Alvine Kapitako
WINDHOEK – A registered dietician said in an interview with New Era that apart from the taste, there is no difference between honey and sugar in terms of health benefits.
“The marketing message is that honey is natural so what is sugar? Sugar comes from cane sugar and that’s also natural. It comes from a plant, it’s just more difficult to get honey because the bees need to make it so that’s why there is a higher mark-up on honey as a product,” said Annalien Turner of Eat Clean Namibia dieticians.
Sugar is easily accessible and it is a cheap source of energy whereas honey is a more expensive source of energy, she said.
“Both of them are good, the carbohydrate content of honey is actually higher than that of sugar because it comes from fructose because sugar is sucrose,” said Turner.
All carbohydrates are digested into sugar or glucose, she explained.
She also explained: “But they are the same so if you want to pay more money and you like the taste that’s fine. But if you think you’re going to be better off health-wise by changing one or two teaspoons of sugar to three teaspoons of honey, it’s not true.”
She also pointed out that people think brown sugar is better than white sugar. “That’s also a myth. Brown sugar has a little bit of molasses (fibre) but it’s so insignificantly small that it doesn’t really matter,” said Turner, adding that what is important is taking everything in moderation.