http://ginews.blogspot.com/2011/01/gi-update.html

From the perspective of blood glucose, is honey better than sugar?
Up until recently, we would have said honey is not different from table
sugar. After all, honey doesn’t contribute much in the way of
micronutrients, and we thought it had a similar effect on blood glucose as
table sugar.

In fact, while most commercial varieties have the same or greater effect
than table sugar, recent evidence suggests that some forms of honey have
only a minor effect on blood glucose. These are the pure floral honeys – (in
Australia) red gum, yellow box, ironbark and others – that have been
produced by allowing bees access only to some types of gum trees
(eucalypts). It’s possible that all pure floral honeys have only modest
glycemic effects, but it is too early to say as there hasn’t been sufficient
testing around the world. Romanian locust honey appears to have the lowest
effect of all the honeys.

Why would one honey be different from another? Well, most commercial honeys
are made from a mixture of honeys derived from different hives and different
floral sources. To maintain a consistent flavour, some of the more pungent
characteristics are removed. We suspect that the components that are removed
are physiologically active and work to slow down absorption. For example,
Australian floral honeys might contain alpha-glucosidase inhibitors that
bees have extracted from the eucalypt flowers. We know that these potent
inhibitors exist in many plants and, indeed, some diabetic medications (e.g.
Acarbose) are based on pure forms of these inhibitors.,.

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