How Sweet is it
Humans have known about honey for a while. In the time of the ancient Olympics, athletes were reported to use honey to enhance their sports skills — but they didn’t know how or why it worked. “Eat honey, my son, for it is good,” was advice given by Solomon, King of Israel, around 1000 BC Honey was one of man’s earliest foods and bees have been producing honey long before man appeared on Earth.
During the 1960s when there wasn’t the vast variety of food supplements like we have today, honey was often used before a workout for a natural energy boost. Then years later we were told by scientists that honey was no better than plain table sugar. And with Arnold Schwarzenegger referring to refined sugar as ‘white death’, fitness and bodybuilding enthusiasts began to shy away from honey too.
But those guys in the ’60s were actually on the right track, using honey as a pre-workout supplement. In fact, new evidence indicates that post-workout use of honey can also help the recuperation process. More recent research has examined the use of honey as an ergogenic aid that helps an athlete’s performance and as a wound healing agent, both of which were once considered merely old wives’ tales.
Honey is a simple sugar with a complex structure. It is a much better choice than regular refined table sugar which lacks living microscopic enzymes, pollens, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Not only does it provide a different taste, which is always a plus in the often tasteless world of bodybuilding nutrition, this natural sweetener can actually stretch this anabolic window for a longer period of time. Your body also burns it slower.
Honey for energy
All types of Honey are at least 20 per cent sweeter than sugar, so you don’t need as much to get the same sweetening effect. And unlike glucose, honey is not quickly absorbed into the bloodstream.
Like sugar and other sweeteners, honey is a source of simple carbohydrates. Its composition on average is 17.1 per cent water, 82.4 per cent total carbohydrate and 0.5 per cent proteins, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. But there is great difference in proportion and composition of carbohydrates it contains. The main average carbohydrate content of honey is fructose (38.5 per cent) and glucose (31 per cent). The remaining 12.9 per cent of carbohydrates is made up of maltose, sucrose and other sugars.
Because nearly half of its calories come from the slow digesting fructose, this makes honey a viable option to keep on hand should your muscles ever run out of fuel. Honey digests quickly, yet ultimately does not radically spike blood sugar or insulin levels.
Sustaining favourable blood sugar concentrations after training by ingesting carbohydrates before, during and after training is important for maintaining muscle glycogen, the ready-to-use fuel. This helps with faster and better recovery so that you are ready to perform again at their highest level the next day.
This makes honey an ideal pre- and post-training carb source for bodybuilders who struggle to control their carb intake and body fat levels. For now, honey appears to be one of the best sugar alternatives that can help athletes perform at their best. It is terrific in post-workout protein shakes, in this very small anabolic growth window.
Recently three clinical trials were conducted have investigated the use of honey for all of us with a sweet tooth who don’t want to sabotage the bodybuilding diet by eating processed sugars. The studies demonstrate that honey is a nutritionally promising natural carbohydrate option for all athletes based on its low glycemic index, positive metabolic response and effective energy production.
The studies come from the University of Memphis Exercise and Sport Nutrition Laboratory, led by Dr Richard Kreider. The first trial indicated that as a carbohydrate source, honey had a relatively mild effect upon blood sugar when compared to other carbohydrate options. The study states that after taking honey the typical rapid rise and drop in blood sugar levels was avoided. Honey kept the energy and blood glucose at moderate levels and started wearing out only after 60 minutes.
The second study involved a group of 39 weight-trained men and women who underwent an intensive weight-lifting workout and then immediately consumed a protein supplement blended with either sugar, Maltodextrin or honey as the carbohydrate source. The honey group maintained optimal blood sugar levels for two hours following the workout. In addition, honey was shown to be superior in muscle recuperation and glycogen restoration within the muscles when compared to Maltodextrin.
The honey-fortified protein shake was the only one to sustain optimal blood sugar levels over the two hours following the exercise period. Additionally, subjects taking honey showed favourable changes in a hormone ratio that indicates a positive muscle recuperative state. These findings coincide with current research which concludes that a combination of carbohydrates and protein taken immediately following a workout can boost muscle energy recuperation and provide the fuel needed for the next day’s workout.
The third trial focused on competitive cyclists who were given either honey, glucose, or a flavoured calorie-free placebo. Honey topped the list of benefits here as well. It significantly increased the cyclists’ power and speed over the placebo and equalled the performance of glucose. This study showed that honey is not only an effective carbohydrate for endurance athletes, but does its ergogenic anabolic job for the pumping-iron crowd as well.
Dr Kreider concluded: “Our first study suggested honey could operate as a ‘time released’ muscle fuel for exercising muscles. Our second experiment suggested that honey would be a good carbohydrate source to replenish muscles. However, our third study convinced us that honey can improve endurance exercise capacity.”
Honey for recovery
Honey is also a chief provider of supplemental antioxidant effects on the body and has small amounts of a wide array of vitamins and minerals, including niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. So bodybuilders find it extremely helpful to assist their routine in the very important recovery time period.
