Honey Shines in Athletic Research
- Has Scientific Community Abuzz...
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., September 24 -- The National Honey Board is pleased to announce promising results from three clinical trials on honey for athletes. The studies were undertaken to evaluate honey compared to other popular forms of carbohydrates used by athletes. All three double-blind, placebo-controlled studies were conducted at the University of Memphis Exercise and Sport Nutrition Laboratory, led by Dr. Richard Kreider. Encouraging data were presented at the annual meetings of Experimental Biology, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and research papers have been submitted to appropriate peer-reviewed journals. “We wanted to see if honey would be a good source of carbohydrate for athletes in comparison to other forms of carbohydrate. Honey did as well or better in several areas,” stated Dr. Kreider.
The first trial involved 71 subjects who were given one of seven carbohydrate gels, including honey and placebo. Honey produced only mild increases in blood sugar and insulin, prevailing over dextrose (glucose) and maltodextrin, and was similar to a popular commercial carbohydrate gel. This indicates that honey could be an effective pre-workout energy source that does not induce hypoglycemia.
The second trial studied 39 weight-trained women and men. Following an intensive workout, each subject immediately consumed a protein shake blended with sucrose, maltodextrin, powdered honey or placebo as a carbohydrate. The honey sweetened “muscle shake” was the only one to sustain blood sugar over the two hours following the exercise.
The final trial focused on nine competitive cyclists who were given a honey, glucose or placebo gel prior to and at 10-mile intervals of a simulated 40-mile race. Honey significantly increased power and speed over placebo, equaling the performance of dextrose. This exciting study is the first to show that honey is an effective carbohydrate for endurance athletes and resulted in media attention from around the world. “Our first study suggested honey could operate as a ‘time released’ muscle fuel for exercising muscles. Our second experiment suggested that honey would be a good carbohydrate source to replenish muscles. However, our last study convinced us that honey can improve endurance exercise capacity,” concluded Dr. Kreider.
This research demonstrates that honey is a carbohydrate option for athletes based on its low glycemic index, positive metabolic response, and effective energy production. These results are great news for athletes or anyone looking for a natural, convenient energy boost. The taste of honey has broad appeal, and honey is readily available in a variety of forms and flavors.
The series of studies was sponsored by the National Honey Board (www.nhb.org), a non-profit organization in Longmont, Colorado that develops research and consumer information programs to increase the demand for honey. The research was done in collaboration with IMAGINutrition, a nutritional technology think tank in Laguna Niguel, California.
© National Honey Board
390 Lashley St., Longmont, CO 80501-6045
Phone: 001 303-776-2337
Fax: 001 303-776-1177
http://www.nhb.org
ISO ACTIVE HONEY INFORMATION...
Honey is mankind’s oldest sweetener.
Cave paintings in Spain from 7000 years ago depict scenes
of men extracting honey from natural hives.
Honey was used by the Egyptians as a food and medicinal
agent.
The philosophers Plato and Aristotle make references to
honey in their writings.
The Greek Olympians used honey and figs as fuel for
exercise and for sport and were certainly ahead of their
time.
To make one pound of honey bees must tap 2 million flowers
for nectar and from one hive 55 thousand miles of flight
must be undertaken to provide this one single pound.
Honey bees can fly up to 22 miles per hour, and their fuel
is so efficient that one bee could fly round the world on
as little as an ounce of honey.
Honey contains a wide variety of vitamins, minerals,
anti-oxidants and amino acids - the building blocks of
proteins.
Honey naturally contains Pyridoxine (vitamin B6), Thiamine
(vitamin B1), Riboflavin (vitamin B2) and Pantothenic acid
(vitamin B5).
Essential minerals include calcium, copper, iron,
magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and
zinc.
During the early part of the 20th century researchers
began to document the healing properties of honey. This
ceased with the development of antibiotics but the
development of resistance to antibiotics has led to a
resurgence of interest into the anti-microbial and healing
properties of honey. Honey has powerful
anti-bacterial properties and research into honey for
burns and post-surgical wound healing has confirmed this.
Other conditions for which honey has shown promise include
allergies and oral health.
NATURAL HONEY LOWERS BLOOD GLUCOSE
The headline above appeared in a
paper published in the Journal of Medicinal Food in April
2004. This amazing headline may seem to defy common
sense...
Honey consists of two sugars,
glucose and fructose in a 1 to 1 relationship.
