Honey: Calories, Nutrition & Healthier Swaps

Honey is mostly fructose and glucose with water. It has traces of enzymes and antioxidants, but sugar-wise it's close to table sugar.

Honey nutrition facts per 100 g and per serving

Values per 100 g as eaten, averaged from food composition tables (USDA FoodData Central and others) and rounded — a specific brand or recipe will differ a little.

Honey: what's in it

Its calories come almost entirely from sugar: 12 g per serving, with no protein or fiber to keep you full.

On the open Nutri-Score algorithm, honey gets a D: more of a sometimes food than an everyday one. The score weighs calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt against protein, fiber and the share of fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts.

What to watch

• High in sugar: 82 g per 100 g. The WHO advises keeping free sugars under 10% of daily calories, ideally under 25 g.
• It's low in fiber, so add vegetables, greens or beans to the plate.

How much movement is one serving?

One serving (spoon, 15 g) is 46 kcal — roughly 15 min of easy walking or 6 min of cycling for a 70 kg (154 lb) person. In the diary, minutes are worked out for your weight and the activities you actually do.

Healthier swaps for Honey

Swaps are picked the same way the app does it: from the same kind of food, with a serving matched to the same calories (±25%), and only when the swap is clearly better — not “salad instead of pizza”.

• Cocoa powder, unsweetened — 15 g, 44 kcal: −12 g sugar, +5.2 g fibre.
• Chia Seeds — 10 g, 49 kcal: −12 g sugar, +3.4 g fibre.
• Flax Seeds — 10 g, 53 kcal: −12 g sugar, +2.7 g fibre.
• Poppy seeds — 10 g, 53 kcal: −12 g sugar.