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Honey is commonly known as a healthy sweetener. But what happens when you eat too much honey? Does it pose any risks?
Honey is known as a healthy sweetener. But what happens when you eat too much honey? Image credit: fancycrave1 via Pixabay, free license
In this article, we are going to delve into this issue deeper by explaining the 7 most important risks related to honey consumption. Let’s first start with questions about what kind of substance honey is, and what is its chemical composition. We will also discuss what bees use this substance for, as well as how honey is produced.
What is honey?
You certainly know this sweet and sticky substance called honey. Its natural version is produced by honeybees from the nectar of flowering plants. Humans later collect a part of this resource for their own needs.
Honey is widely used as a food and a sweetener. Not all people enjoy its taste, but in some countries, such as Turkey, China, Spain, Italy, Greece, Mexico, and the United States this food ingredient is a very important and at the same time popular component of local cuisine. It has been widely valued for its nutritional and also medicinal properties for thousands of years.
A bee collecting nectar from a flower. Image credit: katja via Pixabay, free license
How do bees produce honey?
Bees produce honey completely by their own means, using nectar from flowers as the main ingredient. When nectar is collected, bees store it in their honey stomachs. There, nectar is mixed with the bees’ saliva which contains specific enzymes.
These enzymes break down the content of the nectar – simply put, sugars with a complex molecular structure are converted into more simple sugar molecules.
Later bees regurgitate this mixture and put it into their honeycomb cells. At this point, honey still contains an excessive amount of moisture. Bees use their wings to artificially create the movement of air in order to speed up water evaporation.
When the moisture level reaches around 17-18%, bees seal their filled honeycomb cells using wax. In other words, they preserve honey for later use.
Bees working on their honeycomb structures. Image credit: PollyDot via Pixabay, free license
What do bees use honey for?
Bees use honey as a source of energy and food, mostly during winter when flowers are not blooming and nectar is scarce.
During the warmer period of the year, they consume only minimal amounts of honey, as there is plenty of fresh food all around. Meanwhile, honey preserved in the comb of their hives is an important resource to sustain the entire colony of those insects from late autumn till early spring.
Bees also use honey to feed their young (larvae), in the form of a mixture additionally containing pollen and bee glandular secretions. This mixture is called “bee bread.”
This is how the honeycomb cells look like when filled with honey. Image credit: Pexels, free license
What is the chemical composition of honey?
The chemical composition of honey varies depending on several factors:
- Types of flowers and other flowering plants that bees collected the nectar from.
- Geographical region.
- Climate.
- Time of the year when honey was collected.
- Sub-species of bees.
However, all types of honey contain the following basic components, with slightly varying proportions:
- A mixture of sugars – they are the main component. Fructose makes up about 38%, and glucose is about 32% of the total content. The remaining sugars include sucrose, maltose, and other sugary carbohydrates.
- Water – contrary to some beliefs, honey is not water-free, unless it is artificially dried until all the water evaporates: Honey may contain about 17-18% water.
- Minerals – most important mineral components include calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, and magnesium.
- Vitamins – the vitamin content is not high, but it does contain small amounts of various vitamins, such as B-complex (B2, B3, B5, B6, B9), vitamin C, and vitamin D.
- Enzymes – these components end up in honey during its production. There are several types of enzymes, such as invertase and glucose oxidase. They mostly preserve honey and also impact its flavor.
- Antioxidants – honey is widely acknowledged as a rich source of antioxidants. This is also why this type of food also has medical and anti-aging properties.
- Honey also contains small amounts of organic acids, such as gluconic acid, and phenolic compounds, such as flavonoids.
A person working in an apiary (bee farm) collects honey from a beehive. Image credit: Pexels, free license
What happens when you eat too much honey? 7 risks explained
Consuming honey in moderate amounts is considered beneficial to human health, unless there are certain conditions limiting its use – for example, diabetes. But what if you eat too much honey? Here are 7 most important risks:
- Firstly, honey has lots of sugar and carbohydrates. In fact, 82% of honey is made of sugar. Therefore, blood sugar level increases when you consume a lot of honey. Too much honey may be dangerous, especially if you are diabetic.
- Also, you may have read that honey helps to control blood pressure. However, if you take too much honey, that may cause low blood pressure or hypotension.
- Thirdly, the large consumption of honey may cause digestion problems. High levels of fructose in it may cause constipation or make it worse if you already suffer from it. The inability of your body to digest sugars may also cause bloating or diarrhea.
- If you are trying to lose weight, be careful and control the amount of honey you consume. Honey has lots of calories, sugar, and carbohydrates. Hence, it may lead to weight gain.
- Moreover, large amounts of honey can also negatively affect your teeth. Lots of sugar can promote tooth decay. And, because honey is sticky, it can cling to your teeth and accelerate the decay even further.
- Honey is also not recommended to give to babies under one year of age – even tiny bits of it – because it may cause a rare but serious gastrointestinal condition called infant botulism due to exposure to Clostridium botulinum spores.
- Some people may be allergic to certain components of honey, especially pollen. These allergies are rare, but they must be also considered when eating this product. Eating too much honey may promote these allergies further.
So, even if you want to enjoy the health benefits of honey, try not to exceed 50 ml a day. Otherwise, it may have adverse effects on your health.
Final word
Honey is an incredibly useful and beneficial component of the human diet. However, as with all types of foods, it should be consumed in moderate quantities. What happens when you eat too much honey? The main risks arising from its overconsumption are associated with weight gain, hypotension, tooth decay, certain digestion problems, allergies, and diabetes.