It seems that honey would therefore raise blood sugar
level.
But the secret of honey and its most beneficial effect on
health (to lower blood glucose) is the content of
fructose.
How does it work to reduce blood glucose?
Here’s how.
When sugars are absorbed from the gut into the blood they
are first of all pass through the liver. What
happens here is the key to most (not all) the wonderful
benefits of honey for human health.
The fructose is taken into the liver because the liver is
the only organ in the human body with the fructose enzyme
to take in this sugar. Fructose is a liver exclusive
sugar.
In the liver the fructose is converted into glucose and
then stored as liver glycogen (glycogen is human starch).
Therefore fructose does not pass through the liver into
the general circulation. Equally by being stored in
the liver as glycogen the glucose formed from the fructose
is stored in the liver and released only if and when blood
glucose falls.
However this is not the end of the fructose story.
Far from it.
Fructose activates the glucose enzyme in the liver
allowing the liver to take in as much glucose as it
requires. This fabulous trick, whereby fructose
enters the liver and opens the gate for glucose entry is
known as THE FRUCTOSE PARADOX.
THE FRUCTOSE PARADOX.
The Fructose paradox allows for glucose uptake into the
liver and therefore prevents a rapid rise in blood
glucose. In other words fructose lowers the GI of glucose.
In other words fructose regulates the uptake and storage
of glucose and therefore is a blood glucose regulator.
Fructose is the natural regulator that nature has provided
for humans and is found in fruits, vegetables and honey
and is always (with the exception of starch) in a 1:1
ratio with glucose. Therefore we can use natural fructose
to regulate blood glucose levels, to stabilise blood
glucose and to maintain a regular supply of glucose to the
brain - the biggest problem that we as humans have to deal
with – keeping blood glucose stable and the brain fuelled
for 24 hours, especially during the hours of the night
fast.
Now we have to think a little about the brain.
THE BRAIN.
The human brain is most energy demanding organ in the body
by a long, long way. We know how exhausted we feel when we
have to concentrate for a lengthy period. People
often refer to mental exhaustion as being greater than
physical exhaustion and this is indeed the case.
At rest on a gram for gram or cell for cell basis the
human brain burns up to 20 times the fuel of any other
cell in the body. However this energy burning furnace at
the top of our spinal column has no on board energy store.
The brain is always around 30 seconds from meltdown, a few
minutes from a coma and not many more minutes away from
death if glucose is not available.
Why does the brain not have its own store?
Because glucose in storage occupies a large amount of
space and there is simply no room in the brain.
Now we see the problem that we have in maintaining fuel
supply to the brain. The liver is the only organ which can
both store and release glucose into the circulation and
most of the fuel released from the liver is required by
the brain (around 65%).
This is why looking after your liver glycogen store is so
critical for humans with such a big and energy hungry
brain (for glucose - the brain is sweet toothed).
Any fall in blood glucose is dangerous for the brain. Even
a minor fall in blood glucose will cause the brain to
panic. This will cause the adrenal glands to be activated,
to go into hyper drive and the adrenal hormones are, if
overproduced toxic to human biology. The hormones
are of course essential for the type of crisis mentioned
but these hormones (stress hormones) make us sick if we
produce them chronically.
Chronic overproduction of the adrenal glands is the
condition of modern man and will lead to conditions such
as heart disease, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes (non
insulin dependent), poor immune function, depression and
other distressing conditions with which we are all
familiar.
If we can look after our liver glycogen store, by
including in our diet the correct balance of carbohydrates
so that both the liver and therefore the brain are catered
for at all times of the day and night we reduce the
requirement for production of the adrenal hormones, and we
can then reserve our adrenal glands for their correct
function which is for fight or flight.
How do we do this?
By stabilising blood glucose.
How do we do this?
By looking after our liver glycogen store in the way that
nature intended, by using natural fructose from fruit,
dried fruit, fruit juice and the other natural source,
honey.
As the headline claims:
NATURAL HONEY LOWERS PLASMA GLUCOSE
The fructose enters the liver, opens the liver to glucose
intake, stores both as glucose and this stabilizes blood
glucose and fuels the brain. This in turn reduces
requirement for release of the adrenal hormones (the ‘adrenocides’)
with all their horrible effects.
It really is as simple as that.
© Mike and Stuart McInnes June 17th 2005.
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