You probably know the feeling of eyeing a jar of honey and wondering if it's really any better than the sugar bowl next to it. Most of us assume sugar is sugar, and that goes for the golden stuff too. A fresh look at the research complicates that picture.
A 2025 meta-analysis in Nature's journal Nutrition and Diabetes pooled 69 randomized trials with 3,544 participants. Up to 10 grams of honey a day, about half a tablespoon, was linked to modest reductions in HbA1c, a long-term marker of blood sugar control.
Push the dose higher, and the benefit faded. At larger daily intakes, the researchers saw HbA1c rising instead of falling.
Why dose is the hinge of the finding
HbA1c reflects the average level of sugar in your blood over the past two to three months. A small drop is not a cure, but on this marker any reliable nudge downward is unusual for a sweet food.
Also read: How eating broccoli every day can affect your body
The study points to a narrow window. Honey behaved like a gentle help at about half a tablespoon a day, and more like ordinary sugar once the amount grew. Nothing in the paper suggests that more is better.
Why raw single-flower honey behaved differently
An earlier meta-analysis published in November 2022 in Nutrition Reviews combined 18 controlled trials with about 1,105 participants. The median dose there was 40 grams a day, close to two tablespoons.
Across the pool, honey was tied to small reductions in fasting blood sugar, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and a small rise in HDL cholesterol. The strongest effects came from raw honey and from honey made from a single flower source, such as clover and robinia.
Processed honey, heated for pasteurization, did not show the same benefit. The authors suggested that the unique mix of rare sugars, plant compounds and enzymes in raw honey may explain part of the gap.
Also read: How eating turmeric every day may affect your joints and inflammation
Lead researcher Tauseef Khan of the University of Toronto called the finding unexpected. "These results are surprising, because honey is about 80 per cent sugar," he said.
The team framed honey as a possible replacement for table sugar or syrup, not as an addition to the diet.
What the finding is not
This is not a treatment for diabetes. Honey remains high in sugar, and the measured effects are modest. People taking medication for blood sugar or cholesterol should not change their diet based on a meta-analysis without talking to a doctor.
The practical takeaway is narrower. Swapping a daily teaspoon of refined sugar in your tea or oatmeal for a similar amount of raw, single-source honey may offer a small health edge, while the same jar used by the spoonful can erase it.
Also read: A single Ozempic shot cut oxygen to the fetus in animal tests
Also read: A large trial found stopping statins did not raise heart risk for many older adults
This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.