Honey to help with ageing?

A recent study, reported in the New Scientist magazine among other places, suggests honey may help with aiding memory in ageing. The research done at the Waikato University in New Zealand by Lynne Chepulis and Nicola Starkey involved rats. Raising them on a diet that involved either 10 per cent honey, 8 per cent sucrose, or not sugar at all for 12 months, they were assessed every three months with test to measure anxiety and spatial memory.

It was found that honey fed rats spent almost twice as much time in the open sections of an assessment maze than sucrose-fed rats, suggesting they were less anxious. They were also were more likely to enter novel sections of a Y-shaped maze, suggesting they knew where they had been previously and had better spatial memory.

The researchers concluded that "Diets sweetened with honey may be beneficial in decreasing anxiety and improving memory during ageing". They received funding from Fonterra, a dairy company interested in sweetening yoghurt with honey, for the research.

It was suggested the findings may be due to the antioxidant properties of honey, which have previously been demonstrated in humans.

However this is still early research so the results shouldn't be relied on for human relevance just yet. It is an interesting start though.