As I see people look for natural ingredients in their food,hoping to reap special health benefits, I ran across someinformation about honey that University of Illinois researchers havefound.
For decades there's been controversy over whether honey hassignificant health benefits. Honey is still considered sugar. It isnot a sugar substitute. The University of Illinois has done researchto prove honey does help preserve some of the foods to which it isadded.
As reported by Phyllis Picklesimer of the U of I Extension,antioxidant-rich honey is a healthy alternative to chemicaladditives and refined sweeteners in commercial salad dressings. Tocapitalize on the positive health effects of honey, U of Iresearchers experimented with using honey in salad dressings. Theyfound that the antioxidants in honey protected the quality of thesalad dressings for up to nine months while sweetening themnaturally.
The study substituted honey for EDTA, an additive used to keepthe oils in salad dressings from oxidizing, and high-fructose cornsyrup, used by many commercial salad-dressing producers to sweetentheir salad dressing recipes. Clover and blueberry honeys werechosen for the study after an analysis of the sweetening potential,antioxidant activity and phenolic profiles of 19 honeys with varyingcharacteristics.
The dressings also were compared to a control dressing thatcontained ingredients found in current commercial salad dressings.
There was a problem the scientists encountered in using honey ina salad dressing system. Salad dressings are emulsions - theycontain oil and water; and to keep these ingredients together in onephase, manufacturers rely on emulsifiers and thickening agents toavoid thinning of the dressing and separation of the oil and waterphase. When the researchers found that enzymes in the honey brokethe emulsion by attacking the starch that was used to thicken thedressing, they came up with a new formulation that used xanthan gumas a thickening agent, which they then used in all the dressings.
The researchers then stored the dressings under variousconditions, including 99 degrees F (accelerated storage) for sixweeks and 73 degrees F and 39 degrees for one year, followed by anevaluation of their oxidative stability.
After nine months of storage, both types of honey were aseffective as EDTA in protecting against oxidation or spoilage.Blueberry honey performed slightly better than clover. Manyconsumers prefer products with natural ingredients and that saladdressings made with honey should appeal to these consumers.
There's such a wide range of salad dressings on the market - someunique salad dressings as well as inexpensive products that performbeautifully.
If manufacturers are interested in developing salad dressingsthat have a healthy twist, the researchers have demonstrated thatusing honey as both an antioxidant and a sweetener is one way to dothis.
Bagwell is nutrition and wellness/family life program coordinatorfor the University of Illinois Extension, McLean County. Contact herat (309) 663-8306.
