Long-term dietary supplementation with natural honey does not predispose growing male rats to metabolic syndrome

Background Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a condition characterized by abdominal obesity, hyperglycaemia, hypertension and dyslipidaemia, and thus increased susceptibility to diabetes, kidney and heart diseases [1]. The modern human diet contains refined sugars mainly fructose, which is culpable in the global incidence and prevalence of MetS in adults and children [2,3]. We investigated the effects of two dietary sources of fructose, natural honey (NH) and golden syrup (GS) on metabolism in growing animal models (Sprague Dawley rats) fed from neonatal age.