Consider replacing the sugar you consume with honey, says a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto.

For people on a healthy diet in which no more than 10% of daily calories come from sugar, honey actually provides cardiometabolic benefits.

Taken together, the trials showed that honey lowered fasting blood glucose (blood sugar levels on an empty stomach), total and “bad” (LDL) cholesterol, as well as a marker of fatty liver disease.

While sugars of all kinds are associated with cardiometabolic issues — and honey is 80% sugar — the study’s authors suggest that honey may be in a category of its own, and worthy of special consideration as a healthy food.

The researchers found that raw honey and monofloral honey provide the most cardiometabolic benefit.

Ana Maria Kausel, who was not involved in the study, told MNT that she would nevertheless prefer the focus remain on reducing the intake of sugar.

We can see similar benefits in [cardiovascular] and metabolic risks without the sugar intake, for example, the Mediterranean diet,” she pointed out.

Well-known monofloral honeys include Tupelo honey — from White Ogeechee Tupelo trees — clover honey, robinia honey, and French lavender honey.

The researchers found that clover and robinia monofloral honeys lowered LDL cholesterol and overall cholesterol, as well as fasting triglycerides.

Still, the way honeybees make honey adds an interesting twist that make its sugars different.

Khan, “has an additional step whereby the honeybees extensively process nectar [which is mainly sucrose] from flowers with their enzymes, which results in a large variety of rare sugars being produced in honey.

These rare sugars are the key to the benefits of honey sugars over other natural sugars.”