Health & Wellness

Both sugar and honey add sweetness to foods and food products but they differ in tastes and nutritional values. Honey is produced mainly from bees and other related insects like aphids through extraction, settling or straining without any form of heating. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) collects nectars from flowers and converts it into honey through some enzymatic reactions. Honey produced is then stored in wax structures called honeycomb. On the other hand, sugar is extracted from of the stalks of sugarcane (Saccharum offinarum) or roots of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) through boiling. The juice gotten then undergoes some processes like filtration, purification, crystallization, centrifuging, drying and packaging. COMPOSITION OF HONEY AND SUGAR. It may interest you that both honey and sugar are carbohydrates which contains both fructose and glucose. However, sugar is 100% carbohydrates from sucrose (50% fructose and 50% glucose) while Honey, on the other hand, is made up of approximately 40% fructose and 30% glucose, with the remainder being made up from water, pollen, and other nutrients and vitamins that refined sugar lacks. Also, studies have shown that both honey and sugar are relatively high in calories and carbs. In fact, honey has more calories per gram. However, since honey is sweeter than sugar, one only needs to add less quantity to get a sweet taste. Also, unlike refined sugar, honey contains beneficial vitamins and minerals as well. And to digest sugar, fat and cholesterol, vitamins and minerals are needed. The vitamins and minerals help break down the calories in honey faster, therefore, making honey not a source of weight gain. Honey also contains small amounts of plant acids, waxes, gums, pigments and volatile oils which have antioxidant and antibacterial properties. WHAT EXACTLY MAKES HONEY OF MORE BENEFITS TO HEALTH? Below are  some of the benefits of honey: 1) Lower Glycemic Index: Honey is absorbed more slowly by the body than refined sugar because it is lower in fructose and contains other trace minerals. On the other hand, sugar has higher fructose content which makes it have high glycemic index. Having high glycemic index means it raise blood sugar level. 2) Honey For Wound Treatment: Studies have shown that honey can fight a number of strains of bacteria. Also, bees secretes an enzyme called glucose oxidase into the nectar. Honey gotten from such nectar releases low level of hydrogen peroxide when the honey makes contact with wound. 3) Digestive Enzymes and Probiotics: Honey contains a lot of probiotic bacteria which works with the lactic acid bacteria and other bacteria found in human gut to aid digestions. The probiotic bacteria found in honey are as a result of the bacteria within the guts of the bees. Nutrients: Honey also contains some phytochemicals like flavonoids and nutrients like riboflavin, niacin and thiamine which are essential nutrients needed in the body. 4) Honey For Hair: Honey is a great humectant which means it absorbs moisture. This, therefore, makes it a good ingredient in moisturizers, shampoos and conditioners. 4) Honey for Weight Loss: You can either use honey with cinnamon, lime or lukewarm as a therapy for weight loss. Also, consuming a spoonful of honey before going to bed will continue to stimulate the liver function and ease a number of stress hormones which are in the system. 5) Antimicrobial property: This antimicrobial property of honey makes it effective in reducing discomfort and swelling when one has a sore throat while sugar has been known to cause swelling inflammation. This is one of the reasons why too much consumption of carbonated drinks causes having belly fat and weight gain. Honey is also effective in soothing cough. 6) Honey For Skin: Regular application of raw honey on the face can treat various skin problems including acne, eczema, spots, etc as a result of its antibacterial and antiseptic properties. 7) Honey is very high in a chemical called methylglyoxal, which is the source of honey’s antibacterial properties which helps fight germs and bad bacteria in the digestive tract. In short, honey has a lot of health benefits. It is widely used as ingredients in making cosmetic products. It is also used very well in adding flavour to foods, drinks, bakes, etc ADULTERATION OF HONEY. It may interest you that honey can be adulterated. Adulteration is the addition of any other form of sugar, syrups, or even sorghum into honey to change its flavor or viscosity. Some even heat brown sugar for a very long time and turn it into honey. So, one has to be careful in buying the original honey. It is widely believed that pure honey does not dissolve immediately in water while adulterated honey dissolves immediately. It will take a bit of stirring of pure honey in water to dissolve the lumpy bits. However, the best way of identifying pure honey is by taste. Let’s briefly look at some side effects of consuming too much sugar: 1) Sugar increases the risk of obesity and diabetes. 2) Sugar causes cardiovascular diseases . 3) It causes tooth decay. 4) Too much of sugar causes high blood pressure. 5) It increases aging. Someone might think that brown sugar is better than white sugar. Well, I’ll tell you there’s no much difference between the two. The main difference between raw (brown) sugar and white sugar is that brown sugar hasn’t been refined completely. Raw sugar is 96% pure, the rest is molasses (still containing about 4% minerals while white sugar is 100%. In addition, remember that sugar is refined while honey is not. Sugar passes through heat while honey doesn’t. Honey is not heated or pasteurised in any way. Stop the intake of too much of sugar today and rather go for honey in a little quantity. Please Note: Do not give honey to infants. Honey can sometimes contain inactive spores of Clostridium botulinum , the tiny bacterium responsible for botulism food poisoning. Healthy adults don’t get sick from them because they’ve built defenses in their intestines to keep the spores from taking root

