Honey

Manuka honey does not affect my blood sugars. I use it for sore throats mixed with some butter and eaten slowly and it is good for burns.

lucylocket61 said:

but I wouldn't be eating 100g of it at a time, I'd be using it to sweeten tea or perhaps as a spread and at 1 tsp x 3.57g it's a very clean and delicate kind of sweetness.

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But thats how people use honey. Honey is 17 carbs per teaspoon, so half that of agave . Poeple dont eat 100g of honey at a time.

I appreciate that, for reasons of personal taste, you have chosen agave which has twice the carbs of honey.

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I'm confused here. You're saying honey has 17 carbs per teaspoon. I'm saying Agave has 3.75 carbs per teaspoon. How does that make Agave have twice the carbs as honey? :think:

Thanx catherinecherub, I have a sore throat at the mo and you just reminded me of my grandma's cure for it. Have some manuka honey I got for on the grandkids porridge so here goes.

Agave has a very low GI compared with honey.


portion size for calculating glycemic load :10g carb 8g
Organic Agave Cactus Nectar, light, 90% fructose (Western Commerce Corp., City of Industry, CA, USA)
Glycemic index:11, GLycemic load 1.
Organic Agave Cactus Nectar, light, 97% fructose (Western Commerce Corp., USA)
Glycemic index:10, GLycemic load 1.
Premium Agave nectar (Sweet Cactus Farms, USA)
Glycemic index:19, GLycemic load 2.

Honey varies a lot in GI. I've selected some from low,medium and high (there are lots in the index) note they used a larger portion size for calculating was higher (Glycemic load of 25g. Carb 21g) so on editing I I decided to calculate it for 10g/8.4g carb and added it after ( I rounded results as is done in the data base)

Honey, type not specified
Glycemic index:87, Glycemic load 18 GL for 10g =7
Clover honey, ratio of fructose: glucose, 1.09
Glycemic index: 69 Glycemic load 15 GL for 10g=6.
Honey, Pure (type unspecified)
Glycemic index:58, Glycemic load 12. GL for 10g = 5
Locust Honey
Glycemic index:32 Glycemic load 7. GL for 10g = 3
source: Univ of Sydney: http://www.glycemicindex.com/index.php


You'll find a lot of negative and sometimes emotive articles about agave on the internet. Most of it is repeated and unsourced (the echo chamber effect) so it's hard to try to sort out truth from fiction.

GraceK:

I'm confused here. You're saying honey has 17 carbs per teaspoon. I'm saying Agave has 3.75 carbs per teaspoon. How does that make Agave have twice the carbs as honey? :think:

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I cant put my decimal places in the right place, and read at the same time :lol:

I don't want to put a spanner in the works but a small amount of honey pushes my B/S up in to double figures.

Hello all,
as previously mentioned, the subject of honey is very debatable and there is a lot of research going on right now. The problem with honey is that it has a lot of cultural and religious significance, and for that matter a lot of people take it as a curative potion and the other lot doesn't accept it because of its religious/cultural background. The problem is that both of these two opposing groups don't have much scientific evidence to prove their believes.
First of all honey is very variable depending on where it is made and from what flowers it is made. Different origins have different contents and different levels of glucose and fructose. Glucose is ofcourse the major concern in diabetes mellitus. There are honeys that are particularly low in their glucose content, for example Acacia honey.
Coming back to the topic, what we know so far from scientific trials in various parts of the world is that honey doesn't raise the blood sugar levels after lunch as much as sucrose (sugar) does. Bangladeshi honey was found to raise blood sugar levels upto 9 mmol in the first 2 hrs after lunch in diabetics whereas same amount of sucrose raised them to 11 mmol. In another study honey also lowered the lipids like LDL in the blood which reduces complications in the longer run, this study however revealed an increase in HbA1c of patients after 3 months.
So what I advise my patients currently is to use honey if they want to, on a daily basis, but in very modest amounts

*edit* Additionally use the type of honey that has the lowest amount of glucose content in it.

I love to eat Manuka honey. Slap a load on wholemeal toast and butter, two rounds is usually sufficient and makes a lovely breakfast for starting the day. Manuka honey seems to be quite slow acting and tolerated well by my type II condition.

I bought a bottle of agave this week and to my amazement (and delight) have found it doesn't affect my blood sugar at all! I've been having a big squeeze of it on stewed rhubarb. If I'd had honey instead, my blood sugar would have gone up quite a bit so I'm really pleased I've found a sweet tasting alternative to sweetener. Does Sweet Freedom taste the same? I might give that one a go too.

Sweet freedom made my first flap jacks with it the other day turned out fine I was amazed....abt a third of the bottle made 16 flap jacks.....
Going to try to make a cake with it soon

Kat100 said:

Sweet freedom made my first flap jacks with it the other day turned out fine I was amazed....abt a third of the bottle made 16 flap jacks.....
Going to try to make a cake with it soon

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Regarding Sweet Freedom I'd be extremely careful of any sweetener that lists its nutritional information as:

Nutritional Information
Typical values per 100g:
Energy 288kcal/1223kJ,
Carbohydrate 79g (of which sugars* 79g),
Fat 0g (of which saturates 0g),
Protein 0g,
Fibre 0g,
Sodium og.
*Naturally occurring sugars from fruit.


Thats not a sugar free sweetener its just fructose. And if the carbs/sugar is only 79g where is the other 21g? It states 0g for everything else in the list!!