We are all trying to limit our consumption of sugar, or should be. For some, that means switching from sugar to honey in our morning yogurt. Honey is perceived as being healthier than sugar. After all, honey is (slightly) lower than sugar on the glycemic index. And honey is “more natural,” is it not?

In truth, honey has fewer steps to market than refined white sugar. Usually that's just one pass through the factory where it is heated to prevent crystallization and yeast fermentation from happening during storage. This makes honey more appealing to the Paleo crowd who fancy that minimally processed foods are healthier. However, that same pasteurization process which stops your honey from turning into mead as it sits in your pantry also removes many of the vitamins and minerals from it. But what about the “raw” or “unrefined” honey you can expensively purchase at some finer supermarkets and health food stores? They will contain trace niacin, riboflavin, thiamine and vitamin B6, but in the end only make up about two per cent of honey's total content. It's your call whether the additional trace minerals cover the additional cost.

That said, honey is actually higher in calories that table sugar, at about 22 calories per honey teaspoon to 16 of white sugar. Honey is also sweeter and denser than sugar, so you shouldn't need as much. But if you are making a one-to-one swap of honey for sugar in your yogurt, you are fooling yourself thinking that you are saving on calories.

Sugar is 100 per cent sucrose. That's it, the original “empty calories.” But don't kid yourself, honey is not much better, being about 75 percent sugars, of which roughly half is glucose and half is fructose. Fructose – fruit sugar – is processed by your liver, while sugar's sucrose is handled by the pancreas. What's the difference? Not much, especially to a diabetic, who should avoid honey with the same zeal as he shuns sugar.

Fructose does not convert to energy as efficiently as glucose. As a result, processed foods high in fructose convert to fat stores more easily. You want to consume the more “complex” sugar; the more energy your body expends breaking it down, and so the fewer calories you rack up, net-net, consuming it.

The big difference between honey and sugar comes down to marketing. Take a walk down a grocery aisle's breakfast section and notice how many of the cold cereals of your childhood have changed the word “sugar” in their names to “honey.” We perceive honey as being healthier than sugar, but the bottom line numbers simply do not back it up. So if you have recently become a vegetarian and have removed honey from your grocery list and replaced it with sugar, relax: you're really not missing anything.