Honey Calories, Sugars and Glycaemic Index: What You Need to Know

Honey provides about 300 kcal per 100 g, or roughly 22 to 25 kcal per teaspoon, and is made up of about 80% sugars. Gram for gram, it is slightly lower in calories than white sugar and slightly sweeter, but it remains a sugar: eaten in excess, it leads to weight gain like any other. Here are the useful figures, what is known about its glycaemic index, and some guidelines for including it in a balanced diet.

How many calories are there in honey?

According to food composition tables, including the Ciqual table published by ANSES, the French food safety agency, honey provides on average about 300 kcal and about 80 g of sugars per 100 g. The rest is mostly water (about 17%), with very small amounts of minerals, enzymes and aromatic compounds.

These values are averages: they vary from one honey to another, depending on its water content and composition. For common portions, this gives approximately:

An often-forgotten point: honey is denser than sugar. A teaspoon of honey weighs about 7 to 8 g, compared with 4 to 5 g for a teaspoon of caster sugar. Spoon for spoon, honey is therefore not lower in calories than sugar; it is only slightly lower gram for gram.

Honey and sugar: what are the differences?

White sugar is almost pure sucrose: about 400 kcal and 100 g of sugars per 100 g. Honey, on the other hand, contains water, which explains why it is lower in calories gram for gram. Its sugars are mainly fructose and glucose, in proportions that vary with the flowers.

Fructose has a higher sweetening power than sucrose. Depending on its composition, honey therefore tastes as sweet as white sugar, or even a little sweeter, and people tend to use slightly less of it. A honey with a pronounced taste, such as forest honey, flavours a yoghurt in small amounts. But the difference remains modest: honey is not a reduced-sugar product.

Approximate, indicative values, taken from food composition tables (Ciqual for honey and sugar) and from the general literature for agave syrup and sweetening power. They vary from product to product.

A low glycaemic index does not make a sugar any more virtuous: agave syrup owes its low index to its high fructose content, and too much fructose is not recommended either.

What is the glycaemic index of honey?

The glycaemic index (GI) measures how quickly a food raises blood sugar levels, compared with pure glucose, which is set at 100. For honey, there is no single value. Published international tables report widely scattered figures, from just over 30 to more than 80 depending on the honeys studied, with an average often around 55 to 60. White sugar sits at around 65.

This spread is explained by composition. Fructose raises blood sugar only a little, glucose much more. Fructose-rich honeys, such as acacia or chestnut, tend to sit at the lower end of the range; honeys richer in glucose, which crystallise quickly, at the higher end. We compare two opposite profiles in acacia honey or lavender honey. These values remain indicative: the glycaemic index of a specific honey is rarely measured, and we do not give a value for our honeys.

Two nuances matter more than the figure itself. First, the portion: a teaspoon of honey provides about 6 g of sugars; this is the idea behind glycaemic load. Second, the context: eaten at the end of a meal or with a yoghurt, a sweet food raises blood sugar less quickly than when it is eaten alone, on an empty stomach.

Honey and diabetes: what should you know?

Honey is not a healthy substitute for sugar for people with diabetes. It provides rapidly absorbed sugars and must be counted in the day’s carbohydrates, like sugar, jam or syrups. A glycaemic index that is sometimes slightly lower does not change this.

If you have diabetes, or if you are keeping an eye on your blood sugar, the right approach is to talk to your doctor or a dietitian. Only they can tell you whether a small amount of honey has a place in your diet, and when. Be wary of content that presents a honey as suitable for diabetes: no health claim of this kind is authorised for honey in Europe.

How much honey per day?

For the World Health Organization, honey is one of the free sugars, along with added sugars, syrups and fruit juices. In its 2015 guideline, the WHO recommends limiting free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake, and ideally to less than 5%.

In practical terms, for an intake of 2,000 kcal a day:

• 10% corresponds to about 50 g of free sugars, the equivalent of about 60 g of honey;
• 5% corresponds to about 25 g of free sugars, or about 30 g of honey, that is 4 teaspoons.

These amounts cover all the free sugars of the day: sweet drinks, biscuits and desserts count too. In practice, one to two teaspoons of honey a day fit easily into a balanced diet, provided they replace other sugars rather than adding to them.

How can you enjoy honey without overdoing it?

• Replace rather than add: honey takes the place of sugar in tea, yoghurt or baking; it does not come on top. Our substitution tips are detailed in why replace refined sugar with natural honey.
• Measure by the teaspoon rather than the tablespoon: the difference is about 35 to 40 kcal each time.
• Choose a honey with character: a honey with a pronounced taste gives more flavour, and a small amount is enough. A raw, unpasteurised honey also keeps all its aromas.
• Pair it with a dairy product, fruit or wholegrain cereals rather than eating it on its own.
• In cooking, honey sweetens and flavours at the same time: one or two spoonfuls are enough in a vinaigrette, a slow-cooked dish or a dessert. Find our ideas in our honey recipes.

Finally, a reminder for the whole family: honey must never be given to a child under one year old, because of the risk of infant botulism. For any question about your health, ask your doctor for advice.