Composition of Honey Part 1 - Carbohydrates

Composition of Honey Part 1 - Carbohydrates

Since the composition of honey is mostly Carbohydrates, we will discuss it first.

Contrary to popular belief, honeybees don't make honey for humans to consume. Honeybees make honey for their own consumption which provides them largely with carbohydrates and some proteins found in the pollen containing vitamins and minerals. Throughout the year honeybees make and consume honey. However strong honeybee colonies store large quantities of honey for later use during the winter months.  During the winter, the colony clusters together and consumes honey as their energy food source so they can generate heat to keep alive. They can store upwards of 250 lbs of honey, before the beekeeper takes their share.

A Carbohydrate is any of a large group of organic compounds occurring in foods and living tissues and including sugars, starch and cellulose. They contain hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as water (2:1) and typically can be broken down to release energy in an animals body. We will be talking about only the sugars found in honey.

TYPES OF SUGARS IN HONEY

Honey has been found to have 28 different types of sugars. They are categorized by monosaccharides, disaccharides and trisaccharides and higher sugars:

1) Monosaccharides (70% of honey)

glucose (dextrose)        fructose (levulose)

2) Disaccharides (1-3% of honey)
reducing disaccharides, calculated as maltose (7% of honey)

maltose          nigerose          gentiobiose
isomaltose     turanos            laminaribiose
maltulose       kojibiose         leucrose
isomaltulose  neotrehalose

3) Trisaccharides (1 - 5 % of honey)

melezitose                        erlose                      l-kestose
raffinose                           dextrantriose           panose

isopanose                         maltotriose              isomaltotriose
isomaltotetraose              isomaltopentaose     3-α-isomaltosylglucose
6G-α-glucosylsucrose    centose                    arabogalactomannan

ABOUT GLUCOSE AND FRUCTOSE

The three major sugars found in honey are Glucose, Fructose and Maltose. The ratio to Glucose to Fructose helps determine the rate at which a honey crystallizes. A honey containing a higher amount of Glucose will cause a more rapid crystallization rate. A higher Fructose amount will cause a slower crystallization rate.

HOW GLUCOSE AND FRUCTOSE ARE DIGESTED

GLUCOSE

Eat a teaspoon of table sugar, you'll get a sugar rush of energy but then that rush turn into a crash afterwords. This is because table sugar is only glucose and is processed in the pancreas.

FRUCTOSE

Honey is a multi-sugar, it doesn't produce a sugar high. When honey is consumed the sugars go up, but eventually plateau and then gradually go down. This is because when honey, containing both fructose and glucose are consumed, the fructose regulates the Glucose intake into the liver. fructose optimizes the Glucose into the liver and this in-turn regulates blood glucose stability. Read the book "The Honey Revolution" by Ron Fessenden and Mike McInnes for a throughout explanation of this process.

SOURCES:

Eva Crane
Honey A Comprehensive Survey
1975
Crane, Russak & Company, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog No. 72-83309
ISBN: 0-8448-0062-7
Section 2 Characteristics of Honey
Chapter 5 Composition of Honey - Dr. Jonathan W. White, Jr.
Pages 157-206


Eva Crane
A Book of Honey
1980
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0-190286010-0
Page 169 Appendix 2 Table 5 Complete list of sugars whose presence has so far been established or reliably inferred in honey.

Ron Fessenden, MD, MPH
Mike McInnes, MRPS
The Honey Revolution 
Restoring the Health of Future Generations
2008
WroldClassEmprise, LLC
ISBN: 10: 0-9792162-1-4
Page 15 Fructose and Fructose Paradox