# Would honey support a diabetic in a Post Apocalyptic Event?



## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

Sugars are used when one gets excess insulin resulting in dangerously low blood sugar levels. Honey works well for this. Insulin is used to allow the body access to glucose..if one lacks adequate insulin, not sugars, is required to manage diabetes melitus.


----------



## Retroguy (Jul 16, 2014)

My short answer is no. While honey is not sucrose (table sugar), sugars are sugars and require a diabetic to control intake or use insulin in more severe cases. 

I'm sort of on the border. I can keep my A1C blood sugar levels below the upper limits on diet alone and since I've been able to reduce the amount of steroids for my asthma it's become easier. Steroids, such as prednisone in my case, can push you into the diabetic category if needed in higher dosages. 

I think most diabetics "count carbs" these days because it's an easy way to monitor sugar intake. One slice of bread equal 1 carb, for example. 1 carb equals 15 grams of sugar (this is off the top of my head -- I don't have the info in front of me, so someone correct me if I'm wrong). At any rate, a diabetic would have to still monitor themselves and in the case of a catestrophic situation this would be more of a challenge.


----------



## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

Would bees survive in a post apocalyptic world? Seems like most would perish from lack of treatments for Nosema, Varroa Mites, and small hive beetles. Most seem to think they are fickle little creatures.


----------



## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

jdmidwest said:


> Would bees survive in a post apocalyptic world?


bee survival? perhaps, but maybe not in north America...from personal experience, diabetes is tricky to make any general statements about. for most, some food would be better than none.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Would there be any long lasting diabetics after a Post Apocalyptic Event? If that isn't sort of redundant. "after a Post"


----------



## Bee Bliss (Jun 9, 2010)

I say YES!! Honey is good for diabetics and non-diabetics! This is very good news!

Please read "The Hibernation Diet" or "The Honey Revolution". The last book was written by a medical doctor and a pharmacist. These two books proclaim how good honey is for everyone and that honey is the sweetener for diabetics. I medium sized apple has the same load as a tablespoon of honey. Diabetics can certainly have an apple! They can have honey. The book suggests 3 to 5 tablespoons per day depending on your activity level. They state in the book to start the morning with honey right away to let the liver replenish its stores which are depleted from the night fast. A tablespoon of honey should also be taken within an hour of bedtime so the liver can produce the stores to get the body thru the night fast. 

We have a new borderline diabetic in the family and found the blood sugar readings went down.

This is what was done:
Person went 5 hours without eating.
Then took a blood sugar reading at 10 p.m.
Immediately ate only 1 tablespoon of our honey.
Took a reading 2 hrs. later and the reading went down 21 points. (From 115 to 94 with no exercise to alter results)

We did other testing, but found out that first thing waking up is not the time to do this. However, those results also showed changes of 18 and 15 points lower. This is accomplished according to the book because the liver removes the glucose from the body resulting in lower levels in the blood stream. 

We will do a few more tests as we have a few disbelievers in the family. 

When the results of our experiment were shared with the dieticians in our class they were so confused saying "this doesn't make sense"! One of the dieticians had suggested this experiment when we talked about honey with her. We already had read parts of the book. I suggested they read the books. There is research backing up the authors. Good info on how the body works.

I suggest and would be very interested in other people testing and stating their results. A brother when asked what he thought the blood sugar reading went to guessed 180. He was shocked it went down 21 points to 94!!

The books explain how honey is grabbed by the liver and immediately converted to glycogen and stored in the liver. These stores are available mostly for the brain and for other use. The brain must be fed 24/7. If the glycogen is not available stored in the liver, the liver is signaled by the brain to break down muscle to get food for the brain. The liver does not use sugar this way. The book states that fructose must unlock the ability of the liver to grab glucose. 

There is more than I can explain here, obviously. I saw the results in our family. We will continue to monitor. Some other diabetics in our extended family keep spouting the same thing.......that honey is the same as sugar. It is NOT the same as sugar! Honey is a live food and white sugar is not. The body reacts differently to honey vs. sugar. 

Other benefits reported are improvements in A1c, blood pressure, HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, better rate of fat metabolism at rest, etc.


----------



## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

If the world was still intact and society was just gone, maybe the bees will survive. But a nuclear winter, or anything else that takes out the plants will doom the bees too.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

While honey may (or may not) be a better choice of sugars for a diabetic, it is still basically sugar. Most diabetics need insulin. Their need for sugar is low and the most common need for it is when they have taken too much insulin... In a post-apocalyptic world, I'm guessing insulin will be very hard to come by. Their best bet would be to avoid sugar completely.


