Is honey better?

Were you wondering if honey is better than sugar? “Well, it’s natural,” you might say, “so it must be better.”

Let’s take a look and compare.

	Honey	Table Sugar	Brown Sugar
Calories per teaspoon	22	16	17
Chemical makeup	mostly fructose and glucose	sucrose	sucrose
What it becomes in your body	glucose	glucose	glucose
What else is in it?	very small amounts of vitamins and minerals	nothing	Molasses, very small amounts of minerals

If you are aiming for the lowest calories, white sugar is the one. The amount of vitamins and minerals in honey and brown sugar are so small, that they frankly add an insignificant amount to what you eat in a day. If your goal is to eat more vitamins and minerals, have a fruit or vegetable as a snack, as honey and brown sugar are not good sources of those.

If you are wondering what to add to your tea or coffee, I would suggest choosing whichever one you like best, and limiting it to 1 teaspoon. Although they differ slightly in calories, in the scheme of things, a 6 calorie difference is not going to alter much.

Good nutrition is not going to come from choosing honey or table sugar or brown sugar. Good nutrition involves an attitude you have when making food choices the entire day. 

Back to the basics of good nutrition

I have noticed that “healthy” is a very value-laden word. In a world where non-GMO, organic, natural, clean, green, paleo, free-range, local, farm to table, unprocessed, preservative-free, vegan, vegetarian…I can go on and on…have become synonyms with “healthy,” we have missed the basics of good nutrition. Somehow, these taglines have become associated with an allegedly superior way of approaching food choices. Are some of them good for us? Definitely some of them are! But let’s take a step back and take a look at the basics of good nutrition.

Research again and again supports the idea that people who eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and low fat dairy live longer with fewer chronic diseases than those who eat less of those foods. That pretty much summarizes the basics of good nutrition.

My readers touched on many of these points. Eating a variety of foods…that means choosing different fruits, vegetables, and whole grains throughout the week. Choosing foods full of nutrients…full of vitamins and minerals—again, that would be our fruits, vegetables and whole grains!

So there are the basics, and then there is the extra credit of good nutrition. The basics would be the guidelines listed above. The recommendations supported by tons and tons of research. The extra credit, perhaps, would be some of those taglines. (Only some of them.) With food, as it is with schoolwork, the extra credit doesn’t go very far if the basics are not in place.

I’d like to make a suggestion. When you are at the supermarket choosing your groceries, take a moment to think if the contents of your cart fit in the basics category. Does all, or even most of the food in your cart meet the basics guidelines? When I am at the supermarket and my cart has my favorite organic cookies, vegan candy, and non-GMO potato chips, I’ve got to rethink what healthy means.

In the comments section below, let me know which of the taglines you thing might actually be good nutrition, and you reasons why. 

Thoughts of a new blogger

Confession: I am new to blogging. 

Why do I think that my ideas are worthy of being broadcast over the internet? A better question might be: Why do I think the big world out there will think my ideas are worthy of being read? 

I am a dietitian who loves food and loves when others love the food they are eating. I am a proponent of eating food that tastes good and only eating food if it tastes good. Of course, as a dietitian, I am also a big fan of eating in ways that keep us healthy.

Food does not need to be expensive or complicated. Many simple and low-cost foods are also super good for us. There is a lot of media attention on superfoods--expensive or exotic fruits, vegetables, or grains that will apparently prevent or heal all sorts of diseases due to their high content of a particular vitamin, mineral, or some other bioactive compound. But in truth, every edible thing that grows from the ground has these components! Why do only some foods get all the attention! My poor apple and oatmeal and kidney bean are feeling left out!

What is it about these everyday foods that makes them healthy? What does "healthy" mean anyway? 

I will attempt to answer these questions as I go forward. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what "healthy" means. Please post that in comments section. I might include your answer in a future post!

I welcome all comments and questions about past posts or other nutrition-related topics.