Acacia honey is extracted when flowers of the black locust tree are pollinated by bees. This said tree is native to Europe and North America. Acacia is easily available across various shops in the states.
Acacia Honey has been recognized as a very beneficial type of honey boasting a lot of important health benefits. As you would notice during the rest of the article, most of these health benefits of Acacia honey are linked to the antioxidant properties available in them.
Today, we will be learning everything there is to learn about Acacia Honey including its benefits, nutrition, uses, and potential downsides.
Moreover, throughout the article, we will also be recommending some other foods or sources of antioxidants that you must include in your diet to get the maximum advantage of this essential nutrition.
What is Acacia Honey?
As mentioned above, Acacia Honey is produced from the Robinia pseudoacacia flowers’ nectar. It is commonly known as the false acacia or black locust tree.
Due to the original tree being native in Europe and North America, Acacia honey is widely available in both of these regions. In America, this unique honey is commonly sold as locust honey or American Acacia. On the other hand, in Europe, this honey is sold conveniently by the name of Acacia honey.
When we compare Acacia Honey to the traditional honey that we all use, we will find that Acacia Honey is typically much lighter in color and appears almost completely transparent.
Along with having a lot of health benefits which we will discuss further, Acacia Honey also comes with a flower-like Aroma and delicately sweet, flavor.
Another advantage of using Acacia Honey over traditional Honey is that it crystallizes much later than the original honey and remains liquid for a longer period of time.
It must also be noted that due to this particular quality of Acacia honey (ability to remain liquid longer), Acacia Honey is often sold at a higher price than other traditional types of honey.
Acacia Honey Nutrition
There are a lot of similarities between traditional honey and Acacia honey when it comes to their nutritional profile but there do exist certain differences between them both.
Similar to traditional honey, you will find approximately 60 Calories and 17 grams of sugar in one tablespoon of Acacia honey.
It also contains a meager amount of various minerals and vitamins, like magnesium and Vitamin C. However, it does not provide any fiber, fat, or protein.
Acacia Honey is rich in sugar fructose, sucrose, and glucose, but fructose is most dominant.
The most impressive nutrition component of Acacia Honey remains the abundant quantity of powerful plant compounds like flavonoids that play the role of antioxidants.
Benefits of Acacia honey
Most people only consider Acacia Honey useful for culinary purposes. However, there are other highly considerable health benefits of using Acacia honey which include some similar to the traditional honey and some other ones of its own.
Some of the most important health benefits of Acacia honey are as follows.
Rich in antioxidants
As mentioned in the nutrition section, acacia honey contains a high quantity of powerful plant compounds like flavonoids that act as antioxidants. These antioxidants are possible for providing a lot of essential health benefits to the consumer.
Antioxidants are responsible for the deterrence of cell damage that is caused by excessively free radicals. Despite being an important part of our body structure, free radicals can contribute to dangerous diseases if not constrained over time.
Antioxidants in acacia honey are mainly because of the presence of flavonoids in them. These flavonoids are known for reducing the risk of various chronic conditions like certain types of cancer and heart disease.
Apart from them, Acacia honey also contains a small amount of beta carotene which is yet another plant pigment with strong antioxidant qualities.
As per a test tube study, acacia honey was found to be effective in the reduction of the spread of lung cancer cells.
Buckwheat honey is another type of honey that is rich in antioxidants and shares a lot of health benefits.
Effective in wound healing
You might already be aware of the fact that honey can be used as an antiseptic and can be very effective in treating wounds.
In the same fashion, Acacia Honey which is rich in antibacterial and antioxidant properties is considered effective in fastening the process of wound healing and preventing infection and bacterial contamination.
Moreover, Acacia honey is also efficient in keeping the environment moist while also aiding in healing.
Acacia Honey benefits for skin
There are a large number of acne-fighting lotions and creams available in the market that contain a blend of acidic ingredients and Acacia honey. It is believed that due to the strong antibacterial components of acacia honey, it can assist in maintaining the skin, free of bacteria that can eventually lead to the prevention of various skin issues like acne.
We would like to say that there has been no conclusive scientific evidence to back the claim that Acacia honey can be effective in reducing acne but the signs so far look promising.
Precautions of use
There are a lot of people that consider acacia honey completely safe to eat for everyone.
However, as per scientific research, certain people are advised to avoid consumption of Acacia honey. These people include:
Infants. Just like traditional honey, Acacia Honey is also not recommended to be consumed by infants due to the risk of a foodborne illness called botulism.
Allergic to Honey or bees. If you find yourself allergic to any traditional type of honey or anything related to bees then you must also avoid consumption of Acacia Honey due to the same reason.
Those with diabetes. There has been mixed evidence regarding the consumption of Acacia honey for people with diabetes. We would say that consumption should be restricted.
Bottom line
There are a lot of health benefits of Acacia honey that are almost completely unknown to the vast majority of people. Most of these benefits are due to rich antioxidant properties available in Acacia honey. Most of these health benefits are also common in traditional honey but there are some unique benefits associated with the Acacia honey that are considerable.
You must definitely consider adding Acacia Honey to your diet but the precautions mentioned above must be taken into consideration as well.
We hope you found the article helpful and knowledgeable. Do let us know your thoughts and drop your comments using the comment section below.