----------



## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

Michael Bush said:


> While honey may (or may not) be a better choice of sugars for a diabetic, it is still basically sugar. Most diabetics need insulin. Their need for sugar is low and the most common need for it is when they have taken too much insulin... In a post-apocalyptic world, I'm guessing insulin will be very hard to come by. Their best bet would be to avoid sugar completely.


some mixed up stuff here. most diabetics are type 2 which is too much sugar. most do not take insulin. most diabetics can use diet to be ok, at least in the short run. trying to live on honey a few days may or may not be a disastor. for all diabetics the body cannot control blood sugar levels.


----------



## crofter (May 5, 2011)

I had a friend who was diagnosed about a year ago as borderline diabetic. He heard that honey would be OK and not affect blood sugar levels as much as sugar. He found out that he could have some honey allright, but had to forego the same amount of sugar from other sources. There is a difference in how *quickly* different sugars get broken down but the bottom line is pretty much, sugar is sugar. 

Caffeine can put dips and spikes in blood sugar levels for some people. That is a problem I have with coffee and insulin overshoot: it would be dead easy to pick a certain time after I had a couple of coffees with three spoons of honey and my blood sugar level would register low.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

I'm a diabetic and test several times a day. I had heard honey was better for diabetics than table sugar. I saw no difference in my blood sugar levels when I substituted Honey for sugar. 
It's sugar, and your body treats it like sugar.....


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

The reality is that all carbohydrates end up as sugar and if your body can't handle much sugar it can't handle much carbohydrates. The differences are really only in how quickly your blood sugar spikes. With starches (flour, potatoes etc.) this happens slowly, but it still all turns to sugar. With honey it happens more quickly. With sugar even more quickly. There is only a slight difference between honey and sugar but honey does have a variety of sugars which hit you at slightly different times leveling out some of the ups and downs, but only a little...

The topic of type II and type I etc. is a bit more than I would want to discuss on a bee forum... but there are other issues such as insulin resistance etc. etc. etc...


----------



## Riskybizz (Mar 12, 2010)

I'm sure glad we have web M.D.


----------



## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

My son has spent many days selling honey to the public. 
He has listened to countless miraculous claims about all things related to honey bees.

His sarcastic response to nearly every problem one could encounter in the world is:

"Put some Honey on it"

I understand his cynicism.


----------



## brent3369 (Sep 11, 2014)

Flax help regulate blood sugar. Using about a tablespoon per day of ground flax seems to work for type two. Every illness is related to diet.


----------



## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Mbeck said:


> "Put some Honey on it"


Now that's funny!


----------



## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

The Dr who wrote honey revolution did a lot of work with diabetics. Even got some off their meds by using honey.
http://www.livinghoney.biz/the-honey-revolution.html


----------



## antonioh (Oct 15, 2014)

> it is still basically sugar


 True but, it is not quite like this...


Honey is not ONLY a sugar. It´s a mixture of sugars and enzimes, which have specific biological activity.

The worst thing you can do to honey is to over exagerate its qualities. But on the other hand, there is no excuse for a beekeeper to ignore the advantages of honey and a concise information is needed, at least to give information to consumers. 

Honey is a excellent dressing for wounds, venous ulcers and even in diabetic foot.

Gives better control of blood lipids and studies in diabetics indicate that gives a more uniform profile of sugar levels but, the general level rises a bit, with higher Hgb A1C and weight gain so, is not indicated in diabetics.

Also to be used in diarrhea, and an inhibitor of Helicobacter pylori. Combined with sucralfate or cimetidin gives better results in gastritis and ulcers.

Not a miracle of course but it can help in many situations.

For more information :

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21448302

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24639728

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24476150

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24605717

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25272547

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25187187

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25177115

Try to visit Pubmed site. You will find many more studies about honey in lots of ways.


----------



## John Smith (Jan 31, 2006)

And the latest news I am hearing, is that honey properly utilized is beneficial to Type 1 patients as well, especially if utilized when they are young and the endocrine system is still forming. 

Honey is so "Pro Health" it can be assumed that once one becomes convinced that honey is good (and NOT just another sugar) the placebo effect can explain all sorts of improvements.

