For inflammation, honey looks a lot like sugar. In a 2015 randomized trial, two weeks of honey, table sugar or corn syrup had similar effects on inflammation. A 2025 review of 69 trials found that honey every day may push a key inflammation marker the wrong way. Honey may be a little kinder to blood fats.
Why honey seems different
Honey has a good reputation. A 2023 review put the puzzle plainly: honey is a free sugar, but it is generally regarded as healthy. "Free sugar" means sugar added to food or found in honey and syrups, the kind health groups ask us to cut.
There is a reason for the halo. Honey contains plant compounds called flavonoids and phenolic acids, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in the lab. In animal studies, honey lowered several inflammation signals, including IL-6 and TNF-alpha, two proteins the immune system uses to turn inflammation up.
But a mouse is not a breakfast table. The same review found few human randomized trials on honey and inflammation, and only one of them reported which type of honey it used.
Is honey inflammatory like sugar? The head-to-head test
The cleanest test is simple: give the same people honey one time and sugar another, and compare. A 2015 trial did that.
Honey, table sugar and corn syrup had similar effects on inflammation in a head-to-head trial.From a 2015 randomized trial in J Nutr
Researchers recruited 28 people with normal blood sugar and 27 with impaired glucose tolerance, which means their bodies already struggled to clear sugar after a meal. Each person took 50 grams of carbohydrate a day from honey, from table sugar (sucrose) or from high-fructose corn syrup, for 2 weeks at a time, in random order, with a break in between.
The results lined up. The three sweeteners had similar effects on blood sugar, blood fats and inflammation. In the group with impaired glucose tolerance, hs-CRP rose with all three sugars. hs-CRP is a sensitive test for C-reactive protein (CRP), a protein the liver makes when inflammation is up. IL-6 did not change with any of them.
So in the one trial built to answer this question, honey did not get a pass.
What the bigger reviews found
A 2018 meta-analysis looked at sugars more broadly. A meta-analysis pools the results of many studies into one answer. Across 13 studies with 1,141 people, it found no difference in CRP between fructose and glucose, or between corn syrup and table sugar. Its authors rated that evidence low quality. The takeaway: the type of sugar did not seem to matter much for this marker.
Then came honey itself. A 2025 review pooled 69 randomized trials with 3,544 people. It found that 10 grams of honey a day may lower HbA1c, a long-term blood sugar marker, but may adversely affect hs-CRP, triglycerides, fasting blood sugar and blood pressure. The authors advised caution with long-term or high-dose honey in people with health concerns.
One small trial pointed both ways at once. In 64 smokers, a group given 20 grams of honey a day for 12 weeks saw hs-CRP fall but TNF-alpha rise. The researchers called the effect on inflammation inconclusive.
Where honey may do a little better
Blood fats are a different story, and a slightly kinder one. A 2023 meta-analysis of 18 controlled trials with 1,105 people found that honey lowered fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and raised HDL cholesterol. Most of those results were rated low certainty. The HDL result was rated high certainty. Raw honey and a few floral types did best.
Head-to-head trials lean the same way. In 37 healthy adults, triglycerides stayed up after 4 weeks of table sugar but not after 4 weeks of honey, and people ate less energy and sugar during the honey month. In 60 young adults given 70 grams a day, honey improved blood fats while sucrose made them worse.
Those are real signals. But they are about blood fats, not inflammation, and they come from small, short trials.
Does honey reduce inflammation in the throat?
Here honey has its best evidence, though not for inflammation as such. A 2021 meta-analysis of 14 studies found that honey eased cold and cough symptoms better than usual care. Across 8 studies, it cut how often people coughed. The authors still asked for better placebo-controlled trials. These trials measured symptoms, so they tell you honey soothes, not that it calms inflammation in the body.
What this means for you
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you have diabetes, prediabetes or high triglycerides, since sugars of every kind raised hs-CRP in people with impaired glucose tolerance; or you are thinking of using honey every day as a health remedy.
