Honey or Sugar; A popular misconception

Some few weeks ago, a lactating mother I met at a wedding party was telling her friend that she would start adding honey to her six months old son's pap because of "it's nutritional value". Well at this point, even if I wasn't invited into the conversation, I had to scream at her not to try it, unless ofcourse she wants to infect her baby with botulism.

Alright, we all know that honey is gotten from bees. It is also a known fact that honey has a reputation of being more healthy than refine sugar even if both of them are sweeteners.

Quite recently,alot of people have been dumping refined sugar and now embracing honey for use in tea, beverages and cereals because they believe honey is more beneficial than white sugar which is true

We also know that honey is medicinal as it contains anti-inflammatory substances which speeds up the healing of wounds and third degree burns.

Alot of people also know that honey contains alot of minerals and vitamins that are not present in sugars and this is one of the reasons why it is considered as a better substitute to sugar.

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Now, let's look at the other side of honey that most people don't know about

Honey is majorly composed of fructose and glucose . But this components are also found in sugar and they act thesame way in the body wether through honey or sugar. Glucose and fructose are primary energy sources and that's why children who are found of consuming sugary foods like candies, chocolates, sodas, ice cream are fond of jumping and running all over the place.

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Now, an adult who had formed an habit of regularly consuming honey risk a spike in his blood sugar level. This risk could be more dangerous if the person is diabetic or predisposed to diabetes. This is because over 70 percent of the components found in refined sugar are also present in honey.

Well, if you are wondering about about all those vitamins and minerals that were mentioned in honey, just know that you have to consume like a litre of honey each day for you to be able to have enough of them. And trust me, before those nutrients would even begin to work for you, you would already be down with a serious sugar problem. But nonetheless, these vitamins and minerals could be easily gotten from vegetables and fruits at even cheaper prices.

During childhood, before going to school, our mother would add three teaspoonful to her children's tea instead of sugar. No doubt this practice was good for our health especially our mental health. But later in the day, my silly younger brother would sneak into mom's room when she goes to the market and take three to five gulps from the bottle of honey. And since he was still a kid who could not possibly get diabetes or a kidney problem, he suffered from tooth decay instead .

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Due to it's various nutrients and medicinal benefits, honey is more expensive than refined sugar and people with money would want to stick to it and even abuse it. They are ignorant of the fact that it also contains a higher level of calories than sugar. And ofcourse, higher calories means more weight gain and this also have an health implication.

By the way, even if honey is natural, there are more than 200 varieties of honey out there and a good number of them have been refined especially in non African countries. Infact some could be adulterated and wouldn't contain as much benefits as the natural honey . Even the ones that still have bees inside could still be impure.

Conclusion

Health wise, Moderation is key. Excessive consumption of a particular food or substance could put the body at a disadvantage both in the short or long term. There's nothing wrong about using white sugar or honey regularly so long as their usage is controlled.

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Thanks for reading 😁💝