People, on the other hand, have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to the nutritional nuances of honey. Just a few decades ago, most lists of "functional foods" – those that offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition – failed to mention it, says entomologist May Berenbaum, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Even beekeepers – and certainly bee scientists – considered it nothing more than sugar water."