Substituting Bee Honey and

Agave Nectar for Granulated

Sugar in Chocolate Pie
By Jessica Kozlosky
Introduction
● Chocolate pie: Popular but unhealthy.
● Can natural sweeteners improve its nutritional content
without sacrificing its physical qualities?
Purpose and Objectives
● In chocolate pie, investigating the effects of substituting
honey and agave nectar for granulated sugar on the
following characteristics:
● Objective characteristics: Nutritional content, density,
specific gravity, and tenderness
● Subjective characteristics: Sweetness, tenderness,
density, and overall quality
Hypothesis
● Honey
○ Less calories and carbohydrates
○ More protein and minerals
○ Acceptable sweetness
○ Possibly less desirable tenderness and density
○ Overall acceptable
● Agave Nectar
○ More protein, minerals, calories, and carbohydrates
○ Undesirable levels of sweetness, tenderness, and density
○ Overall unacceptable.
Terms and Principles
● Bee Honey: Sweet fluid made by bees using flower nectar (Pasupuleti,
Sammugam, and Ramesh 2017).
● Agave Nectar: Fluid produced from the agave plant, which is native to
Mexico, the south-western US, and the South American tropics (Barclay,
Sandall, and Shwide-Slavin 2015).
● Sweetness: Sensation on the tongue contributed to by certain
carbohydrates (McWIlliams 2017).
● Tenderness: Ability of a food to be physically manipulated (McWIlliams
2017).
● Density: Mass of a substance per unit of volume (McWIlliams 2017)
● Specific gravity: Density of a substance in relation to water’s density
(McWilliams).
Terms and Principles, Continued
● Carbohydrates: Compounds that often sweeten foods and are
used by the human body as a source of energy (Rolfes, Pinna, and
Whitney).
● Fats: Compounds used by the human body as a source of energy
in the absence of carbohydrates (Rolfes, Pinna, and Whitney).
● Proteins: Compounds that serve structural, hormonal, and
enzymatic roles in the body (Rolfes, Pinna, and Whitney).
● Minerals: Elements such as calcium, iron, magnesium,
phosphorus, and potassium that play various roles in the body
(Rolfes, Pinna, and Whitney).
Review of Literature
● Honey
○ Mixed results
○ Cookies: Less desirable texture and levels of sweetness and tenderness
when substituted for sugar (Gunderson, Goate, and Terry 2018).
○ Bread dough: More fluid dough (Adeboye, Babajide and Shittu 2013).
● Agave Nectar
○ Mostly positive results
○ Dark chocolate: Comparable texture and levels of fat and sweetness,
lower viscosity (Vehedi and Mousazadeh 2016).
Methodology
● Sample:
○ 10 participants ages 18-21
○ Assumed to like chocolate pie
○ Smokers excluded
○ Those with allergies to any ingredients excluded
Methodology Continued
● Procedure For Objective Tests
○ Measure volume of empty pie tins
○ Calculate nutritional qualities
○ Weigh finished pies to obtain weights for density and
specific gravity calculations
○ Percent sag tests
Methodology Continued
● Analysis of Subjective Qualities
○ Sweetness, tenderness, and density
■ Participants given visual analog scales for each
characteristic. Range from 0-100, 50 is ideal.
○ Overall quality
■ Participants given a visual analog scale. Range of 0-100, 100
is ideal.
Results and Discussion: Macronutrients
Pie 1/10th Control Pie 1/10th Honey Pie 1/10th Agave Nectar
Pie

Calories 452.4 427.5 422.1

Total Fat 23.2 g 23.2 g 23.2 g

Saturated Fat 12.3 g 12.3 g 12.3 g

Unsaturated Fat 9.2 g 9.2 g 9.2 g

Carbohydrates 56.5 g 51.2 g 49.3 g

Protein 5.7 g 5.8 g 5.7 g

Results and Discussion: Minerals
Pie Calcium Iron Magnesium Phosphorus Potassium

1/10th 106.9 mg 2.1 mg 36.6 mg 150.5 mg 228.2 mg

Control

1/10th Honey 108.4 mg 2.2 mg 37.2 mg 151.7 mg 243.2 mg

1/10th Agave 106.9 mg 2.1 mg 36.9 mg 150.5 mg 228.8 mg

Nectar
Results and Discussion: Objective Tenderness
Results and Discussion: Average Sweetness
Results and Discussion: Raw Sweetness
Results and Discussion: Average Subjective Tenderness
Results and Discussion: Raw Subjective Tenderness
Results and Discussion: Average Subjective Density
Results and Discussion: Raw Subjective Density
Results and Discussion: Average Overall Quality
Results and Discussion: Raw Overall Quality
Results and Discussion: Subjective
Characteristics in Relation to Overall Quality
Conclusion
● Honey
○ No major nutritional improvements, small reduction in carbohydrates.
○ Most objectively tender.
○ More desirable tenderness and less desirable density. Sweetness is inconclusive.
○ Lowest overall quality.
○ Not an acceptable substitute.
● Agave Nectar
○ No major nutritional improvements, small reduction in carbohydrates.
○ More objectively tender than control.
○ Most preferable tenderness, density, and sweetness.
○ Lower overall quality than control.
○ May possibly be an acceptable substitute

For both substitutes, additional testing would be beneficial due to some unreliable
data and conflicting results.
References
Adeboye AS, Babajide JM, Shittu TA, Omemu AM, Oluwatola OJ. Effect of
Honey as Partial
Sugar Substitute on Pasting Properties, Consumer Preference and Shelf Stability of
Cassava-Wheat Composite Bread. Nigerian Food Journal. 2013;31(1):13-22.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0189-7241(15)30051-5.
Gunderson K, Goate K, Terry P. The Effects of Replacing Granulated Sugar with Locally Farmed Honey on the Physical,
Nutritional and Sensory Characteristics of Sugar Cookies. The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
2018;118(9):94. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2018.06.128.
McWilliams M. Foods: Experimental Perspectives. Boston: Pearson; 2017.
Pasupuleti VR, Sammugam L, Ramesh N, Gan SH. Honey, Propolis, and Royal Jelly: A
Comprehensive Review of Their Biological Actions and Health Benefits. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity.
2017;2017:1-10. doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1259510.
References Continued
Rolfes SR, Pinna K, Whitney EN, Whitney EN. Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition.
Australia: Cengage Learning; 2018.
Suez J, Korem T, Zeevi D, et al. Artificial Sweeteners Induce Glucose Intolerance by Altering
the Gut Microbiota. Nature International Journal of Science. October 2014:181.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13793.
Vehedi H, Mousazadeh M. The Effect Of Using Stevia And Agave Nectar as a Substitute For
Sucrose On Physical, Chemical, Rheological, And Sensory Properties Of Dark Chocolate .Der Pharmacia Lettre.
August 2016:199-200. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8c92/196a699ecd1a8943b7fac97f639bd98c4d77.pdf.