Cut and paste from Livestrong.com to answer those sugar comparison comments as well as baking, cooking, etc. w/honey. Also, when purchasing honey from a farm source, ask if they medicate their bees at all, as it will be deposited into the honey and harvested and passed along.
Nutrients in Honey Fresh, raw honey is loaded with antioxidants, though it contains only trace elements of other nutrients. The main advantage to using honey instead of refined sugar is that the natural sugars in honey take longer to digest than refined sugar. That means that your pancreas does not have to secrete as much insulin to capture and store the extra sugar. When the insulin scours the sugar out of your blood, your brain signals that it will need more sugar and you feel hungry. Honey can help you avoid that spike and drop, whether taken alone or added to tea or coffee. Raw Honey vs. Pasteurized HoneyRaw honey is not subjected to any sort of heat processing, though it is sometimes strained for a more pleasing presentation. This means that it still contains all of its natural nutrients. The best temperature for pasteurization of honey is 145 degrees Fahrenheit, according to “The Beekeeper’s Association Newsletter” at Mississippi State University. This destroys many of the nutrients in the honey the same way that cooking vegetables at high temperatures breaks down their vitamins and minerals. Adding pasteurized honey to tea or coffee will have no effect on its nutrients, because they are already destroyed. For raw honey, it depends on the temperature of the beverage.