We got ORAC values ranging from 3 to 17, Engeseth said. Commonly consumed fruits and vegetables generally range from 0.5 to 16, based on a per gram basis. This finding is significant, because it clearly shows 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, Engeseth said.
Engeseth and Gheldof obtained blood samples from healthy human volunteers coming off a 12-hour fast. To the blood, they added the various honey varieties in an experiment to watch honeys impact on LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. In test samples, they also added copper to stimulate lipoprotein oxidation. Using a spectrometer, they found that honey the darker the better dramatically slowed the rate of formation of conjugated dienes, products of oxidation related to LDL in blood.
The one thing about this study is that even though it involved human blood in a test-tube assay, it does show that if honey is present it can act positively, Engeseth said.
Follow-up studies, either in progress or undergoing data analyses, will shed more light on the exact phenolic compounds in honey and on how effectively honey that is consumed prevents oxidation in the blood of human subjects.
Phenolic compounds are phytochemicals, which are non-nutritious compounds in foods that may carry specific disease-fighting abilities. UI researchers also have also found a significant correlation of phenolic content and antioxidant capacity of honey.
Both recent studies were partially funded by
'"/>
Contact: Jim Barlow
b-james3@uiuc.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
8-Apr-2002