Honey vs Sugar in my morning Oatmeal

W_Stewart

Is honey a better alternative than granulated sugar in my morning oatmeal? I usually put 1.5 teaspoons of sugar in my oatmeal (along with some raisins). This only adds 23 calories.

Today I tried the same amount of honey and it tasted about the same. Adding the honey to my food diary showed it has a few more calories and a slightly higher Sugar content. This surprised me although the differences are not a big deal.

So what is it about using honey as a replacement that make sit better than sugar (in my example)? I did not add both to my oatmeal but added it to my diary just to compare the numbers.

ew_david

Choose the one that tastes better and/or fits in line with your goals. There really is no benefit in choosing one over the other.

Also, a half a tsp of honey is nothing.*

*derp...reading fail

Unknown

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slaite1

I think it's usually just the sugar police that push honey over sugar. Use what you like

erickirb

_dracarys_ wrote: »

Choose the one that tastes better and/or fits in line with your goals. There really is no benefit in choosing one over the other.

Also, a half a tsp of honey is nothing.

he shows half a Tablespoon, which is the same as 1.5 tsps.

The only reason I could see Honey being more cals is that it is heavier/teaspoon, as it is liquid there is no air between the granulars like there is with sugar

J72FIT

wahoowad wrote: »

So what is it about using honey as a replacement that make sit better than sugar

It's not...

HeidiGrrrl

Honey and sugar are basically the same thing, just made differently. Both have the same amount of carbs, both have the same amount of sugars, although table sugar has a few more calories (in large quantities). One is not fundamentally better than the other. Choose whichever one you prefer.

williams969

Use what you like. I like honey on my oatmeal, but I prefer sugar on my Cheerios. Taste preference--the calories (and as we can see, the macros) are pretty much the same (9 calories is "nothing", really).

neanderthin

Because honey is natural and sugar comes from middle earth. j/k The caloric difference is in the density.

danjbadassery

From my limited understanding, the natural sugars in honey are supposedly easier for your body to use over the processed sugars in white sugar but that may be a negligible amount.

HeySwoleSister

erickirb wrote: »

_dracarys_ wrote: »

Choose the one that tastes better and/or fits in line with your goals. There really is no benefit in choosing one over the other.

Also, a half a tsp of honey is nothing.

he shows half a Tablespoon, which is the same as 1.5 tsps.

The only reason I could see Honey being more cals is that it is heavier/teaspoon, as it is liquid there is no air between the granulars like there is with sugar

yeah, you compared equal amounts by volume, not by weight. So....unequal amounts. 1 gram of honey is listed as having 3 calories, 1 gram of granulated sugar has 4 calories. Not a significant difference.

Why choose honey? Taste, preference, etc. That's all.

ew_david

erickirb wrote: »

_dracarys_ wrote: »

Choose the one that tastes better and/or fits in line with your goals. There really is no benefit in choosing one over the other.

Also, a half a tsp of honey is nothing.

he shows half a Tablespoon, which is the same as 1.5 tsps.

The only reason I could see Honey being more cals is that it is heavier/teaspoon, as it is liquid there is no air between the granulars like there is with sugar

reading fail...carry on

lemurcat12

HeidiGrrrl wrote: »

Honey and sugar are basically the same thing, just made differently. Both have the same amount of carbs, both have the same amount of sugars, although table sugar has a few more calories (in large quantities). One is not fundamentally better than the other. Choose whichever one you prefer.

This.

slaite1

neanderthin wrote: »

Because honey is natural and sugar comes from middle earth. j/k The caloric difference is in the density.

HA! I laughed too much at this

OldHobo

100% agree with the "use the one you like best" camp.
Honey and sugar are not the same though.

1. First there is the sciencey stuff about honey made up of several kinds of sugars and our bodies expend a few calories breaking the various sugars down into glucose.
2. Honey tastes sweeter than sugar, so you may not need as much honey as sugar.
3. Honey has flavor in addition to sweetness. And the flavor varies depending in part on what the bees are making it out of. So honey made in your neighborhood probably tastes different than honey made two counties up the road.
4. When you buy a jar of honey you are supporting a smaller scale, more sustainable and environmentally friendlier industry than the international corporate agribusiness of the refined sugar industry.

The original post was about sweetening the morning oatmeal.
Have you tried cane syrup? I used it for several years and liked it better than sugar. Not sure if it's available everywhere but I like Steen's 100% Pure Syrup.
I find that steel cut oats have more flavor by themselves and need less sweetener than rolled oats. Now days I just sweeten oats with 1/4 cup raisins to 1 cup oatmeal.

HeavyMetalHeavierWeights

no is addressing the rasins. Just one of those little single serving boxes of rasins, that you could buy in packs, is 90-100 calories....there's a good chunk right there, just saying

it turns your 300 calorie cup of oatmeal into a 400 calorie cup, just for a handful of rasins

I usually have my 1 cup with 2 packets of Stevia and one of those boxes of rasins, just make sure it fits in my day.

urloved33

six of one half a dozen of the other.

acord123

I had heard that honey has food value content unlike sugar, but in order to get the nutrients one must get the pure natural honey and not the typical one from the bear. In the bear, the vital nutrients are extracted. I would spend a little more money and get the natural honey from a health food store or health section. Peace.

kampshoff

acord123 wrote: »

I had heard that honey has food value content unlike sugar, but in order to get the nutrients one must get the pure natural honey and not the typical one from the bear. In the bear, the vital nutrients are extracted. I would spend a little more money and get the natural honey from a health food store or health section. Peace.

what is this I don't even

I put "bear" honey in my oatmeal every morning, because I like the flavor better than sugar. I guess I'm missing out on some vital nutrients, whatever those happen to be.

