“Honey, maple syrup and agave are healthier than table sugar.”
Honey, maple syrup and agave are not meaningfully healthier than table sugar; all are mostly sugar with similar calories and count as added sugar.
Pick the sweetener you like best for taste. Paying more for honey, maple syrup or agave will not make your diet meaningfully healthier, and how much you use matters more than which one you choose.
Choose based on taste and use a reasonable amount rather than searching for the perfect sugar.
Safety note: Never give honey to a baby younger than 12 months, because it can cause infant botulism, a serious food poisoning.
Talk to a healthcare professional if: changing sweeteners affects your blood sugar control, your medicines, your access to food, or an eating-disorder recovery plan; a dietitian or diabetes care team can help.
Moderate confidence because honey, maple syrup, agave and table sugar are all mostly sugar with similar calories, and health guidelines count all of them as added or free sugars. The honey trials that showed small changes in blood markers mostly compared honey with a usual diet, not with table sugar, and several review authors had received National Honey Board funding.
Honey, maple syrup and agave are not meaningfully healthier than table sugar; all are mostly sugar with similar calories and count as added sugar. Most honey trials compared it with a usual diet rather than with sugar, so they do not show honey is better than sugar.
The WHO and FDA count honey and syrups the same way as table sugar when they set limits on added or free sugars. In a review of 18 trials with about 1,100 people, honey slightly lowered fasting blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides, mostly with low certainty. But about 70% of the comparisons were against a usual diet and only about 15% against table sugar, and several authors had received National Honey Board funding. That evidence is for honey only and says nothing about maple syrup or agave. Swapping one sweetener for another without changing the amount makes little difference.
A teaspoon used for flavor is different from large amounts added throughout the day, regardless of which sweetener you choose.
Can natural sweeteners have a useful role?
Yes. These sweeteners can add flavor and enjoyment. Their value is in taste and cooking, not in making a high-sugar diet healthy.
- World Health Organization. Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children. 2015. ISBN: 9789241549028
- Ahmed A, Tul-Noor Z, Lee D, et al. Effect of honey on cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition Reviews. 2023;81(7):758-774. DOI: 10.1093/nutrit/nuac086. PMID: 36379223. PMCID: PMC10251304
- US Food and Drug Administration. Added Sugars on the Nutrition Facts Label
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Foods and Drinks to Avoid or Limit. April 14, 2026