Nutritional Value of Honey

I would like to dig into the nutritional value of honey that is claimed over the centuries.

GloryBee, for instance, states "Honey is a pretty amazing substance and there is a lot more to it than just a sweet tasting treat. Honey plays a crucial role in the life of a honey bee and can also be very beneficial to the human body."

BillyBee states "Honey has more nutritious elements than refined sugar. It's a concentrated source of energy - quickly digested and readily absorbed - and contains no fat. Honey is pure because no other ingredients are added. But what puts honey first among sweeteners is its truly unique flavour, its look and natural character."

There are many such claims on the Internet. A PubMed paper published in 2007 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17877657) claimed benefits beyond nutrition, in "wound healing and as an alternative treatment for clinical conditions ranging from gastrointestinal tract (GIT) problems to ophthalmic conditions."

I want to specifically examine the following aspects.

1. Analysis of macronutrients in honey
2. Analysis of micronutrients in honey

I had been consuming honey for many years and I started questioning whether it was a wise thing to do. So this is of personal interest to me.

First thing I learned is you should first ask whether "honey" that you buy is real honey?

US FDA [Draft Guidance for Industry: Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products, April 2014] agrees with public domain definition “a thick, sweet, syrupy substance that bees make as food from the nectar of flowers and store in honeycombs.”
FDA requires that if the label says "honey," that must be the only ingredient. The label might also include the floral source, e.g., "clover honey."

I never consumed anything other than "honey", such as blended honey (with sweeteners or corn syrup). So, let us examine what the real honey might contain.

Should the "honey" contain pollen to be called honey, or can it be filtered out?

Pollen is not really part of the nectar that the bees collect, but the pollen clings to the bees and inadvertently get transferred to the honey. Presence of pollen causes honey to crystallize at lower temperatures. If the honey producers filter out pollen to remove crystallization issue which is a major consumer complaint, I would still consider that as honey. In other words, in my mind, pollen is not a necessary ingredient of honey.

But, ultra-filtration methods (filtration of particles smaller than can be seen by the naked eye) essentially transform honey into sweetener product and really cannot be called honey (also according to FDA).

Macronutrient Analysis:

100 g of honey has ~300 calories. It is 300 cal instead of 400 because honey has about 17% water in it too. All its calories pretty much comes from sugars. There is no dietary fiber in honey and protein is insignificant. The analysis of the types of sugars in honey can get complicated, but it is suffice to know fructose dominates in honey with the other major sugars being glucose and some disaccharides. It is the fructose that makes the honey taste sweeter than table sugar (which is a disaccharide containing 50% fructose).

Micronutrient Analysis:

Perusing honey nutrition on NutritionData.com, one can learn that honey does have small amounts of vitamins, minerals, and sterols. But the question is what daily requirement does, say, 100 g of honey meet? The following is the summary. I would not consider these amounts to be of any significance in consuming honey, particularly, considering its high caloric content.

Vitamin C: 1%
Riboflavin: 2%
Vitamin B6: 1%

Manganese: 5%
Iron: 3%
Copper, Zinc, Potassium, Selenium: each 1%

Sterols: 0%

Bottom line:

There is no compelling nutritional reason for consuming honey. The micronutrients in honey is minuscule. Honey just adds simple sugars, which are considered highly undesirable and causative factors in obesity, diabetes, etc. At best it can be used as a sugar substitute.