Acute vs. chronic effects of honey and its carbohydrate constituents on calcium absorption in rats

Abstract

Previously we reported the acute effects of honey and its carbohydrate constituents (i.e. glucose, fructose, and raffinose) in enhancing calcium absorption in growing rats. We observed a significant dose-response enhancement of calcium absorption with honey (33.6% and 25.5% with 800 and 500 mg honey, respectively), explained in part by its carbohydrate constituents. Here we report the chronic effects of feeding rats with diets containing honey or its carbohydrate constituents. Six-week old male rats (n = 100) were fed with powdered diet consisting of either 0% honey (control), 5% honey, 10% honey, or a glucose-fructose-raffinose mixture. After 8 weeks, daily calcium retention and percent apparent calcium absorption of rats given the 10% honey were significantly higher than control and other groups (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the femur density, femur peak breaking force, femur BMC, and femur uptake of 45Ca. These results indicate that despite increased calcium absorption and retention with the higher dose of honey, there was no significant effect on femur measures. Funded by the National Honey Board