This article has been Fact-Checked by Kendall Kennedy MS, RD, RYT
There are plenty of so-called “magical” things you can eat for weight loss, including honey. Is it actually good for weight loss or not?
Honey is a sweet substance made by bees and certain other insects. Honey has been consumed by humans for 1000’s of years but that does not make it good for weight loss.
Micronutrients in honey
The first thing to look at is the amount of micronutrients in honey.
Micronutrients are a group of nutrients your body absolutely needs to survive and thrive. Micronutrients include vitamins and minerals. These are involved in basically every aspect of your health, including weight loss.
100 grams of honey provides you with approximately (1):
- Manganese: 4% of the DV (Daily Value)
- Copper: 2% of the DV
- Riboflavin: 2% of the DV
- Iron: 2% of the DV
And a few other micronutrients in even smaller amounts. These are pretty disappoiting numbers in the micronutrient department.
Honey does contain some anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants can help your body deal with oxidative stress.
Is honey good for losing weight?
Let’s take a closer look at the macronutrients in honey.
304 calories per 100 grams. 303 of these calories come from the carbohydrates (82.4 g per 100 gram of which 0.2 g fiber).
This is a pretty high amount of calories. The amount of carbohydrates in honey also makes it unsuitable for low carbs diets.
It’s unlikely that someone will consume 100 grams of honey in one sitting. However, this does show what you can expect from honey.
Honey is most likely better than just pure white sugar but that’s not a big achievement.
If you’re trying to lose weight there is almost no reason to add honey to your diet. You might use very small amounts to flavor up food but even in those cases you should try to use other things.
It’s pretty confusing that there are people that advice to consume honey if you’re trying to lose weight. It is one of the closest things to pure sugar naturally found in nature.
It might have been great 1000’s of years ago to get some easy calories in your diet. However, today calories are found in abundance, and besides easy calories, there aren’t many benefits left.
