Study
Honey for nutrition and health: a review
Bogdanov, Stefan; Jurendic, Tomislav; Sieber, Robert; Gallmann, Peter
Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2008
A synthesis of published analyses of honey composition — sugars, water content, acidity, enzymes and minor constituents — and of the evidence for its antibacterial and nutritional properties.
- Studied in
- Apis mellifera
- Sample size
- review of honey composition and property studies
Honey is roughly 80% sugar and under 20% water, mildly acidic, and antibacterial through a combination of low water availability, acidity and enzyme-generated hydrogen peroxide. Composition varies substantially with floral source.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Honey has measurable antibacterial properties arising from its physical and enzymatic composition rather than from any single ingredient.
How NatureHQ reads it
Useful for separating two things that get conflated. Why honey does not spoil is well understood and unglamorous: there is too little available water for microbes, it is acidic, and an enzyme generates hydrogen peroxide. That is not the same as honey being a medicine, and this review is careful about the difference in a way that popular health writing is not.
- A review of composition, not a clinical assessment of health claims.
- Composition varies enormously by floral source, so any single figure is an average.
- Antibacterial activity in a jar is not evidence of a therapeutic effect in a person.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Academic book publishersPublished as an academic monograph.
doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2008.10719745
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.