A PubMed search on Honey... says that this may not be the case... It looks like honey may have some actual health benefits... And some of them quite unexpected... Such as the abstract on PubMed "Honey -- a novel anti diabetic agent"... Pretty interesting stuff...

PubMed is a much better resource so I'd take what you read in that book with a little grain of salt. Basically, many food properties outside the body don't translate to health benefits. The immune boosting properties are generally associated with honey sourced locally and many of the properties you mention are topical based. Also, it is true that honey can coat the throat and is often used in cough remedies.

I treat honey as straight-up sugar. But tasty, tasty sugar. It may well be better than white sugar in a lot of ways, but in the quantities folks are talking about it probably doesn't make much difference.

I do swear by it as a cold remedy....but could also be the Jack Daniels I put in my cup. (honey, lemon, water and Jack - may not cure ya, but you do feel better!)

I am not on a restrictive diet, I am using intuitive eating, so honey is fine for me anyway. I don't tend to eat a lot of it.