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Sci Tech
Honey, potential dietary antioxidant
Honey's antioxidants are equal to those in many fruits and vegetables in their ability to counter the degenerating activity of highly reactive molecules known as free radicals.
TWO NEW University of Illinois studies are sweet news to honey lovers. One shows that honey's antioxidant qualities preserve meat without compromising taste. A just-published study says that honey — at least based on work done on human blood in the lab — slows the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), a process that leads to atherosclerotic plaque deposition.
Like a UI study in 1999, researchers found in both studies that dark-coloured honey, especially buckwheat, provided more protective punch than lighter-colured honeys.
"It still is too early to say definitively, but honey seems to have the potential to serve as a dietary antioxidant," said principal researcher Nicki Engeseth, a professor of food chemistry in the UI College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
The newest study — published in the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry — is the first to look at honey's effect on human blood. The study also found, using a much more precise method than the one used in 1999, that honey's antioxidants are equal to those in many fruits and vegetables in their ability to counter the degenerating activity of highly reactive molecules known as free radicals.
Researchers showed that honey was more effective than traditional preservatives (butylated hydroxytoluene and tocopherol) in slowing oxidation in cooked, refrigerated ground turkey.
While the meat browned during cooking more extensively than traditionally preserved products, taste was not negatively affected.
The study covered acacia, buckwheat, clover, fireweed, Hawaiian Christmas berry, soybean and tupelo honeys. Researchers used the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, a tool that for the past decade has been widely used to analyse the same components in fruits, vegetables and wines.
Darker honeys had the highest values. Results clearly show that there are antioxidants in the honey. If you ate as much honey as you did of melon, for example, you would be getting a similar dose of antioxidants in your diet."
Is such a scenario likely? No, but the idea that honey packs healthy quantities of antioxidants does strengthen the idea of using honey as sugar substitute.
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