Composition of Honey
Honey is composed mainly of a variety of sugars, traces of pollen and water. There are also emzymes present. The following from 490 samples of largely uncrystalized honeys...
Moisture(%) 17.2
Levulose(%) 38.19
Dextrose(%) 31.28
Sucrose(%) 1.31
Maltose(%) 7.31
Higher sugars(%) 1.50
Undetermined(%) 3.1
pH 3.91
Free Acidity 22.03
Lactone 7.11
total Acidity 29.12
Lactone/Free Acid 0.335
Ash(%) 0.169
Nitrogen(%) 0.041
Diastase 20.8
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture Technical bulletin 1261, "Composition of American Honeys" by J.W. WhiteJr., M. L. Reithof, M. H. Subers, and I. Kushnir, 1962.
Table sugar (sucrose) is absorbed into the body via osmosis. This means that the sugar enters the bloodstream as quickly as it can pass through membranes.
Because of the type of sugars that honey consists of, absorbtion of honey by the body occurs through a mechanism called "active transport." While something "active " may seem like it should be quicker than the passive mechanism of osmosis, the opposite is true...
Because the sugars in Honey depend upon a carrier to move them across the membrane barrier, they are limited by how much carrier is avaialble. This means that there is less of a "rush" of sugar to the body with honey i.e. ...
- Less of a stain on the pancreas to suddenly produce large ammounts of insulin...
- Less likelihood of large peaks and valleys in the insulin /sugar curve...
- Less liklihood of hypoglycemia
*Lecture by Dr. James Carpenter, University of Hawaii At Hilo
Honey is also the last product of bees to react to pollutants in an environment. For this reason, some scientists are using bees as environmental indicators.