Honey the best antioxidant sweetener

At long last science is catching up with historical practice. For centuries - and in many cultures - honey has been used in folk medicine as a wound healer.

Now scientists at the University of Bonn in Germany have recently proved that honey can cure wounds infected with resistant bacteria in weeks.

The antiseptic effects of honey have been something of a mystery to the science world - until recently. Now it is known that bees produce an enzyme - glucose oxidase.

Its this enzyme in the honey that makes sure quantities of hydrogen peroxide (yes that’s bleach) are constantly formed from the sugar in the honey. Hydrogen peroxide is well known as a strong antiseptic and this is what gives honey its wound healing qualities.

Honey can do more than heal wounds when applied topically - it has the ability to increase the levels of antioxidants in your blood. Antioxidants are nature’s fighters of disease and hugely important for their anti-aging effects.

Nutrionists at the University of Illonois completed a study published in April 2006 suggesting that honey should replace sugar as the everyday sweetener of choice.

Studying a range of different colored honeys - all American produced - the researchers established that the antioxidant power of honey is equivalent to many fruit and vegetables.

Darker honeys were show to have the greatest antioxidant effect and the strongest antioxidant tested was buckwheat honey. Equivalent honeys from other parts of the world include manuka honey from New Zealand long renowned for its anti-bacterial and antiseptic properties.

With sugar consumption in America sky high and currently averaging almost three pounds per week each for every man, woman and child, the researchers were quick to see the potential.

After all if you were to substitute honey for all that sugar the contribution of its antioxidants might become substantial.