Unknown quantity

Prebiotics help the beneficial little critters in your gut to thrive, but evidence of honey's effect on the human microbiome is limited

- Jennifer Bowden

Question:

I read your column on feeding the gut microbiome and, as a lover of honey, was encouraged to see it listed as a prebiotic. However, many argue that honey is just another form of sugar, to be avoided. Is the research on honey as a prebiotic to be trusted?

Answer:

Human use of honey for health reasons dates back some 8000 years, with Stone Age paintings depicting its use, along with records of Egyptians, Assyrians, Greek, Romans and Chinese using honey for wounds and gut problems.

Closer to home, mānuka honey is prized for its medicinal properties. The honey comes from bees who forage on our native manuka trees, which are considered a taonga by Māori, who have a long history of using the mānuka tree to treat a wide range of health issues, including stomach problems.

But where does research sit on the use of honey for gut health? Many honey types have well established scientific evidence of antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, wound-healing and antioxidant activities. Some varieties are known to be especially potent in this regard, most notably manuka.

Honey also contains non-digestible oligosaccharides (a form of carbohydrate), and emerging research from laboratory, animal and some pilot human studies suggests they have a prebiotic capability.

Prebiotic is the name given to non-digestible compounds found in food that promote the growth or activity of helpful microbes in our gut. Probiotics are the live microorganisms that are fed by the prebiotics. In layman's terms, probiotics are the beneficial little critters that live in your gut, and prebiotics are essentially the fertiliser you feed them with.