At first glance, that can feel disappointing. Honey has become shorthand for wholesome eating in a way white sugar never has.
But that doesn’t mean honey belongs in the nutritional sin bin.
Sekula says honey can absolutely have a place in healthy eating – particularly when used to add flavour to otherwise nourishing foods such as natural yoghurt, porridge, dressings or roasted vegetables.
The overall quality and composition of what you’re eating matters more than whether the sweetener came from a sugar packet or a hive.
So … is honey healthier than sugar?
This is where many of us may need a slight recalibration.
Most people assume swapping sugar for honey automatically improves a recipe. But, nutritionally, the difference is smaller than many of us think.
Honey does contain small amounts of naturally occurring compounds, particularly in darker or less processed varieties, but your body still processes it as a source of sugar.
Dietitian NZ’s Lily Henderson notes that honey is classified as a free sugar – the same category that includes sugars added to packaged foods and drinks, as well as sugars naturally present in syrups and fruit juice.
That doesn’t mean there’s no reason to choose it.
Honey brings flavour, aroma and texture in a way white sugar doesn’t. It can also make nutritious foods more enjoyable to eat.
But replacing sugar with honey alone is unlikely to dramatically change the nutritional profile of a recipe.
If your homemade snack is packed with oats, nuts, seeds, chickpeas or fruit, those ingredients are probably doing more of the nutritional heavy lifting than the honey.
Honey may deserve slightly more credit when it comes to enjoyment.
Food choices rarely happen in isolation. A drizzle of honey over plain yoghurt, oats or fruit may encourage someone to eat a more satisfying breakfast. Honey can add flavour, moisture and texture to cooking in a way that makes whole foods more appealing.
If replacing refined sugar with honey means cooking more at home, eating more foods based around whole ingredients or enjoying healthier meals without feeling deprived, that may still be a positive shift overall.
The key distinction is that the benefit is likely coming from the overall eating pattern – not because honey itself becomes a nutritional free pass.
Honey’s flavour can make both sweet and savoury dishes sing. Photo / Babiche Martens
What do all the honey labels mean?
Many honey labels sound more meaningful than they really are.
Creamed honey isn’t cream added to honey – it’s simply honey that has been controlled during crystallisation to create a smooth, spreadable texture.
Runny honey is more fluid, depending on the floral source and processing.
Raw honey undergoes less processing and heating, but Henderson says the nutritional differences compared with standard supermarket honey are unlikely to be significant for most people.
Monofloral honeys come mainly from one floral source (such as mānuka), while multifloral honeys are blended across multiple sources.
For everyday eating, these differences are more about flavour, texture and price than nutrition. In other words: choose based on taste and intended use rather than assuming one style is automatically healthier.
A honey bee pollinating a kiwifruit flower. Photo / Jody Mitchell
Why does mānuka cost so much?
If there’s one category capable of causing decision paralysis, it’s mānuka honey.
Prices can be astronomical – a jar of NZ’s Mānuka South honey was selling for £2000 ($4600) in April at London luxury department store Harrod’s. The pricetag wasn’t only because of the jar’s contents, however; it came in handcrafted wooden cases with Italian leather linings and 18-carat antique gold detailing.
UMF (Unique Mānuka Factor) and MGO (methylglyoxal) ratings can quickly make buying honey feel more like shopping for skincare.
Campbell Naish from the UMF Honey Association says the two measures do different jobs.
MGO measures one naturally occurring compound associated with mānuka honey, while UMF is a broader certification system designed to assess authenticity and multiple quality markers.
Naish says higher UMF ratings reflect greater concentrations of mānuka-specific compounds and increased bioactive intensity, alongside testing and certification.
He says New Zealand mānuka honey has developed a premium international reputation because of research into its chemical profile and bioactive compounds, alongside established medical uses of sterilised mānuka honey in wound-care products and continuing research into potential future applications.
For supermarket shoppers, however, that distinction is slightly different.
Scientific and medical interest in mānuka honey does not necessarily mean a higher-priced jar will deliver greater everyday nutritional benefit when eaten as a food.
Henderson says while higher-grade mānuka honey may contain higher levels of certain compounds, that doesn’t automatically translate into meaningful everyday nutritional benefits for someone eating honey on toast or stirring it into tea.
“For everyday nutrition, spending significantly more doesn’t necessarily provide any more benefit.”
So what should you actually buy?
The dietitians’ advice is refreshingly simple.
Choose a honey you enjoy and suits your budget.
If you mainly want something for toast, porridge, baking or cooking, there’s no need to assume the most expensive jar is automatically the healthiest.
If authenticity matters to you and you’re buying mānuka specifically, look for recognised certification.
And if you love honey because it tastes good, helps you enjoy healthy foods or reminds you of childhood breakfasts, that’s reason enough.
Honey doesn’t need extraordinary claims to earn a place in the pantry.
Herald contributor Nikki Birrell has worked in food and travel publishing for nearly 20 years.