Hey, guys, Dr. Axe here.
Today I want to talk to you about honey and other sweeteners, and what you should and
shouldn't be using.
And first, let me talk a little bit about honey here.
This is the infamous honey bear, which I know so many of us are familiar with today.
When you're buying honey, you want to look to see that it is raw, especially if it's
local, that's the best.
But if you can get raw and local honey, it can actually have some health benefits for
you.
And so I want to talk a little bit about honey here.
But let me say this, most of the time when you see a bottle like this in the grocery
store with a honey bear, 77% of the time, it's not even really honey.
There is zero pollen in there.
In fact, the University of Texas A&M went and did a study in all the major grocery chains
across America and even the biggest distributors in America, and found that 77% of honey in
stores today that are bought, has zero pollen whatsoever.
Also, when they went they looked at fast food restaurants and probably the top ten food
restaurants you're familiar with.
When they tested their honey, there was zero pollen and the honey was basically damaged.
So, what happens today is a lot of times you're buying honey, and you think you're getting
the real thing, but you're not.
So again when you are buying honey, you've got to make sure that it's raw, and that it's
local.
Now, I get this question a lot of times from people saying, and by the way I saw this commercial
on the TV the other day saying, "Oh high fructose corn syrup, or corn syrup, is just like any
other sugar," that's not true.
And let me tell you why.
When you study things like high fructose corn syrup and sugar, that's all that's in there,
it's sugar.
When you study honey, honey is not just sugar, honey is a food.
Honey not only contains sugar, it also contains amino acids, it contains enzymes, it contains
electrolytes, it contains vitamins, it contains minerals, and antioxidants known as flavonols
and flavonoids.
So the truth is honey isn't just sugar, honey is a type of food today that we consume.
Now, is it as high in vitamins and minerals, is it as high in sugar than most foods?
Absolutely, but it's still in the food category.
And I'm not telling you to go and drink this thing by the gallons.
Again, remember Proverbs says, do these things either in moderation or sparingly.
So I don't want you to go and eat a ton of sugar, but doing some honey in moderation
can actually be good for you.
I want to go through a few studies that we looked up here.
I just want to quote a few studies we found here.
One, this is in a Journal of Medicinal Nutrition, and they looked at three things.
They went and looked at regular raw honey, so raw real honey we're talking about, they
looked at what is called Sham honey, which is this honey that's processed, and they also
looked at regular sugar called dextrose.
And what they found was in the study, that when people are consuming raw honey, it spiked
the blood glucose by 14%, but when they were eating dextrose and other sugar, it was spiking
their blood sugar by 53%.
So, if you're comparing honey to regular sugar, you will see about a three to four time spike
in doing regular sugar compared to honey.
So, again honey is much better for your blood sugar levels, and we're talking about raw
honey.
And when they compared raw local honey compared to the Sham processed honey, what they found
was, is that raw honey dropped LDL cholesterol, so it drops your bad cholesterol and it actually
increases your good cholesterol.
While the Sham honey, the processed honey caused your LDL cholesterol to go up and it
dropped your HDL cholesterol.
So, Sham honey was dangerous, raw honey was actually good for you in the studies.
So, big principle here is you want to get raw honey.
Now, there was another study they've done and they found out that the best type of honey
is the darker honey.
So if you can find darker honey, the darker, the better when it comes to raw honey.
That means it's going to have more antioxidants.
In the study done, the honey with the highest levels of antioxidants was buckwheat honey.
So buckwheat honey was the best.
Also, my favorite type of honey, which is probably the most powerful honey on the planet
is called Manuka honey.
And if you go and look up the health benefits, Google it right after this video, Manuka honey,
that's M-A-N-U-K-A, Manuka honey, the health benefits are amazing.
And people have used honey for having healthy skin and it actually kills of bacteria and
infections.
They'll use it obviously in recipes in cooking, they'll use it in wound healing and infections,
there are a lot of healing properties with raw honey.
So, this is a honey that actually it's come in the honey hear, which is typically isn't
the best type of honey, but this is actually raw from a local farm here.
Also, this is another sort of raw honey I picked up in a health food store, and you
can see, if you're buying raw honey, it will say raw on it, okay.
And this is the more whipped butter, so you'll see it's thicker in nature but this is a typical
raw honey you will find in the stores which is great.
Now, let me talk about other healthier sweeteners.
Another one is maple syrup.
Now, when you're buying maple syrup, again most of us are buying this corn syrup today.
You want to buy maple syrup that says, U.S.A. grade B, not grade A. Grade B is the least
processed and if you can do certified organic grade B maple syrup, that's the purest and
the best.
Honey is still superior to grade B maple syrup, but again this is a better alternative for
a sweetener if you're going to do sweeteners.
Next best, actually probably my favorite sweetener after honey and actually even lower glycemically
is raw coconut nectar.
There are some amazing coconut products out there.
One of my favorite brands today is Coconut Secret.
But you can see raw coconut nectar, it's low glycemic, it's organic, it's GMO-free, and
this is great.
I kind of compare this to a maple syrup with a little bit of the molasses taste, but this
is great to use in cooking and baking.
Raw coconut nectar, another great option for you.
The other one too, and it depends on your health, because someone is really trying to
lose weight and you know you have to go low sugar, Stevia is your best option.
Stevia is a no calorie, natural sweetener.
Although some people today that think that Stevia maybe is probably harder to digest
unlike something like raw honey.
So I would say, if you are already healthier, active, you're fit, honey is your best sweetener.
But if you really need to lose weight and go low in sugar, then I would say Stevia is
your best, best sweetening option.
So I would go with Stevia and a better quality brand, not Truvia, go with an actual brand
and that's Stevia.
And last thing I want to show you, actually we've got recipes now here on the website
for coconut macaroons.
We actually just made this today for the DrAxe.com website.
These are full of raw honey, local honey, they also have eggs and coconut.
But coconut and eggs, you're going to get a great source of fat, great source of protein
from the eggs, and a natural organic form of sugar in raw honey, and that's what you'll
find here in these coconut macaroons.
So if you want to have a healthy dessert for your family, a great tasting snack, a snack
to send along with your kids, these coconut macaroons are absolutely delicious.
You can find this in the dessert section on DrAxe.com.
So to close this up here, let me finalize by saying this, remember sugar isn't all bad.
It's not the worst thing in the world.
But remember you want to do it in moderation and when you are consuming sugar, you want
to do it with fat and protein.
I had someone say to me the other day that all sugar is bad.
That's not true.
You need some.
Now again most people are going to take this and run off with it and go and drink gallons.
Don't, okay?
Sugar in moderation, when I say moderation, a teaspoon to a tablespoon or two a day depending
on your activity level.
But think about this, when people say sugar is bad, I would say to them, well are blueberries
bad?
And they would say, "Well, blueberries are superfoods."
Well blueberries have quite a bit of sugar, but they also have antioxidants, they have
fiber, blueberries have nutrients that slows absorption, so it doesn't affect your blood
sugar levels.
And so God created foods to work in harmony because of all the nutrients together.
But let's say this, let's say we took the blueberries and we took all of the sugar out
of the blueberry and just fed you fructose, then it would be bad for you.
And it's the same thing with a lot of our foods today, when you're eating sugar, make
sure you're doing it with healthy fat, healthy forms of protein and use it sparingly.
All right, hey, thanks for watching another episode of Maximize Your Health.
Have a great week.
Satisfy your sweet tooth with some honey.