugars, which will then translate into hypoglycemia, and in the long run increase your risk of pancreatic disorders- and of course that high insulin response will also serve to promote the storage of body fat.

How Honey Differs From Sugar

There is some speculation from preliminary animal studies that show that chronic honey consumption does not cause as much weight gain as equal consumption of sucrose (table sugar), however this was a limited study and both groups of animals still did gain weight as a result. Modern dietary relativity would have someone say that honey then is better than sugar, but in so doing miss the point that you will still gain weight if you use it indiscriminately and that your health will suffer from the constant insulin spikes over time.

It is important to get away from the marketing hype of 'natural equals wholesome' as it is very much incorrect, the poison cyanide is natural, and produced by plants and fungi, cocaine comes from 'natural' sources as does heroin. The bottom line is that you should think long and hard about what the term really means. Now some would argue that there are valuable nutrients in honey, but the amounts are small, and you can easily get the same benefits in a healthier way from consuming fruit.

Information contained in this article is not meant to treat, diagnose illness, nor substitute for medical counsel and is intended for purposes of information and education only. Consult your physician before modifying your diet or starting any exercise program. Copyright 2009 by Kevin Richardson, Naturally Intense NYC Personal Trainer.

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