Is Honey Really ok to use on Primal/Paleo?

kcalla

I've been told that honey and even agave nectar still convert the same as sugar in the digestive tract. I'd sure like to have a better understanding of the difference between them and sugar. I see so many Paleo recipes with sweeteners and shy away from them. Any thoughts?

monkeydharma

I've been told that honey and even agave nectar still convert the same as sugar in the digestive tract. I'd sure like to have a better understanding of the difference between them and sugar. I see so many Paleo recipes with sweeteners and shy away from them. Any thoughts?

Not only do honey and agave convert the same as sugar (albeit slightly more slowly), but unless you are using raw agave nectar, it is processed basically the same as high fructose corn syrup. It's just as much bad news as C&H.

Avoid ANY processed sugar in your diet - stick to the sugars you get with your fruits and vegetables. People are always going to want to cheat and try to stick a little extra sweeteners in here and there, but as Mark Sisson (and other authors) says: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INSULIN.

Don't use it.

demuralist

I can't live without a little something sweet, not yet anyway. But I use pure stevia liquid, and less and less of it. But I don't bake or cook things like trying to do faux cookies or what ever. I have just tried for years not to sweeten my coffee and frankly I would rather do without. But of course, I am not going to.

I will use local raw honey, in recipes for those in the house that do not need to lose weight, but very little,ie. in the homemade non- grain granola I make. For something like this I feel like if I can get them to drop grains from breakfast, what ends up being the equivalent of less than a tsp of honey per serving is ok.

On the VERY rare occasions that I make a dessert treat, I just do the real thing (ie. pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving).

kcalla

I've been told that honey and even agave nectar still convert the same as sugar in the digestive tract. I'd sure like to have a better understanding of the difference between them and sugar. I see so many Paleo recipes with sweeteners and shy away from them. Any thoughts?

Not only do honey and agave convert the same as sugar (albeit slightly more slowly), but unless you are using raw agave nectar, it is processed basically the same as high fructose corn syrup. It's just as much bad news as C&H.

Avoid ANY processed sugar in your diet - stick to the sugars you get with your fruits and vegetables. People are always going to want to cheat and try to stick a little extra sweeteners in here and there, but as Mark Sisson (and other authors) says: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INSULIN.

Don't use it.
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Ok, thank you. Some of those "paleo" recipes out there confuse me. My daughter (21) can't have ANY sugar. At all. I guess with the holidays coming... I was wanting to come up with some good recipes for treats. But they still affect her the same way using these products. Headache and deep itching in her ears. I have found some dark chocolate dipped figs and some spice nut/dried fruit balls. That might be the extent of our Christmas baking! And we will feel better for it! We've been following this way of eating for over a year and love how we feel. Basically, she became resistant to wheat, sugar, and dairy. So cavewoman eating R US!

monkeydharma

Ok, thank you. Some of those "paleo" recipes out there confuse me. My daughter (21) can't have ANY sugar. At all. I guess with the holidays coming... I was wanting to come up with some good recipes for treats. But they still affect her the same way using these products. Headache and deep itching in her ears. I have found some dark chocolate dipped figs and some spice nut/dried fruit balls. That might be the extent of our Christmas baking! And we will feel better for it! We've been following this way of eating for over a year and love how we feel. Basically, she became resistant to wheat, sugar, and dairy. So cavewoman eating R US!

Mmmm...85% chocolate-dipped figs sounds TASTY. Too bad an early frost croaked my fig tree's crop this year...

We started our 'cave' eating via Steven Gundry's 'Diet Evolution'. He is really strict about sugar consumption as one of the prime disease factors in our society (the other being omega6). When we first started, we spent a couple of weeks cheating around the edges with agave, but we could soon feel the 'sugar rush' even with minimal amounts, so we chucked everything - even stevia.

Why?

Gundry points out that, even if a sweetener doesn't have any calories, the body still reacts to it as if it does and still produces an insulin spike, making you want more sweet. This is born out by studies showing that people still gaining weight even though they've replaced their sugar with an artificial sweetener - they wind up just eating more of something else. Artificial sweeteners may reduce calories, but they still harm the body as much as any other sugar source.

Even Grok rarely used honey - between fighting the bees and the bears who also wanted it, it was a rare treat.

As Mark Sisson says, "It's all about the insulin". Keep your sugar intake to minimum - avoid ANY sugar that doesn't have a plant surrounding it.

kcalla

Keep your sugar intake to minimum - avoid ANY sugar that doesn't have a plant surrounding it.

Excellent. And thank you for telling your story on your profile. Good for you and your wife. And glad you are getting back into music. I played the piano/keyboard for 20 years. Now I play the radio.

KavemanKarg

Honey was a rare treat for ancient man, I would just use that as a guide

cathyL11

I've seen videos on TV showing hunter gatherers collecting honey -- they didn't care about the bee stings and they were adept at shimmying up the tree to get at the honey and they used smoking embers in gourds to sedate the bees. However they didn't eat honey every day -- only when they found a bee colony so I think that it was pretty rare for them to eat honey.
But technically it is Paleo in that it is found in nature.

I very rarely eat honey though --- I don't try to recreate cookies, muffins, or bread using paleo ingredients -- I just don't bother with that stuff any more. I also drink teas that are naturally sweet like African Honey Bush tea and Lemon Zinger tea.