by Dr. Ron Fessenden, MD, MPH

  There have been countless times in the past couple of years during some occasion in which I have been speaking about the health benefits of honey when someone soundly objects, “Oh, I can’t eat honey.  I have diabetes.  My doctor has told me to avoid all sweets.”  Such, unfortunately, is the state of knowledge about honey among the general public and among most health professionals.  The conventional wisdom is that honey and diabetes don’t go together.

   Rather than arming patients with facts to refute the apparent ignorance of their health care professional – a tactic bound to fail – a better strategy is suggested.  Diabetic patients should simply ask their doctor if fruits are permitted in their diets.  Since the question is a bit rhetorical, they can have confidence in knowing that honey is permitted.

  A tablespoon of honey consists of nearly the same carbohydrate content as a cupful of quartered raw apple.  The diabetic patient can also be assured that consuming honey will produce a significantly lower blood sugar response than an equivalent amount of sugar or other glucose rich starches.    When consumed regularly over several weeks or months, honey will lower blood sugar and HbA1c levels.

 Glycosylated (or glycated) hemoglobin, or HbA1c as it is commonly known, is a marker used by physicians to identify the average plasma glucose (blood sugar) concentration over prolonged periods of time.  The measurement will be proportional to the average blood glucose concentration during a period of time typically considered to be one to three months prior to the measurement.  Research studies using humans have shown that honey consumption will result in lower blood sugar levels by as much 60 to 100 mg/dl at 60 and 90 minutes following ingestion of a comparable amount of sucrose.  Therefore it is not surprising that the HbA1c levels will be lower by as much as 2 to 4%.  This dietary change alone would mandate tremendous differences in the treatment recommendation guidelines followed by most physicians.   It would no doubt result in much less medicine being prescribed.

   In fact, the more advanced one’s glucose intolerance, or in other words the worse their diabetic condition, the greater the positive impact on blood sugar levels from ingesting honey.  Logic would dictate that the addition of honey to the diet, along with the elimination of most sugar and HFCS should be the first recommended treatment of choice for Type 2 Diabetes.

   It may surprise most Americans to learn that in many countries around the world that is, in fact, the case.  How can this be so and what makes honey so tolerable for those with conditions marked by glucose intolerance?  The answer is really quite simple.   The balance of sugars and the presence of multiple co-factors in honey serve to make this natural food quite different than table sugar, HFCS or other artificial sweeteners.  Honey is an intelligent food, an informed food, a miraculous natural substance!

   The physiologic mechanisms responsible for this unique response of the body to honey versus other sugars, HFCS or other starches are not completely understood.  We do know that honey is directly converted to liver glycogen and does not raise blood sugar levels as does sucrose or HFCS even though it contains the same simple sugars.  This fact alone is indication enough to recommend honey for diabetics.

   How much honey is enough?  Generally, three to five tablespoons of honey a day is sufficient.  A good regimen to follow is to consume a tablespoon or two of honey in the morning with fruit or yogurt (diabetics should avoid “low-fat” yogurt as it contains HFCS) or cereal.  Another tablespoon should be consumed at bedtime to insure restorative sleep.  In between, another one or two tablespoons can be ingested with fruit snacks, in baked goods, or as used in cooking.  In addition, honey is an excellent fuel when eaten twenty to thirty minutes prior to exercise.

   Honey contains about 60 Calories per tablespoon. Generally, the percentage of ones total caloric requirements provided from simple sugars should not exceed 10%.  Thus, the 180 to 300 calories a day provided from honey is sufficient, unless excessive energy demands allow for additional consumption

MORE INFO:

Is Honey Allowed in Diabetic Diet

add buy cialis link

?

The diabetic diet is strictly controlled in terms of sugar and mineral compounds intake. Hence it’s not surprising that “whether honey is allowed for diabetic patients” is a frequently asked question for Benefits of Honey.

