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New Research Reveals Why You Should Add Honey to Your Yogurt

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Friday, August 9, 2024

Studies show that honey boosts probiotic survival in yogurt, validating a beneficial Mediterranean dietary habit, though with no significant health impact in already healthy individuals.New research from the University of Illinois show that honey enhances the survival of probiotic bacteria in yogurt during digestion, supporting gut health without affecting bowel frequency or mood in healthy adults. Adding honey to yogurt can be a beneficial but sugar-conscious dietary choice.If you enjoy having plain yogurt for breakfast, try adding a spoonful of honey for a delicious touch of sweetness. According to two new studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, this not only enhances the flavor but also supports the probiotic cultures in the yogurt.“We were interested in the culinary pairing of yogurt and honey, which is common in the Mediterranean diet, and how it impacts the gastrointestinal microbiome,” said Hannah Holscher, associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois. She is a co-author of the two studies, which are both published in The Journal of Nutrition. Greek yogurt and other yogurts contain probiotic strains such as Bifidobacterium animalis in addition to conventional yogurt starter cultures. Consumption of certain probiotics can promote digestive health and regular bowel movements, and it can have a positive effect on mood and cognition.Study Details“The enzymes in our mouth, stomach, and intestines help with digestion and facilitate nutrient absorption, but they also reduce the viability of microbes. That’s great when it’s pathogens but not necessarily when it comes to beneficial bacteria,” Holscher said. “We wanted to see if honey could help probiotic bacteria survive in the gut.”In the first study, the researchers conducted a laboratory experiment where they tested the effect of four different kinds of honey (alfalfa, buckwheat, clover, and orange blossom) on the viability of B. animalis in yogurt through simulated digestion processes. They grew microbes in petri dishes with solutions that mimicked the composition of saliva, stomach acid, intestinal bile, and enzymes.For the saliva and stomach fluids, there were no differences in B. animalis survival between any of the honey varietals and control treatments of yogurt mixed with sugar or water. However, yogurt with honey – particularly the clover varietal – helped support the survival of probiotics in the intestinal phase of digestion.Next, the researchers wanted to test their findings in a clinical study. They recruited 66 healthy adults and asked them to consume two different items for two weeks each – yogurt with clover honey and pasteurized, heat-treated yogurt. The participants provided stool samples and information about their bowel movements. They also filled out questionnaires and completed tasks evaluating their mood, cognition, and overall well-being.Implications and Suggestions“Our findings showed that pairing honey with yogurt supported the survival of the yogurt’s probiotic bacteria in the gut, so the lab study results did translate to real-world application in humans,” Holscher stated.However, there were no changes in intestinal transit time, bowel movement frequency, or any of the mood and cognition measures. Holscher said this is likely because the participants already were healthy adults with regular bowel movements, so there wasn’t a lot of room for improvement.The researchers also conducted a smaller follow-up study with 36 participants who consumed a third food item, yogurt with sugar. When the researchers compared the results of all three conditions, the combination of yogurt with honey preserved the most probiotics, but there were no effects on the health measures.“We found that one tablespoon of honey in a serving of yogurt helps support probiotic survival. However, we have to keep in mind that honey is an added sugar, and most Americans need to be cognizant of the amount of sugar in their diet to maintain a healthy body weight,” she stated. “But adding a little bit of honey to unsweetened yogurt is a nice culinary pairing to incorporate into your menu rotation.”You can also add toppings to make a yogurt parfait and support gut health and the microbiome by getting more fiber in your diet. For example, you can add berries and seeds, or nuts, and drizzle a bit of honey on top, Holscher suggested.References: “Honey Varietals Differentially Impact Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis Survivability in Yogurt through Simulated In Vitro Digestion” by David A Alvarado, Luis Alberto Ibarra-Sánchez, Annemarie R Mysonhimer, Tauseef A Khan, Rong Cao, Michael J Miller and Hannah D Holscher, 12 January 2024, The Journal of Nutrition.DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.01.010The research was supported partially by the National Honey Board.“Honey Added to Yogurt with Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis DN-173 010/CNCM I-2494 Supports Probiotic Enrichment but Does Not Reduce Intestinal Transit Time in Healthy Adults: A Randomized, Controlled, Crossover Trial” by Annemarie R Mysonhimer, Marina D Brown, David A Alvarado, Eva Cornman, Myra Esmail, Tehila Abdiel, Karen Gutierrez, Jorge Vasquez, Corinne N Cannavale, Michael J Miller, Naiman A Khan and Hannah D Holscher, 1 June 2024, The Journal of Nutrition.DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.05.028This work was supported by the National Honey Board and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project 1009249.

