Whether spread on toast, drizzled on porridge or simply eaten from a spoon, many turn to honey to satisfy their sugar cheeks.
Honey has long been praised for its antibacterial properties, with stories of old wives swearing by the sweet stuff to relieve a sore throat.
A review of 14 Oxford University studies now suggests that it should be the goal when it comes to reducing upper respiratory symptoms, such as a cough.
Read more: Manuka treasure: what are the health benefits?
Honey is ‘cheap, easily accessible and has limited damage’
Honey has long been used as a home remedy to treat coughs and colds. Studies on its effectiveness have largely excluded adults.
In 2010, scientists from Shahid Sadoughi University in Israel gave 139 coughing children, either 2.5 ml of honey or the over-cough suppressants dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine.
Twenty-four hours later, those who received honey saw their “cough frequency score” drop significantly more than the other youngsters.
To discover all the benefits among adults, the Oxford scientists looked at 14 studies with more than 1,700 participants among them.
The trials compared regular honey with “ordinary care”, such as antihistamines, expectorants – medicines that remove mucus, cough suppressants and painkillers.
Read more: Honey dressings could ward off infections after surgery
Results – published in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine – public honey was more effective than normal care when it came to improving symptoms, in particular the frequency and severity of coughs.
Two of the studies suggested honey symptoms shortened by one to two days.
The scientists pointed out only two of the 14 studies compared the nectar against a placebo, with further research therefore needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn.
However, the team has encouraged people to opt for the natural alternative over cough suppressants.
“Honey is a commonly used medicine that is well known to patients,” she wrote.
“It’s also cheap, easily accessible and has limited damage.”
Read more: Can stories of old women really help combat colds?
The scientists have also advised doctors to recommend honey as an alternative to antibiotics, which are often incorrectly prescribed for viral infections, even though they are only effective against certain bacteria.
“Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are the most common reason for the presence of antibiotics,” she wrote.
“Since the majority of URTIs are viral, antibiotic prescribing is both ineffective and inappropriate.”
Unfavorable regulations contribute to antibiotic resistance, which the World Health Organization called “one of the biggest threats to global health”.
A lack of alternatives, combined with a desire to maintain a good doctor-patient relationship, means that medics may feel pressure to dilute antibiotics for viral infections, the scientists wrote.
The benefits of Manuka honey
The scientists notice that the quality of honey differs. Only Manuka varieties contain, for example, the unique antibacterial ingredient methylglyoxal.
In 2014, scientists from Nagasaki University in Japan found that Manuka honey hindered the reproduction of a flu virus in the laboratory.
Three years later, a team from the University of Algarve found that it was effective against the pin virus in tests on human skin cancer cells.
A more recent study also suggested that Manuka honey could delay infections after surgery.
Scientists at Newcastle University are exchanging eight “nano-layers” of medical-grade Manuka honey with polymers – a material made from long, repeating chains of molecules.
Manuka honey has a negative charge, while polymers are positive. Together, these created an “electrostatic nanocoating” that inhibited the growth of bacteria on surgical meshes.
Although this may sound promising, the honey was medical grade and had therefore removed all impurities. This makes it different from the products available in the supermarket.
Despite the benefits of honey, it is important not to overindulge, with all varieties containing about 5g of sugar per teaspoon.
