Training & Nutrition - Honey, is it better for you than sugar?

....or is it just sugar by another name?

Its better then refined sugar but not by much. If you can, get cold packed raw honey

If you are looking for energy food... a baked potato is higher on the Glycemic index. In other words the potato is faster into your system than honey. Refined sugar or natural honey. Give me the honey. On race day or to try and get home after bonking 2 hours out... give me sugar. My choice is Jelly Belly Jelly beans.

Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. With respect to carbohydrates, honey is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%), making it similar to the synthetically produced inverted sugar syrup which is approximately 48% fructose, 47% glucose, and 5% sucrose. Honey's remaining carbohydrates include maltose, sucrose, and other complex carbohydrates. Honey contains trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals. As with all nutritive sweeteners, honey is mostly sugars and is not a significant source of vitamins or minerals. Honey also contains tiny amounts of several compounds thought to function as antioxidants, including chrysin, pinobanksin, vitamin C, catalase, and pinocembrin. The specific composition of any batch of honey depends on the flowers available to the bees that produced the honey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey

Hammer Nutrition doesn't think that fructose is appropriate for endurance athletes. I don't know about that - I used to do fine drinking about a cup of honey at the start of a XC ski race. One thing for sure: it makes lousy blanc mange.

its great for a sore throat and if you're feeling sick but not much for anything else. Tastes great on a graham cracker

Hammer Nutrition doesn't think that fructose is appropriate for endurance athletes.

Because hammer wants you to rely on their products, the last place i would take nutrition advice from is a supplement company....

Because hammer wants you to rely on their products, the last place i would take nutrition advice from is a supplement company....

Right, because it would be really hard for Hammer to market a supplement/drink/gel with fructose in it and make any money so they just bad mouth it and choose other sweeteners and carbs for their products.

Because hammer wants you to rely on their products, the last place i would take nutrition advice from is a supplement company....

In what way is corn sweetener (Fructose) good for you or for an endurance athlete?
This is one of the cheapest most over used sweeteners.

Heaven forbid that some manufacturer would put some science into a product.
Hammer is one of the most trusted energy sources for athletes. I am sure if they just wanted to sell more the taste would be improved.
Maybe the nasty taste and texture is to ensure that their product does not become the next Red Bull.

Gels are a great invention, but I don't think gels and energy bars were ever produced to be a nutritional substitute for real food.
These energy products are to get you through an event of some sort or to quickly replenish your body after and event.
Just don't abuse the products and you should be good.
I have seen people using Gatorade on a two hour bicycle ride. Why? Most likely lack of information.

This information is free on most athletic web pages. Information about fructose is all over the evening news.
Evidence of fructose is hanging over or under the belts of almost half of the North American population.

The last place I would take nutrition advice from is an internet forum.

In what way is corn sweetener (Fructose) good for you or for an endurance athlete?
This is one of the cheapest most over used sweeteners.

Heaven forbid that some manufacturer would put some science into a product.
Hammer is one of the most trusted energy sources for athletes. I am sure if they just wanted to sell more the taste would be improved.
Maybe the nasty taste and texture is to ensure that their product does not become the next Red Bull.

Gels are a great invention, but I don't think gels and energy bars were ever produced to be a nutritional substitute for real food.
These energy products are to get you through an event of some sort or to quickly replenish your body after and event.
Just don't abuse the products and you should be good.
I have seen people using Gatorade on a two hour bicycle ride. Why? Most likely lack of information.

This information is free on most athletic web pages. Information about fructose is all over the evening news.
Evidence of fructose is hanging over or under the belts of almost half of the North American population.

The last place I would take nutrition advice from is an internet forum.

I do agree that there is a lot of non-sense on these and forum boards.

But to add to it I'll point out that corn sweetener or HFCS actually has a very similar sugar make up as honey: roughly 55% fructose, 45% glucose. The alternative common table sugar is very quickly broken down by your body into it's 50-50 mix of glucose and fructose. HFCS is missing the beneficial vitamins and anti-oxidants and natural preservatives that honey contains, though. Fructose on it's own actually tastes sweeter than glucose or sucrose and has a lower glycemic index, so technically it may be slightly better for dieting.

http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-4-21-14997-1,00.html

Above is a link to the Bicycling magazine web page article on the use of good and bad of different sugars used in energy products.

http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-4-21-14997-1,00.html

Above is a link to the Bicycling magazine web page article on the use of good and bad of different sugars used in energy products.

Thanks for that. I wasn't really meaning honey as an cycling aid, but just in general. I've taken to sweetening tea with manuka honey, as opposed to using simple sugar, but was just wondering if it actually better for me, or just a bit of a red herring.
Many thanks.

Well that really depends. Honey contains more nutrients then simple sugar. So if you like the taste of honey and going to use a sweetener for your tea might as well go with it over sugar. Also if you do choose honey go for raw one over the pasteurized/processed one. Heating honey reduces some of the benefits. So along same lines as with sugar if you do choose to use honey might as well increase all the benefits, or potential benefits, by using the raw honey. Plus I think it tastes better. :) An article from WHFoods that talks about it: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=96#healthbenefits
Now I want to say that honey is not some kind of super food or something that will undo all other bad nutritional choices, etc, but it is a healthier alternative to just sugar. In the end it is all about the overall diet and not one particular food.