New research from the University of Illinois show that honey enhances the survival of probiotic bacteria in yogurt during digestion, supporting gut health without affecting...

Honey Yogurt

Studies show that honey boosts probiotic survival in yogurt, validating a beneficial Mediterranean dietary habit, though with no significant health impact in already healthy individuals.

New research from the University of Illinois show that honey enhances the survival of probiotic bacteria in yogurt during digestion, supporting gut health without affecting bowel frequency or mood in healthy adults. Adding honey to yogurt can be a beneficial but sugar-conscious dietary choice.

If you enjoy having plain yogurt for breakfast, try adding a spoonful of honey for a delicious touch of sweetness. According to two new studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, this not only enhances the flavor but also supports the probiotic cultures in the yogurt.

“We were interested in the culinary pairing of yogurt and honey, which is common in the Mediterranean diet, and how it impacts the gastrointestinal microbiome,” said Hannah Holscher, associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois. She is a co-author of the two studies, which are both published in The Journal of Nutrition.

Greek yogurt and other yogurts contain probiotic strains such as Bifidobacterium animalis in addition to conventional yogurt starter cultures. Consumption of certain probiotics can promote digestive health and regular bowel movements, and it can have a positive effect on mood and cognition.

Study Details

“The enzymes in our mouth, stomach, and intestines help with digestion and facilitate nutrient absorption, but they also reduce the viability of microbes. That’s great when it’s pathogens but not necessarily when it comes to beneficial bacteria,” Holscher said. “We wanted to see if honey could help probiotic bacteria survive in the gut.”

In the first study, the researchers conducted a laboratory experiment where they tested the effect of four different kinds of honey (alfalfa, buckwheat, clover, and orange blossom) on the viability of B. animalis in yogurt through simulated digestion processes. They grew microbes in petri dishes with solutions that mimicked the composition of saliva, stomach acid, intestinal bile, and enzymes.

For the saliva and stomach fluids, there were no differences in B. animalis survival between any of the honey varietals and control treatments of yogurt mixed with sugar or water. However, yogurt with honey – particularly the clover varietal – helped support the survival of probiotics in the intestinal phase of digestion.

Next, the researchers wanted to test their findings in a clinical study. They recruited 66 healthy adults and asked them to consume two different items for two weeks each – yogurt with clover honey and pasteurized, heat-treated yogurt. The participants provided stool samples and information about their bowel movements. They also filled out questionnaires and completed tasks evaluating their mood, cognition, and overall well-being.

Implications and Suggestions

“Our findings showed that pairing honey with yogurt supported the survival of the yogurt’s probiotic bacteria in the gut, so the lab study results did translate to real-world application in humans,” Holscher stated.

However, there were no changes in intestinal transit time, bowel movement frequency, or any of the mood and cognition measures. Holscher said this is likely because the participants already were healthy adults with regular bowel movements, so there wasn’t a lot of room for improvement.

The researchers also conducted a smaller follow-up study with 36 participants who consumed a third food item, yogurt with sugar. When the researchers compared the results of all three conditions, the combination of yogurt with honey preserved the most probiotics, but there were no effects on the health measures.

“We found that one tablespoon of honey in a serving of yogurt helps support probiotic survival. However, we have to keep in mind that honey is an added sugar, and most Americans need to be cognizant of the amount of sugar in their diet to maintain a healthy body weight,” she stated. “But adding a little bit of honey to unsweetened yogurt is a nice culinary pairing to incorporate into your menu rotation.”

You can also add toppings to make a yogurt parfait and support gut health and the microbiome by getting more fiber in your diet. For example, you can add berries and seeds, or nuts, and drizzle a bit of honey on top, Holscher suggested.

References: “Honey Varietals Differentially Impact Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis Survivability in Yogurt through Simulated In Vitro Digestion” by David A Alvarado, Luis Alberto Ibarra-Sánchez, Annemarie R Mysonhimer, Tauseef A Khan, Rong Cao, Michael J Miller and Hannah D Holscher, 12 January 2024, The Journal of Nutrition.
DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.01.010

The research was supported partially by the National Honey Board.

