organic honey better than sugar ?

Aurellia

ive been making adjustments to my diet and lifestyle and general mental & physical health.

So far so good . I've given up sugar in tea and on cereals but One thing killing me is on porridge- it's just bland otherwise ! Even with seeds and berries .

My question is am I fooling myself with Lidl's "100% organic honey " . I read agave is higher in fructose .
Is there an alternative I'm not aware of ?

Thanks .

5uspect

Yeah, organic is just marketing nonsense. There no evidence organic foods are more nutritious.

Find a local beekeeper and buy honey direct from them. There are loads of them.

Alf Veedersane

Aurellia wrote: »

ive been making adjustments to my diet and lifestyle and general mental & physical health.

So far so good . I've given up sugar in tea and on cereals but One thing killing me is on porridge- it's just bland otherwise ! Even with seeds and berries .

My question is am I fooling myself with Lidl's "100% organic honey " . I read agave is higher in fructose .
Is there an alternative I'm not aware of ?

Thanks .

I wouldn't worry about the honey. Its impact on your diet is going to be negligible, unless you're using half a jar in your porridge.

Zillah

Honey is essentially liquid sugar and the 'organic' label means pretty much nothing. But like Alf says, a little bit in your porridge isn't going to kill you. The most important thing about your diet is sustainability. If you can't stand plain porridge now I sincerely doubt you'll be still eating it years later, so a little honey to make it enjoyable is a good idea.

Macha

5uspect wrote: »

Yeah, organic is just marketing nonsense. There no evidence organic foods are more nutritious.

Find a local beekeeper and buy honey direct from them. There are loads of them.

Ironically, conventional farming and specifically its use of pesticides is linked to dying bee colonies.. Any decent bee-keeper will be conscious of this and support organic/more sustainable farming (which is more about protecting the environment than growing more nutritious food).

I put vanilla protein powder in my porridge, together with berries and cinnamon. Gives it the sweetness without the sugar and bumps up the protein content.

MrWalsh

I buy local honey and have switched from a spoonful of sugar on my porridge to a spoonful of honey on my porridge and I find its been a very tasty switch!

El_Dangeroso

Zillah wrote: »

Honey is essentially liquid sugar and the 'organic' label means pretty much nothing.

I understand how you would think that but it's really not. Honey contains powerful prebiotics and polyphenols that are not present in refined sugar.

In fact honey can make diabetics long term blood sugar go down (due to the prebiotic fibre) whereas refined sugar makes it go up. Obviously you can't go nuts with it, but that would apply to most foods. A teaspoon or two in porridge is just fine.

Honey is awesome.

generic2012

Macha wrote:

Ironically, conventional farming and specifically its use of pesticides is linked to dying bee colonies.. Any decent bee-keeper will be conscious of this

Macha wrote:

organic/more sustainable farming (which is more about protecting the environment than growing more nutritious food).

Macha wrote:

I put vanilla protein powder in my porridge, together with berries and cinnamon. Gives it the sweetness without the sugar and bumps up the protein content.

Interesting, how big of a cause of dying bee colonies (colony collapse disorder as I believe it's known?) is conventional farming? Would it be 5%, 50%, 95% etc.

And how do you think organic farming can be sustainable when you can't make grow as much organic food per unit area as you can normal food?

DarkoT

If you want real organic honey, you should buy form a person instead from the big corporations, but since I live in Macedonia that's easy for me. And yes everything from the organic honey to the sugar from the fruit is better that the actual sugar that we consume.

Zillah

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

I understand how you would think that but it's really not. Honey contains powerful prebiotics and polyphenols that are not present in refined sugar.

In fact honey can make diabetics long term blood sugar go down (due to the prebiotic fibre) whereas refined sugar makes it go up. Obviously you can't go nuts with it, but that would apply to most foods. A teaspoon or two in porridge is just fine.

Honey is awesome.

Well it is 80+% sugar, the majority of the rest being water, so I don't think calling it liquid sugar is inaccurate. I've never heard the term "prebiotic" before, but some googling tells me it essentially means "food for gut flora", which is actually pretty much anything. Sucrose is a prebiotic, as far as I can understand it, so I'm not really sure what the relevance is supposed to be.

El_Dangeroso

Zillah wrote: »

Well it is 80+% sugar, the majority of the rest being water, so I don't think calling it liquid sugar is inaccurate. I've never heard the term "prebiotic" before, but some googling tells me it essentially means "food for gut flora", which is actually pretty much anything. Sucrose is a prebiotic, as far as I can understand it, so I'm not really sure what the relevance is supposed to be.

Sucrose is not a prebiotic, its components are entirely absorbed in the small intestine so unless you have a seriously compromised digestion then no, 'pretty much anything' is not a prebiotic.

Honey has a different affect on the body than sugar, so to call it simply liquid sugar is misleading.

Macy0161

Macha wrote: »

I put vanilla protein powder in my porridge, together with berries and cinnamon. Gives it the sweetness without the sugar and bumps up the protein content.

I tried this over the winter, and it just coagulated into a texture that was gick tbh! I ended up just having the shake, and then the porridge*. I has adding it after cooking and not adding extra milk/ water - was that the problem?

*I've moved on to overnight oats, with a protein scoop for the summer, which works really well for me at least.

Macha

generic2012 wrote: »

Interesting, how big of a cause of dying bee colonies (colony collapse disorder as I believe it's known?) is conventional farming? Would it be 5%, 50%, 95% etc.

I think it contributes to all the main factors - pesticide use (specifically neonecotinoids), monocultures, removal of habitats..there even seems to be a link between pesticides and the parasite problem.

generic2012 wrote: »

And how do you think organic farming can be sustainable when you can't make grow as much organic food per unit area as you can normal food?

Yields are not that much lower. We waste 50% of the food we produce so it isn't like maximising yields is the crucial factor. The real question is if a third of our food depends on pollinators and we kill them off, what then?

Sorry this is going off topic. Go for local honey or Irish honey!

@Macey0161 - yes, it can get a bit goopy, definitely needs a good mix through but maybe not everyone's cup of tea.

mufcboy1999

What do you make of manuka honey , is it just another processed gimmick? I've never really included honey in my diet tbh and I'm thinking of introducing it but manuka isn't cheap so I'm hesitant.

generic2012

mufcboy1999 wrote:

What do you make of manuka honey , is it just another processed gimmick? I've never really included honey in my diet tbh and I'm thinking of introducing it but manuka isn't cheap so I'm hesitant.

It tastes like normal honey but has more life energy and cures you of insulin. It's expensive, but it's hard to make a living of marketing scams.

grames_bond

Macy0161 wrote: »

I tried this over the winter, and it just coagulated into a texture that was gick tbh! I ended up just having the shake, and then the porridge*. I has adding it after cooking and not adding extra milk/ water - was that the problem?

Yes absolutely, I find after i mix the protein into the porridge, mix it a while, i then NEED to add a drop more water then mix again - I do it now im the mornings with strawberry whey - absolutely lovely!

rubadub

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

What do you make of manuka honey , is it just another processed gimmick?

Lots of it is fake. I think more alleged manuka honey is sold in the UK per year than is actually produced per year worldwide.

Honey is sweeter than regular sugar per calorie, so you can ingest less calories while maintaining the same sweetness you prefer.

Note I said per calorie, and not per weight.