Diabetes is a deficiency of the pancreas, whereby insulin is not produced sufficiently or utilised properly. It’s basically a disorder of metabolism, primarily that of carbohydrates. The ingested sugars and starches cannot be deployed, and hence are eliminated in the urine. Symptoms of diabetes include frequent urination, extreme thirst or hunger, weight loss, fatigue, numbness, and infections. There are 2 types of diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body doesn’t produce any insulin, whereas, people with type 2 diabetes either don’t produce enough insulin or their cells resist the insulin, and they tend to be overweight, because the high insulin levels, unable to channel glucose into muscle cells, convert glucose into fat and cholesterol instead. This results not only in obesity, but also very often heart disease, poor blood circulation in the legs and eye diseases.

While type 1 diabetes is treated with insulin injections, which help glucose get into the body cells and maintain blood glucose control, type 2 diabetics commonly use glucose-lowering drugs. Most diabetics are type 2 and are usually in their 40s.

With appropriate control, many diabetics and pre-diabetes (people with blood glucose levels higher than normal person but not high enough to be considered diabetic) are still able to safely enjoy natural honey. Before incorporating honey into their meal planning, find out how much of the sweet liquid can be consumed on a daily basis. Each diabetic is different and should learn how his or her body reacts to different foods containing carbohydrates. Bear in mind that the total amount of starches or carbohydrates in a food is the key consideration, not the amount of sugar. Honey is a carb food as well, just like rice, potatoes, thus just keep in mind that 1 tablespoon of honey has approximately 17 grams of carbohydrate, and taking that into account when counting your total daily intake of carbohydrates, diabetics can work it out just like any other sweetener or carbohydrates. To monitor response to honey, blood sugar levels could be noted before consumption and again two hours later. Also, when purchasing commercial honey for diabetic patients, be sure that it is pure and not adulterated by glucose, starch, cane sugar, and even malt, which is to better to be avoided in a diabetic diet.

You get (99 per cent of the time) a “no-no” answer when you ask doctors if honey is allowed for diabetics. This is not surprising as the idea of eating honey to regulate blood glucose seems rather counter intuitive. But did they ever tell you that clinical studies have shown that pure honey is a healthier choice in diabetic diet than table sugar and any other non-nutritive sweeteners such as Splenda, saccharin, aspartame?

Honey requires lower levels of insulin compared to regular white sugar and does not raise blood sugar levels as rapidly as table sugar, that is, it has a lower Glycemic Index than sugar. Though honey contains a significant amount of sugar, it consists largely of two simple individual units of sugar – glucose and fructose, which are absorbed at different rates into the body. In fact, Dr Ron Fessenden reveals in his book, The Honey Revolution that “the more glucose intolerant one is, the lower the blood sugar response after honey ingestion versus the higher the blood sugar response after consuming sucrose or glucose”. The book further explains why honey is able to perform this remarkable regulatory role.

The perfect one-to-one ratio of fructose and glucose found in honey facilitates glucose intake to the liver, hence preventing an overload of glucose entering the blood circulation.

And nature’s honey is the only sugar that possesses this special ability.

Next, the use of monosaccharide fructose is often recommended to sweeten the diet of diabetics due to its significantly lower GI. The trouble is, fructose is absorbed differently than other sugars.

It is not utilized for energy like glucose, but stored in the liver as triglycerides. This presents a great metabolism burden on the liver and can eventually lead to major health issues related to obesity and further health damages for diabetics. Sadly, in their quest to avoid sugar in foods, many diabetics miss the point when they start to plan their diet around “fructose fruit sugar”, “diabetic birthday cake”, “NutraSweet ice-cream”, “sugar-free candies”, etc, which all contain corn syrup or artificial sweeteners that can be potentially even more harmful than regular sugar when consumed in the long term.

Related Articles:

1) Honey as a best sugar for diabetes? John, a diabetic found better health and more energy with the use of honey.