HeySwoleSister

kampshoff wrote: »

acord123 wrote: »

I had heard that honey has food value content unlike sugar, but in order to get the nutrients one must get the pure natural honey and not the typical one from the bear. In the bear, the vital nutrients are extracted. I would spend a little more money and get the natural honey from a health food store or health section. Peace.

what is this I don't even

I put "bear" honey in my oatmeal every morning, because I like the flavor better than sugar. I guess I'm missing out on some vital nutrients, whatever those happen to be.

35 fewer milligrams of Woo per gram.

chivalryder

Well...


100g of granulated sugar contains:

100g of carbs/sugar (duh)
is 387 kcal
1.0 mg of calcium
2.0 mg of potassium
and 0.6mcg of selenium

100g of honey contains:

82.4g of carbohydrates, 82.1g of which are sugar
0.3g of protein
0.5mg of Vitamin C
0.1mg of niacin
2.0mg of folate
0.1mg of Pantothenic Acid
2.2mg of choline
1.7mg of Betine
6.0mg of calcium
0.4mg of iron
2.0mg of magnesium
4.0mg of potassium
51.0mg of phosphorus
4.0mg of sodium
0.2mg of zinc
0.1mg of manganese
0.8mcg of selenium
and 7.0mcg of flouride


So, yes, honey is significantly healthier for you than granulated sugar.

However, 1.5 tsp of sugar is 3g and 1.5 tsp of honey is 10.5g, so the actual amount of micro nutrients you are receiving is negligible.

Source: http://nutritiondata.self.com/

jgnatca

Bear honey is a jar. How can a jar extract nutrients? I don't even either.

I made up this sweetener table.

The difference by which the body metabolises different sugars (ends in -ose) is so negligible as to not even count. We're talking fractions of a second, I'm betting. And as you have found out, the calorie difference is negligible as well.

Table sugar is sucrose.
Honey is 41% fructose, 36% glucose.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which has the all-natural folks up in arms because (gasp) it's man-made rather than bee-made, is 55% fructose, 42% glucose. Almost the same proportion as honey.

This confusion over sugars has led people to blame fructose as the enemy. But....fructose is the chief sugar in fruit! Is fruit good or bad?

The only reason people treat honey as superior is it's naturalness.

Francl27

Keep in mind that 90% of commercial honey isn't even real honey anymore though... so unless you buy the local stuff, it's probably the same.

Need2Exerc1se

Honey may be more natural, and it contains a bit more nutritients. But in a spoonful or two, the nutritents will not be worth worrying over. And some commercial honey is highly processed, just as is table sugar. Choose what you like for whatever reason you like and enjoy your meal.

chivalryder

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Honey may be more natural, and it contains a bit more nutritients. But in a spoonful or two, the nutritents will not be worth worrying over. And some commercial honey is highly processed, just as is table sugar. Choose what you like for whatever reason you like and enjoy your meal.

The only response I can give to this is: Raw Honey is fantabulous and everyone should eat it.

It is, however, $15 for 500g.

Oh, and for those who don't know, raw honey is honey that is literally taken straight from the hive and put into a jar. The only processing it receives is screening to remove chunks of hive,

HeySwoleSister

Francl27 wrote: »

Keep in mind that 90% of commercial honey isn't even real honey anymore though... so unless you buy the local stuff, it's probably the same.

That's true, many mass-marketed honeys have been found to contain primarily corn syrup and coloring.

I like to buy the local honey because the beekeepers rotate their hives in local fields for pollinating, and I kind of groove on my local small farms. (not out of woo, but out of my opinions on land use, historic preservation, and quality of life)

PeachyCarol

I hate the taste of honey, so I'd vote sugar. Or maple syrup. Because that's REALLY the best thing on oatmeal.

At that small an amount, it's honestly just what you prefer.

Need2Exerc1se

chivalryder wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Honey may be more natural, and it contains a bit more nutritients. But in a spoonful or two, the nutritents will not be worth worrying over. And some commercial honey is highly processed, just as is table sugar. Choose what you like for whatever reason you like and enjoy your meal.

The only response I can give to this is: Raw Honey is fantabulous and everyone should eat it.

It is, however, $15 for 500g.

Oh, and for those who don't know, raw honey is honey that is literally taken straight from the hive and put into a jar. The only processing it receives is screening to remove chunks of hive,

And sometimes not even that. I like honey that still has comb in it. When we were kids, we used to chew the comb like gum to get all the honey out. It was so sweet it would make you pucker like eating a lemon.

starryphoenix

Raw honey is actually good for you. I'll choose it over sugar any day.

beemerphile1

Raw honey will have some nutrients that granulated white sugar does not have but for weight loss considerations there isn't much difference.

I prefer honey myself for this use.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Honey tastes better in oatmeal. Sugar tastes better in coffee.