Dr. Oz: "honey is the most nutritious sweetner"

[pdr]

Early last week or maybe sometime in the week before, Dr. Oz made a guest appearance on NBC's Today Show. It was a cooking segment, four different dishes I think. Each called for a sweetner. He declared mid-preparation of one of them that he recommends honey because it contains the most nutrients of all the sweeteners. On a hunch I did a little google searching and guess what: according to the sites I found, maple syrup contains more nutrients in both number and quantity! Nothing against honey, but I think we should collectively request that he set the record straight. A retraction by the good Dr. sure wouldn't hurt our induxtry publicity wise.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

http://www.doctoroz.com/contact

on it

[DrTimPerkins]

Honey is also NOT recommended for children under 12 months old due to the risk of botulism.

[madmapler]

Its not the first time Dr. Oz has blundered. A few years back he went national claiming that a new supplement called Garcinia Cambogia was to be the "Holy grail" of weight loss supplements causing quite a frenzy. Turns out there was very little scientific evidence that it did anything at all. You've probably never even heard of it.

[rayi]

I thought honey was not recommended for children due to the high pollen/allergy potential

[happy thoughts]

On the topic of honey which I've been thinking about becasue of the farm bill. The new farm bill is going to extend food vouchers to farm market sales, something some states including my own did for the elderly last year with USDA funds. Those vouchers were good for veggies, fruits, and honey. The maple lobby should get that to include farm market syrup sales,. I think that would help benefit small producers. Anyone active in a large maple association that could bring that up somewhere?

[pdr]

Thanks, Flat Lander. I sent a brief email to doctoroz@mail.doctoroz.com. Maybe if all of us, including the associations, fill his inbox .... who knows what might come of it.

[BreezyHill]

In the Capital District of NY there is a huge push to consume honey from your local area as it has been proven to aid in allergy issues. I know one place that is selling over 10 gallons a week. Our old family MD said after a baby was 18 months that honey was fine...he knew my father in law used it in his coffee and made a point of no honey in the young boys and girls.

now we are looking to get into bees for the oldest and his girl friend and my wife suffer with allergies.

Great Point pdr!!!

[NW Ohio]

Not sure if this is the segment you are talking about but it looks like this one came from Jan. 30. http://www.today.com/video/today/54222896#54222896

[pdr]

Yup, NW Ohio, that's the segment. Thanks for finding it. Dr. Oz' exact quote was "Honey is the only sweetener that has nutritional benefits that are significant" - to which the NBC host responds "WOW."


Not sure if this is the segment you are talking about but it looks like this one came from Jan. 30. http://www.today.com/video/today/54222896#54222896

[Cake O' Maple]

Thanks, Flat Lander. I sent a brief email to doctoroz@mail.doctoroz.com. Maybe if all of us, including the associations, fill his inbox .... who knows what might come of it.

Thank you for posting the email address! Message sent, with links to nutritional info included!

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

In the Capital District of NY there is a huge push to consume honey from your local area as it has been proven to aid in allergy issues. I know one place that is selling over 10 gallons a week. Our old family MD said after a baby was 18 months that honey was fine...he knew my father in law used it in his coffee and made a point of no honey in the young boys and girls.

now we are looking to get into bees for the oldest and his girl friend and my wife suffer with allergies.

Great Point pdr!!!
I tried that Breezy, maybe I didn't take it long enough but didn't seem to work for me. My allergies are severe only thing that relieves them are Shots twice a week.

Allergens and food, I know solid based foods change proteins once cooked which due away with the allergy issue not sure about cooking honey if same thing happens.

[bees1st]

Local honey , when used as a means to help with allergies does work . I have had many people come up to me at fairs and claim so . And we're not talking touchy feely kinda people here . Try a tea spoon a day for at least a month . Raw , UNFILTERED honey local to your area . Ingesting the pollens that cause a allergic reaction when breathing them ,helps build your immune system .

[MN Jake]

I came across an article several months ago and it stated eat the plant you have allergies from. Like ragweed, start with a small amount and work your way up. Natives used to eat it all the time. The nose and lungs react to, not build up against. Ingesting is a totally different scenario.

Allergies are on the rise.
Maybe as a whole we shop at the grocery store more and more and our body's can't recognize nature anymore?

[markct]

My opinion of dr Oz is that he is more tv host than dr. It seems every week he is pushing something different and often contradicting what he said a month or two earlier. I think he has fallen to sponsors influence so i doubt he will start pushing maple unless we come up with a large lump of money or atleast a big gift of syrup lol!

[Sugarmaker]

That's why we do both:) Try to keep the natural sweetness flowing.
Regards,
Chris

[pdr]

Here's one of the nutrient comparisons I found. Probably all of us should have something like this displayed poster size in our sugar houses, especially for maple weekends.

Sorry, I tried several ways to make this info display in a table form, i.e. cut n paste, tab and space bar. Unfortunately, all the data end up crammed back to the left. Here's the web address where I found it.

http://maple.infor.ca/nutritional_facts

Nutritional value for various sweeteners (% of Daily Value)

Maple Syrup Honey Table Sugar

Manganese 100 3 0
Riboflavin 34 2 1
Zinc 11 1 0
Magnesium 5 0 0
Calcium 6 1 0
Potassium 5 1 0

Source: Canadian Nutrient File, 2007 (Health Canada) and US Food and Drug Administration.

[NW Ohio]

In the Capital District of NY there is a huge push to consume honey from your local area as it has been proven to aid in allergy issues. I know one place that is selling over 10 gallons a week. Our old family MD said after a baby was 18 months that honey was fine...he knew my father in law used it in his coffee and made a point of no honey in the young boys and girls.

now we are looking to get into bees for the oldest and his girl friend and my wife suffer with allergies.

Great Point pdr!!!

At the risk of changing the focus of this topic from Oz's error to a debate over the merits of each natural sweeteners I am going to add that most professionals don't give much merit to honey as an allergy fighter/preventer (and as far as I know no peer reviewed scientific articles supporting the claim exist). These links briefly touch on why: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Allergies/alternative-allergy-remedies-fact-fiction/story?id=18792233#1
http://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/does-honey-help-prevent-allergies

...however I don't think any studies exist that say it hurts anything either.

[gmcooper]

Here is a link to IMSI site that has printable poster with the nutritional info on maple syrup
http://www.internationalmaplesyrupinstitute.com/projects.html

[NW Ohio]

Kind of ashamed to admit this, but... I was doing some work in the house today and the TV was on in the background. Oz said people need to eat less agave syrup and more Maple Syrup... ...claimed it didn't cause inflammation and get this... ...its got minerals in it. Who knew?

Good work guys, looks like you taught the doc. something!

[DrTimPerkins]

Oz said people need to eat less agave syrup and more Maple Syrup... ...claimed it didn't cause inflammation and get this... ...its got minerals in it. Who knew?

My daughter (a teacher, but this week is spring vacation) texted me and said that Dr. Oz was on and saying maple syrup was better than agave because it was natural and didn't have any additives. She was excited about it.

[NW Ohio]

Maple syrup has now been mentioned 3 different times spread out throughout the show. I am a teacher also, so I don't usually see this show (off for Good Friday), maybe he always does this???

...or maybe the Maple Lobby is paying him a handsome chunk of change to promote it, but he sure seems convinced there might be something good about it.