Get his story here: Best Sugar for Diabetes.

2) Corn syrup is made from corn…and is fine in moderation? This is what the Corn Refiners Association in United States is disseminating and propagating on national TV – that HFCS is natural and safe for your health. Lies and treacheries.

3) Sugar Substitute: What’s behind the name? Manufacturers are promising better and healthier forms of sugar substitute. We can rattle off many different types and names of sugars, but do you know what they are made of? How many of these sweeteners are really beneficial to our body

?

4) Ironic it may seem, so-called “fruit sugar”, which is hailed as a healthier sweetener those who have low sugar tolerance, can actually be dangerous for diabetics. Read: Fructose Corn Syrup or Fruit Sugar?

Here are some healthy tips for following the Eat to Beat Diabetes Diet to help you lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes:

Do:

• Consume monounsaturated fats in moderation.
  diflucan dosing

  Substitute olive or canola oil for butter; use avocados in salads instead of mayonnaise; and include nuts as a snack (though be sure to consume nuts in moderation, as they are high in calories).

• Eat high-fiber foods such as vegetables, whole-grain bread, brown rice and fruit.
  doxycycline azithromycin

  These provide lots of nutrients in a healthy package that may prevent a rise in your blood-sugar levels.

• Eat fish at least twice each week. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish such as salmon, sardines, rainbow trout and herring help reduce risk of heart disease.
• Look for lower-sugar yogurt and lower-sugar canned fruit whenever possible. Check two areas on the food labels.
  doxycycline 100 mg capsule

  First, compare the total grams of carbohydrate and choose the food with the lower amount; then, read the list of ingredients, and look for foods where sugar (or honey, high-fructose corn syrup, syrup or other sugar-containing ingredients) are lower on the list or preferably absent.

• Choose your breakfast cereal wisely. Use these tips:
  1. One serving of cereal should contain 15 grams of carbohydrate. If the cereal you prefer has 30 grams of carbohydrate, that’s two servings. Our breakfast meals are planned for two starch servings to account for the higher carbohydrate content of many cereals.
  2. Look at the l ist of ingredients, and make sure sugar
     diflucan during pregnancy

     is not in the top two.

• Check the fiber content, and look for cereals with at least 3 grams of fiber — more is even better!
  allergic reaction zithromax

• Choose fruit that’s fresh, canned in its own juice
  pills pharmacy

  or dried (without added sugar) instead of fruit juice.

  vpxl herbal growth

  You’ll get more fiber and fewer calories.

• Keep a daily food record. Record the amount of everything you eat and drink. A simple online program is helpful for many people, but plain old paper and pencil works just fine as well. Studies show that keeping a food record is often the single most important behavior change you can make to lose weight and keep it off.
  aggressive cytotec induction survival rate

Don’t:

• Consume too much saturated fat, the type of fat found in animal products (cheese, whole milk, sour cream, ice cream, red meat, poultry with skin), fried foods and crispy snack foods (chips and many crackers).
• Rely on foods that are made of sugar. The biggest culprit? Soda and sweetened beverages. Also avoid cookies, cakes, pastries and candy on a regular basis.
  interaction zithromax

  That doesn’t mean you can’t have a slice of cake on your birthday — but cake every day is going too far.

• Eat highly processed, low-fiber foods. We’re talking white bread, white rice and snack crackers. These foods tend to raise blood-sugar levels, plus they contain fewer nutrients and fiber.
  ivermectin stromectol
  accutane side affect

• Drink coffee — try green tea instead. Green tea has been shown to help promote weight loss when used with a lower-calorie diet and exercise. Plus it tastes great!
• Skimp on your water intake. Make water your beverage of choice. Tap water is fine, but if you prefer, use plain seltzer water or add a twist of lemon or lime. If you choose flavored waters, make sure they are calorie-free to avoid excessive amounts of sugar (and calories).

Reviewed by Susan Janoff, MS RD LD/N