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The bottom line
The halo is real, and so is the sugar. Honey carries plant compounds that calm inflammation in a dish and in animals, and it may be a bit easier on blood fats than table sugar. But when people actually ate it, side by side with sugar, their inflammation markers moved the same way, and a daily honey habit may nudge hs-CRP up. Honey is still sugar. Enjoy it on purpose, and in small amounts.
Common questions
Is honey an inflammatory food?
In people, honey behaves much like other sugars. In a 2015 trial, honey, table sugar and corn syrup had similar effects on inflammation, and all three raised hs-CRP in people with impaired glucose tolerance. A 2025 review of 69 trials found that 10 grams of honey a day may adversely affect hs-CRP. It is not worse than sugar, but it is not an anti-inflammatory food either.
Does honey cause inflammation in the body?
Not more than sugar does, as far as trials show. In the head-to-head trial, hs-CRP rose in people with impaired glucose tolerance after two weeks of honey, just as it did after table sugar and corn syrup. IL-6 did not change with any sweetener. Long-term or high-dose honey warrants caution in people with health concerns.
Does honey cause inflammation like sugar?
In the one trial that compared them directly, yes. Honey, table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup had similar effects on blood sugar, blood fats and inflammation over 2 weeks each. A broader 2018 meta-analysis also found that the type of sugar did not change CRP, though its evidence was rated low quality.
Does honey reduce inflammation in the throat?
Honey helps a sore throat feel better, but trials measured symptoms, not inflammation. A 2021 meta-analysis of 14 studies found that honey eased cold symptoms and cut cough frequency and severity compared with usual care. The authors said better placebo-controlled trials are still needed.
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How this article was made
Researched and written from 9 peer-reviewed papers. Our automated check matched every claim against the exact words of its source, confirmed every paper exists in PubMed, and found none retracted. Checked November 1, 2026. Not individually reviewed by a doctor. Photos are illustrative; the people in them are not patients or readers.
Grades run Strong, Moderate, Emerging, Early and Not supported, and the grade decides the words we may use. How we grade evidence · Medical disclaimer
Sources
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- Umbrella reviewDosage exploration of the effects of honey and its derivatives on cardiometabolic outcomes: an overview of systematic reviews and GRADE-assessed updated meta-analysis.Norouzzadeh M, Barazandeh S, Hasan Rashedi M et al. Nutr Diabetes, 2025.PubMedFull paper
- Meta-analysisEffect of honey on cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Ahmed A, Tul-Noor Z, Lee D et al. Nutr Rev, 2023.PubMedFull paper
- Meta-analysisEffect of Dietary Sugar Intake on Biomarkers of Subclinical Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Intervention Studies.Della Corte KW, Perrar I, Penczynski KJ et al. Nutrients, 2018.PubMedFull paper
- ReviewThe effects of honey on pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines: A narrative review.Navaei-Alipour N, Mastali M, Ferns GA et al. Phytother Res, 2021.PubMedFull paper
- Randomized trialEffects of honey supplementation on inflammatory markers among chronic smokers: a randomized controlled trial.Ghazali WS, Romli AC, Mohamed M BMC Complement Altern Med, 2017.PubMedFull paper
- Randomized trialHoney does not adversely impact blood lipids of adult men and women: a randomized cross-over trial.Al-Tamimi AM, Petrisko M, Hong MY et al. Nutr Res, 2020.PubMedFull paper
- Randomized trialThe effect of honey consumption compared with sucrose on lipid profile in young healthy subjects (randomized clinical trial).Rasad H, Entezari MH, Ghadiri E et al. Clin Nutr ESPEN, 2018.PubMedFull paper
- Meta-analysisEffectiveness of honey for symptomatic relief in upper respiratory tract infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Abuelgasim H, Albury C, Lee J BMJ Evid Based Med, 2021.PubMedFull paper