  Question 1a: Is it advisable to eat egg every day? Nurse Oyin: Yes But you can remove

The popular and common thoughts about health is the state of being free from illness or injury. When you tell someone you have a health challenge ,the person will simply think you are sick in the body. But No, health goes beyond

  It may interest you to know this.. Yeah, lemme just say it in case you don’t know. #AGBALUMO IS OUT# Back in those day, I remember using Agbalumo seeds for local games like Ayo. The seeds were also used for counting figures during Nursery classes. I and my friends also used to chew the flesh and skin so

Maggi seasoning is possibly the number one ingredient in every West African household used by generations as a cooking companion. You probably couldn’t imagine life without it. I mean you’ve grown up cooking with it all your life so how bad can it really be? Maggi cubes are added as an ingredient to almost every dish and there’s no denying that it contains all the flavour that make your dishes taste amazing! I decided to explore each of the ingredients in Maggi cube. Let’s dive in and see what’s it comprises of: • Iodised Salt • Sugar • Flavour Enhancers (Monosodium     Glutamate, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium   Guanylate) • Maize Starch • Vegetable Fat (Palm) • Hydrolysed Soya Beans • Water • Colour (Ammonia Caramel) • Onion • Ferric Pyrophosphate • Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin) • Spice Extracts (White Pepper, Chilli, Clove) • Flavouring • Yeast Extract Use of Maggi as a flavor enhancer is widely used across Africa for many different African recipes. These cubes which have no nutritive value have grossly taken the place of many fermented seeds and products that once added much variety, flavor, and nutritive value to our African foods. Fermentation of seeds like ogiri (sesame seeds) and iru(african locust bean) though still done, may soon be a lost art. Using fermented seeds as food flavoring in soups and other recipes has many more benefits than use of your typical Maggi cube. Research shows that fermentation of these seeds increases the protein content, mineral and vitamin content, and increases the digestibility of the carbohydrates found in the seeds. Thus, addition of these fermented products into our food, would increase the nutritive value of our foods. In contrast, Maggi cubes and similar products, add no nutritive value to our foods, but also actually decreased the healthfulness of our foods. Three primary ingredients in these products are salt, monosodium glutamate(MSG), and hydrogenated oil (trans fat). All three of these ingredients have been found to negatively effect health. TV and Radio adverts have also made stars out of the users of these products without taking cognizance to health risks of their consumption. Of the above list, three ingredients are major. These are Salt, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and Hydrogenated palm oil or Trans fat. It is no longer news that excess salt in a diet is one of the major causes of high blood pressure. This is the reason why patients that are diagnosed of the disease are made to refrain from salt. Can Maggi cube lead to high blood pressure, the answer is simply yes. Since it has been established that one of the major ingredients of Maggi cube is salt, and to make the matter worse, many women usually add several cubes to their cooking with additional salt. It is therefore an established fact that most high blood pressure in the country can be traced to consumption of excess salt derived partly from Maggi cubes. Also, it should be noted that medical research has linked MSG the occurrence of asthma, obesity, cancer among many others. It is also believed that MSG can cause headache, tingling, numbness, general weakness, and muscle tightness when consumed in excess. This is the reason why so many people feel weak and worn out when they consume a meal with excess cubes of Maggi. Although the exact amount of MSG in one packet of Maggi is not known, MSG is known to cause neurological problems, headache and inflammation in the liver. It also increases your risk of metabolic syndrome and obesity and also lowers your appetite. Finally, Trans fat is a sure way to develop coronary heart disease, which is a hardening and narrowing of arteries that supply blood to the heart. This become possible due to the ability of trans fats to increase LDL(bad) cholesterol and decrease HDL(good) cholesterol in our blood stream. The aftermath of the increase in bad cholesterol is an eventual narrowing and blockage of the arteries that supply blood to the heart thereby leading to stroke or heart attack. How do you control this potential health risk? It all boils down to proportion. Use a little proportion. It’s a Little tricky but its likely the best solution. You can eat Maggi occasionally – once in 15 days (in the case of adults) but avoid eating it daily as it doesn’t have any health benefits. You can alternatively use natural and local seasoning. Dry and grind garlic , ginger , crayfish and yere (a substance used for making locust beans ) together. Use a little bit of the grinded substance in food instead of maggi coupled with a little salt. Try this and you will surely enjoy your meal .  

As much as we always make resolutions at the beginning of the year, there is an aspect of your life you must not forget. It is your HEALTH LIFE. Probably you think all you could do is eat and eat and eat till the end of the year. Many might definitely overeat during this New Year jamboree. Overeating leads to various diseases. There are various effects of overeating. Some of which are : 1) Weight gain and obesity