Researchers say honey bees contain large amounts of unique sugars that are not found as major components in other foods. It has a wide range of health benefits, from preventing tooth decay to weight loss and managing type 2 diabetes.
There are more than 600 species of honeybees, making them the largest group of honey-producing bees. They are found in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Unlike honeybees, which store their nectar in wax hives, honeybees store their honey in wax pots mixed with tree resin.
Honey bee honey has a unique sour taste compared to bee honey. Researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) led a study of honey bee honey and found that it’s not only the taste that makes it unique, but that it also contains rare sugars that have health benefits.
“Norhasnida al-Zawawi, a visiting researcher from Malaysia, came to visit us. He was interested in analyzing the sugars contained in honey bees,” says UQ’s senior researcher and organic chemist. said Dr. Natasha Hungerford, lead author and corresponding author. “When we characterized the sugars in honey, we were surprised to find a large number of disaccharides that did not fit any of the usual criteria for sugars in food.”
Disaccharides are sugars made up of two monosaccharides (the simplest form of sugar) joined together. The researchers’ surprising disaccharide was trehalulose, which consists of a fructose molecule attached to a glucose molecule. Researchers have identified for the first time that five different bee species from the Neotropics and Indo-Australia regions contain trehalulose as a major component, ranging from 13 to 44 grams per 100 grams of honey from these species. It was revealed that it corresponds to
“This is an interesting finding because this sugar is not a major ingredient in other foods,” Hungerford said.
Researchers say previously unknown high levels of trehalulose in honey bee honey may be contributing to the reported health effects. Although structurally similar to sucrose (sugar), the unusual bond between glucose and fructose in trehalulose is more stable than the bond found in sucrose. This means that trehalulose is broken down more slowly in the small intestine, lowering the glycemic index (GI). Therefore, blood sugar levels rise steadily rather than rapidly.
Health benefits of honey include reducing tooth decay
Because trehalulose has a low GI value, it may be useful in managing type 2 diabetes, improving blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity. It may also be helpful for pre-diabetics and people trying to lose weight. The slower rise in blood sugar levels caused by low-GI foods increases levels of the hormone leptin, which allows you to consume less food at mealtimes.
A 2023 study reviewed the (limited) existing research on the potential health benefits of trehalulose. In addition to the already mentioned advantage of having a low GI, compared to sucrose, trehalulose does not serve as food for the sugar-based oral bacteria that can cause tooth decay. It was low. It was also found that it is 60% to 70% sweeter than sucrose and is highly soluble in water, so it can be used in foods such as jams and jellies.
Due to its unique sugar composition, honey bee honey does not meet the definition of “honey” in the International Food Standards. As a result, it could not be officially sold as honey in many parts of the world, including Australia.
“Following our work, the Australian Native Honey Bee Association has applied to the Australian and New Zealand Food Standards to amend their standards to include honey from the honey bee,” Mr Hungerford said.
On 22 July 2024, the Food Standards Authority granted approval. This means it is now legal to sell and buy native honey bee honey in Australia. It is expected that honey will be increasingly adopted as a healthy sugar source.
Additionally, researchers are exploring ways to get bees to produce more trehalulose.
“We are currently working with funding from Sugar Research Australia to identify the genes and enzymes honey bees use to produce trehalulose,” Mr Hungerford said. “We hope this discovery will give us an idea of how to make pure trehalulose, which can be used in many products as a low-GI sweetener. That is our long-term goal.”
The study was published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.
Source: Nature, University of Queensland