Most antioxidants found in Honey come from the water-soluble fraction. It contains most of the antioxidant components, including protein, gluconic acid, ascorbic acid, hydroxymethylfuraldehyde, caffeic acid, methyl caffeate, phenylethyl caffeate, and phenylethyl dimethylcaffeate and the combined activities of the enzymes glucose oxidase, catalase and peroxidase, according to research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
The American Chemical Society has announced that honey’s very powerful antioxidants help preventing cancer, heart diseases, inflammation and even aging, all believed to be consequences of the excessive ‘free radicals’ in your body. Free radicals are responsible for over 60 severe diseases that can be prevented by taking antioxidants.
Two other studies examined the potential for honey to act as a prebiotic which stimulates and enhance the growth of the ‘healthy bugs’, the good bacteria in the gut. This is important because the health of the digestive tract is directly related to the immunity. More than half of various chemicals responsible for growth and recuperation are produced and absorbed by the bacteria in the gut. The stronger the immunity, the faster the recovery from all stresses — including physical exhaustion of the workout.
Many bodybuilding supplements are now being sold and used for this — whey protein, glutamine, colostrum, essential fatty acids, medium chain triglycerides, to name a few. To show how honey can help you in the same department, five human intestinal Bifidobacterium spp., (B. longum, B. adolescentis, B. breve, B. bifidum, and B. infantis), were cultured with honey and three other different prebiotics — five per cent clover honey, fructooligosaccharide (FOS), galactooligosaccharide (GOS), or inulin. Honey had similar effect as FOS, GOS, and inulin in supporting Bifidobacterium spp growth and were significantly more effective than the control at 36 and 48 hr (P < 0.05).
Raw honey contains small amounts of the same resins found in propolis. Propolis, sometimes called ‘bee glue’, is actually a complex mixture of resins and other substances. Honeybees make propolis by combining plant resins with their own secretions, then spread propolis around the honeycomb and seal cracks with the anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal resins. The resins found in propolis only represent a small part of the phytonutrients found in propolis and honey. Other phytonutrients found both in honey and propolis have been shown to possess cancer-preventing and anti-tumour properties.
Researchers have discovered that these substances prevent colon cancer in animals by shutting down activity of two enzymes, phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C and lipoxygenase.
Bee keepers sometimes use special screens around the inside of the hive boxes to trap propolis to minimise the accumulation of potential harmful waste chemicals, like road tar.
Yummy honey
Given that the average sweetener intake by humans is estimated to exceed 70 kg per year, the substitution of honey for traditional sweeteners is a good option for enhancement of various health-protecting health systems.
Honey can be purchased at any grocery store and can be a great grab if you’re on the road without a protein shake, and just picking up some lunch meat or other quick protein source following a workout.
The health benefits of honey — like all foods — depend on the quality and the source of the product. In this case it’s even more true, because the pollen that collects on the bees’ legs as they move from plant to plant is only as healthful and as diverse as those plants. Although all honey is good, the darker varieties seem to have more antioxidant properties. Also, most honey sold in grocery stores are heat treated and processed and the benefits of many phytonutrients are largely eliminated. Try to use a good quality product from a respectable brand.
Honey makes a good replacement for sugar in most recipes. Since honey is sweeter than sugar, you need to use less, one-half to three-quarters of a cup for each cup of sugar. For each cup of sugar replaced, you should also reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe by one-quarter of a cup. In addition, reduce the cooking temperature since honey causes foods to brown more easily.
Be careful if you are allergic to honey (as many are) and consult a doctor if you have any adverse reactions to this tasty and useful food. Enjoy the variety and added benefits that honey can provide to your bodybuilding diet!
So, there you have it. Honey is better than sugar. Go and get sticky. IM
References
Honey can serve as an effective carbohydrate replacement during endurance exercise, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2004;18(3):466-72.
Effect of processing and storage on antioxidant capacity of Honey, Journal of Food Science, 2004;69(2):96-10.
Chronic honey consumption increases plasma antioxidant concentration. Gross H. Effect of honey consumption on plasma antioxidant status in human subjects. Abstract presented at the American Chemical Society, March 29, 2004.
Buckwheat honey increases serum antioxidant capacity in humans, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2003, Vol. 51 pp. 1500-1505.
Honeys with high phenolic contents can increase serum antioxidant capacity in healthy human subjects. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2003;51(6):1732-1735.
Identification and quantification of antioxidant components of honeys from various floral sources, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2002, Vol. 50, No. 21, pp.5870-5877.
Antioxidant capacity of honeys from various floral sources and inhibition of in vitro lipoprotein oxidation in human serum samples, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2002;8;50(10):3050-5.
Honey can enhance the growth and acid production of human Bifidobacterium ssp., Journal of Food Protection. 2002;65(1):214-8.
Honey enhances the production of lactic acid from Bifidobacteria Journal of Food Science, 2001;66(3):478-481.