But if in doubt, check it out first. Believers get the best responses! Unbelievers don't even get good results from myriad other "proven' modalities.


----------



## tnmtn (May 27, 2016)

I'm an RN. The last thing a diabetic needs is honey. It would cause them to need more insulin, not less.


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

The hardest phrase for a beekeeper to say:
"I don't know". 

I don't know about honey and diabetics so I'll stick to bees.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

tnmtn said:


> I'm an RN. The last thing a diabetic needs is honey. It would cause them to need more insulin, not less.


+1 I'm a diabetic and a beekeeper. Honey will blow up my BS just like any other sugar... There may be some other benefits, but the bottom line, it's still a form of sugar.


----------



## John Smith (Jan 31, 2006)

Its more about understanding our physiology than deifying or demonising any foodstuff.

All food can supply carbs, but excessive food will flood us with them. Honey is recommended as a REPLACEMENT for the other sweeteners, and if one simply adds honey (especially if with abandon thinking it is 'good' for him/her) the body will still be overloaded. Honey is our friend during the change over period, when used intelligently, as it will help us settle our 'swings' down and commence healing. Honey satisfies brain hunger and is not habituating. I eat less honey now than I did when I was still using excessive sweeteners and carbs from other sources. Try taking ALL sugar and all carbs away from a diabetic and see how effective your plan will work! The judicious use of honey however, will give him/her half a chance at healing. It will require lots of commitment from them too, of course.

What McInnes and Fessenden have given us in their books, is a mosaic of how our metabolism processes all foodstuffs. Especially they dwell on the supply of glucose to the brain, which in turn leads to all the other functions of the endocrine system. So following their logic, we find appetite is normalised (yes, even in anorexic patients, although that is my add), sleep is dramatically improved and healing of all the body progresses. Forget treating honey as some magic food that we can stamp out all our ailments with. It is a magic food for feeding the brain (via the liver glycogen) and without a well stocked liver the Metabolic Distress Syndrome will prevail and our health will gradually fail.

So even if one never touched a spoonful of honey again in his/her lifetime, the insights presented in these books would enable one to regain health and live a long and productive life. It just so happens, however, that honey is what Fessenden calls the Gold Standard food for fuelling the liver. Most diabetics and pre-diabetics are suffering from what he calls, chronic brain starvation, and this applies to the obese also. This explains why nothing fixes them permanently, as immediately after they have practiced the 'cure' or diet they choose, they go back to storing fat again and getting on the blood sugar yoyo. 

Any young person who understands his or her own metabolism can be healthy, pretty much regardless of which foods s/he prefers, yet older folk will be required to work at it more. But it will work for anyone eventually (exception: Those waiting at death's door). I don't take much notice at all of either McInnes or Fessenden's dietary menus etc. as I have my own dietary habits and preferences. Their sports and exercise applications are wasted on me also as I WORK, but I sure have benefitted by learning from them how my endocrine system works. I now can read the symptoms and signals my own body is giving me to know what is happening and when I have erred from the straight and narrow.

The old 'facts' about weight gain, obesity, and all the degenerative diseases are under siege, and many of them are now redundant. If obese and diabetic folk were eating good food they wouldn't be fat and sick! Cancer in most cases is simply the final outcome of living our life in Metabolic Distress.

So for those who don't want to learn and keep up with the latest understanding, stick with the old ways and dodge the grim reaper as long as you can. Good health, vigour, beauty, romance and wealth await those who step up to the plate and educate themselves about their endocrine system. Unfortunately I have never seen evidence that we are taught anything of use in school, or university about these things. I guess a few endocrinologists understand it, but they sure never have laid it out in simple terms for me to understand like McInnes and Fessenden have. There is a certain need for some experts to meter out their information one expensive visit at a time!

What makes these authors' philosophy so Revolutionary is that none of their recommendations include drugs, surgery and medical supervision. Neither do they prohibit same! It is all about learning to manage ones own health. And being hooked on medicinal drugs will spell disaster for 80% of us in the event of the suggested cataclysmic failure of our society. And that may not happen, but on a personal basis it is happening to some of us every day. Why worry about failure of our civilisation when we personally are one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel?

The tragedy in all this is not apocalyptic, it is in the simple fact that there is not enough real honey to save us, and honey cut with other syrups will not do the trick. Too many of the failures we hear about are from folk buying cheap imitation funny honey.


----------