“Honey Added to Yogurt with Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis DN-173 010/CNCM I-2494 Supports Probiotic Enrichment but Does Not Reduce Intestinal Transit Time in Healthy Adults: A Randomized, Controlled, Crossover Trial” by Annemarie R Mysonhimer, Marina D Brown, David A Alvarado, Eva Cornman, Myra Esmail, Tehila Abdiel, Karen Gutierrez, Jorge Vasquez, Corinne N Cannavale, Michael J Miller, Naiman A Khan and Hannah D Holscher, 1 June 2024, The Journal of Nutrition.
DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.05.028

This work was supported by the National Honey Board and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project 1009249.

Read the full story here.
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Eating less sugar would be great for the planet as well as our health

"Globally, sugar intake has quadrupled over the last 60 years . . ."

Sugar addiction is on the rise. Globally, sugar intake has quadrupled over the last 60 years, and it now makes up around 8% of all our calories. This sounds like sugar's keeping us fed, but added sugars are actually empty calories – they are bereft of any nutrients like vitamins or fibers. The result is massive health costs, with sugars linked to obesity around the world. Some estimates suggest that half the global population could be obese by 2035. A limited 20% reduction in sugar is estimated to save US$10.3 billion (£8.1 billion) of health costs in the US alone. Yet, sugar's impacts go far beyond just health and money. There are also many environmental problems from growing the sugar, like habitat and biodiversity loss and water pollution from fertilizers and mills. But overall, sugar hasn't received a lot of attention from the scientific community despite being the largest cultivated crop by mass on the planet. In a recent article, we evaluated sugar's environmental impacts and explored avenues for reducing sugar in the diet to recommended levels either through reducing production or using the saved sugar in environmentally beneficial ways. By phasing out sugar, we could spare land that could be rewilded and stock up on carbon. This is especially important in biodiverse tropical regions where sugar production is concentrated such as Brazil and India. But a different, more politically palatable option might be redirecting sugar away from diets to other environmentally-beneficial uses such as bioplastics or biofuels. Our study shows that the biggest opportunity is using sugar to feed microbes that make protein. Using saved sugar for this microbial protein could produce enough plant-based, protein-rich food products to regularly feed 521 million people. And if this replaced animal protein it could also have huge emission and water benefits. We estimate that if this protein replaced chicken, it could reduce emissions by almost 250 million tons, and we'd see even bigger savings for replacing beef (for reference, the UK's national fossil fuel emissions are around 300 million tons). Given sugar has a far lower climate impact than meat, this makes a lot of sense. Another alternative is to use the redirected sugar to produce bioplastics, which would replace around 20% of the total market for polyethelyne, one of the most common forms of plastic and used to produce anything from packaging to pipes. Or to produce biofuels, producing around 198 million barrels of ethanol for transportation. Brazil already produces around 85% of the world's ethanol and they produce it from sugar, but instead of having to grow more sugar for ethanol we could redirect the sugar from diets instead. This estimation is based on a world where we reduce dietary sugar to the maximum in dietary recommendations (5% of daily calories). The benefits would be even larger if we reduced sugar consumption even further. Supply chain challenges This sounds like a big win-win: cut sugar to reduce obesity and help the environment. But these changes present a huge challenge in a sugar supply chain spanning more than 100 countries and the millions of people that depend on sugar's income. National policies like sugar taxes are vital, but having international coordination is also important in such a sprawling supply chain. Sustainable agriculture is being discussed at the UN's climate summit, Cop29, in Azerbaijan this week. Sustainable sugar production should factor into these global talks given the many environmental problems and opportunities from changing the way we grow and consume sugar. We also suggest that groups of countries could come together in sugar transition partnerships between producers and consumers that encourage a diversion of sugar away from peoples' diets to more beneficial uses. This could be coordinated by the World Health Organization which has called for a reduction in sugar consumption. Some of the money to fund these efforts could even come from part of the health savings in national budgets. We can't hope to transition the way we produce and eat sugar overnight. But by exploring other uses of sugar, we can highlight what environmental benefits we are missing out on and help policymakers map a resource-efficient path forward to the industry while improving public health.   Don't have time to read about climate change as much as you'd like? Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation's environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who've subscribed so far. Paul Behrens, British Academy Global Professor, Future of Food, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford and Alon Shepon, Principal Investigator, Department of Environmental Studies, Tel Aviv University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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CDC warns cruise passengers of hot tub disease outbreak

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