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Comment by strken | Hacker News Reader

The Hadza get 15 to 20% of their calories from honey: https://globalhealth.duke.edu/news/what-can-hunter-gatherers...

First, honey is not the same as refined sugar.

Secondly the article itself states that it’s the intense exercise that keeps them healthy, not their diet.

In response to the first point, honey is predominantly fructose, glucose, and water. If you think sugar hydrolysed by bees is better for you than HFCS hydrolysed by humans, why? Is it the glucose?

In response to the second, do you agree with the original statement that implied sugar was damaging, or do you think it has no ill effects on someone who exercises enough? If walking 8 to 12km a day can completely counteract such large quantities of sugar in the diet, does that not make sugar harmless in many cases?

Non-pasteurized honey (almost guaranteed to be what the Hadza consume) also has antioxidants and prebiotic properties that normal sugars don't.

Right, so if I drink straight-up HFCS it'll be fine provided I also stick trace quantities of antioxidants and pollen fibre into it? But if I don't do that, it'll be terrible for me?

What's HFCS got to do with honey?

Honey is formed by the hydrolysis of the complex sugars in nectar into fructose and glucose. HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is formed by the hydrolysis of cornstarch into fructose and glucose. They're chemically extremely similar, except for differences in the ratio of fructose to glucose, and for small traces of other stuff (pollen etc.).

The statements I was responding to claimed that "until recently it was very expensive to get sugar" and then "honey is not the same as refined sugar". Honey is refined sugar formed by the same process as HFCS[0], and some hunter-gatherers get a surprisingly high amount of daily calories from it with seemingly little impact on their health.

[0] From a different precursor, but the general process of breaking down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars is the same, and so is the output

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